Stalking the Wolf. Mundy (A) vs GrauWolf80 (J) - LST's Bottleneck Mod.
Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 2:19 pm
Greetings.
I've found a brave IJN player to try out the Bottleneck in the Pacific scenario. GrauWolf80 is actually another Wisconsinite like me, so staying in touch should be easy.
There's plenty of curveballs in this one as you get going.
For starters, the game technically starts in the PM segment of the turn. Pearl has already been hit, like a Dec 8 scenario, and KB starts about 10 hexes north of Pearl. He's departing as it is right now. Enterprise is about 2 hexes from Pearl also and Lexington is probably 8-10 away from Midway.
For the US, an awful lot of the land units which come in are already in-country, although on the East Coast. For LCUs there, LST has them defaulted to hitting the railroad to San Francisco, which is nice.
Pretty much every naval vessel in the game has damage at the start. Usually anywhere from up to 5 sys, plus maybe 1 or 2 to the engines. Being as anal retentive as I am about only deploying healthy ships, I tend to get everyone repaired first.
Lots of ports have a number of landing barges there. For places like the US West Coast, that's a pain in the butt, so I've spent time disbanding them all to the pools.
Almost all the subs in Manila were set up in their separate TFs, to forestall the Japanese wiping them out with an early air raid. While it was nice not having to make them myself, I still spent nearly as much time getting all their patrol zones set up. The S boats will cover the northern coast, while all the named subs will carpet the area between Japan proper and Formosa. I'm hoping most of my shipping there can get away this time -- especially Langley, as I always seem to lose her. It may go better this time, as LST has really curbed the number of Japanese TFs which have their extra "super move".
Lots of the far flung bases have an "engineer" units which consists of nothing by civilians, which serve as a supply sump. I'll probably pull all the real troops out of there, leaving the civvies to their fate.
Looking at China, I only see a bunch of spots before my eyes. Pretty much the whole country is nothing but dot bases. On top of that, there are minimal ground units in most of them, consisting of civilian "admin" troops, and usually about 2 guerilla squads as well. Everything is going to be a fight there, plus the Japanese will get seriously bogged down with the garrison requirements. Probably about 10 each.
I've got a good bunch of the map up and moving. It'll take about a week for everything to resemble some kind of normal, but I have to get all the logistics networks set up and get my forces more consolidated. After how my other game with Dave has gone, I won't quite knee jerk withdraw all the planes from the Philippines right away.
Oh yeah... I have zero PPs to start with, so lots of stuff won't be moving from the start.
My USN carriers are moving SW to Suva to start with, and probably Australia from there. They'll probably visit Sydney to get fixed up as it is.
A lot of spots in the Philippines and the DEI have ARD there. The one in Manila is a nice 20,000 ton type, which I hope gets away.
A ship LST added is the humble tugboat. They are labeled as YP type craft, but their name is preceded with an underscore to show what they are. They can help short ranged craft cross the ocean by serving as fuelers for them. Babysitting ARDs also works for them.
Here's the page for LST's mod: He's got a document file attached, which makes interesting reading.
Bottneck in the Pacific
We'll probably be giving him some feedback on how this plays, or he can check it too. I don't plan to fret over anything and will just enjoy the ride.
Ed
I've found a brave IJN player to try out the Bottleneck in the Pacific scenario. GrauWolf80 is actually another Wisconsinite like me, so staying in touch should be easy.
There's plenty of curveballs in this one as you get going.
For starters, the game technically starts in the PM segment of the turn. Pearl has already been hit, like a Dec 8 scenario, and KB starts about 10 hexes north of Pearl. He's departing as it is right now. Enterprise is about 2 hexes from Pearl also and Lexington is probably 8-10 away from Midway.
For the US, an awful lot of the land units which come in are already in-country, although on the East Coast. For LCUs there, LST has them defaulted to hitting the railroad to San Francisco, which is nice.
Pretty much every naval vessel in the game has damage at the start. Usually anywhere from up to 5 sys, plus maybe 1 or 2 to the engines. Being as anal retentive as I am about only deploying healthy ships, I tend to get everyone repaired first.
Lots of ports have a number of landing barges there. For places like the US West Coast, that's a pain in the butt, so I've spent time disbanding them all to the pools.
Almost all the subs in Manila were set up in their separate TFs, to forestall the Japanese wiping them out with an early air raid. While it was nice not having to make them myself, I still spent nearly as much time getting all their patrol zones set up. The S boats will cover the northern coast, while all the named subs will carpet the area between Japan proper and Formosa. I'm hoping most of my shipping there can get away this time -- especially Langley, as I always seem to lose her. It may go better this time, as LST has really curbed the number of Japanese TFs which have their extra "super move".
Lots of the far flung bases have an "engineer" units which consists of nothing by civilians, which serve as a supply sump. I'll probably pull all the real troops out of there, leaving the civvies to their fate.
Looking at China, I only see a bunch of spots before my eyes. Pretty much the whole country is nothing but dot bases. On top of that, there are minimal ground units in most of them, consisting of civilian "admin" troops, and usually about 2 guerilla squads as well. Everything is going to be a fight there, plus the Japanese will get seriously bogged down with the garrison requirements. Probably about 10 each.
I've got a good bunch of the map up and moving. It'll take about a week for everything to resemble some kind of normal, but I have to get all the logistics networks set up and get my forces more consolidated. After how my other game with Dave has gone, I won't quite knee jerk withdraw all the planes from the Philippines right away.
Oh yeah... I have zero PPs to start with, so lots of stuff won't be moving from the start.
My USN carriers are moving SW to Suva to start with, and probably Australia from there. They'll probably visit Sydney to get fixed up as it is.
A lot of spots in the Philippines and the DEI have ARD there. The one in Manila is a nice 20,000 ton type, which I hope gets away.
A ship LST added is the humble tugboat. They are labeled as YP type craft, but their name is preceded with an underscore to show what they are. They can help short ranged craft cross the ocean by serving as fuelers for them. Babysitting ARDs also works for them.
Here's the page for LST's mod: He's got a document file attached, which makes interesting reading.
Bottneck in the Pacific
We'll probably be giving him some feedback on how this plays, or he can check it too. I don't plan to fret over anything and will just enjoy the ride.
Ed


