The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Barb

IMHO, John should:
1) Try to run MKB to join forces with KB - either to the north or south, the decision is his, but it should be done sooner than later.
2) Try to keep line Japan-Mariana-New Guinea under KB - you will be forced to run the long way around with any reinforcements/supply.
3) Try to keep the SRA "on the cheap" - less valuable combat ships, escorts, light striking forces, plus LBA
4) Run every available drop of oil/fuel/resource/supply to the Saigon/Haiphong/Hong-Kong as quickly as possible (IIRC - you are running a standard game, so supply will be generated by refineries too), before even that opportunity closes up.
5) Keep the Singapore-Sumatra-Java with troops already in the area - he should be able to shuffle them around rather quickly to keep them in strength while allowing for delaying action.
6) Try to keep Formosa-Okinawa-Kyushu line (but it could be already late)
7) Keep the Singapore-Sumatra-Java area with some land planes - both for protection and opportunistic attacks. Airfields should be plenty there...

Attending to airfield building in back areas is not one of John's priorities - perhaps because the IJA is not rich in engineers.
Engineers are the reason Dan has been able to grab small toeholds and then out-build the Japanese to get airfields to cover his next jump while suppressing the Japanese. Durable 4EB are the other piece of this dominance.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth


]
You get tons of subs and ht risk of putting them out there is worth the reward. Escorts run out of ammo and if you hit a convoy for a few turns you will start to pick off tankers. On the other hand you probably won't have too many air gaps between the resources and the HI so air power might just stop his convoys cold. Not sure how much he can haul back with the gap closing

Yeah, this is pretty much my experience. Well trained ASW aircraft working with the (even toned down) super E class will just work havoc on subs. The good news is that they are quick to repair. Frankly, I have given up worrying about sinking the Japanese merchant ships. The sub model combined with the ability to run massive ship TFs pretty much make it impossible to impact Japanese merchant ships. I use my subs with my combat forces to go after Japanese warships. Fewer kills but they are more significant when you do succeed, and your subs are less vulnerable. Direct attacks on oil facilities will get the job done just as well as sinking tankers anyways.

It truly is the one big failing of AE in that the Japanese player should always be sweating the loss of merchant ships to submarines. But that just does not happen.

As a simulator, you're correct - that is a weakness. But the developers made the decision to balance the game more, rather than go perfectly historic. The fact that the game is still interesting after all these years shows they mad a good decision.

[MakeeLearn]

Here's why I won't use supply to repair oil production at Miri:

Shell Oil - fuel for the fight

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth


]
You get tons of subs and ht risk of putting them out there is worth the reward. Escorts run out of ammo and if you hit a convoy for a few turns you will start to pick off tankers. On the other hand you probably won't have too many air gaps between the resources and the HI so air power might just stop his convoys cold. Not sure how much he can haul back with the gap closing

Yeah, this is pretty much my experience. Well trained ASW aircraft working with the (even toned down) super E class will just work havoc on subs. The good news is that they are quick to repair. Frankly, I have given up worrying about sinking the Japanese merchant ships. The sub model combined with the ability to run massive ship TFs pretty much make it impossible to impact Japanese merchant ships. I use my subs with my combat forces to go after Japanese warships. Fewer kills but they are more significant when you do succeed, and your subs are less vulnerable. Direct attacks on oil facilities will get the job done just as well as sinking tankers anyways.

It truly is the one big failing of AE in that the Japanese player should always be sweating the loss of merchant ships to submarines. But that just does not happen.

As a simulator, you're correct - that is a weakness. But the developers made the decision to balance the game more, rather than go perfectly historic. The fact that the game is still interesting after all these years shows they mad a good decision.

Can't argue with this. If the game played out historically this forum would have emptied out nine years ago..[;)]

[JohnDillworth]

Can't argue with this. If the game played out historically this forum would have emptied out nine years ago..

Guilty as charged

[Canoerebel]

7/3/44

Fun House and Peep Show: The Allies are moving forward towards Formosa, into northern Luzon, and south towards Bangkok. No major clashes today...but tomorrow is July 4. Paratroops will try three probing invasions of enemy islands around Formosa...and Death Star will draw closer to that dangerous place. Is John striving for big Independence Day fireworks? He's done so in the past.

[Canoerebel]

No turn until Sunday night, I think.

Yesterday, John asked for a turn back so that he could run it last night. I sent it a six p.m. my time...and it entered a black hole of silence.

This morning, finding no turn in the in-box, I sent him an email reminding him that I'd be leaving town this afternoon for a weekend outing. I told him I could run any turn that arrived here by noon, my time. At 11:47 he sends an email, "I'm about to run the turn. Am I too late?"

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

No turn until Sunday night, I think.

Yesterday, John asked for a turn back so that he could run it last night. I sent it a six p.m. my time...and it entered a black hole of silence.

This morning, finding no turn in the in-box, I sent him an email reminding him that I'd be leaving town this afternoon for a weekend outing. I told him I could run any turn that arrived here by noon, my time. At 11:47 he sends an email, "I'm about to run the turn. Am I too late?"

You guys seem to play a lot of games outside the game so to speak. 18 hours I wouldn't worry about.

However, from a JFB standpoint, it can be tough for Japan to crank out turns right now, especially when the Deahtstar is looming (I am guessing he sees it).

You have to count 18+8 hexes all around and make changes everywhere. Planes, Task Forces, Troops etc.

Plus you have to think about everything else. In a lot of ways, the weird lines here make it hard to process a turn. It is a lot easier with a shortened defensive ring.

If he was flipping very fast turns I would worry he has mentally conceded already and you wouldn't want that. He was excited about something happening with the month turn....

[dave sindel]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

No turn until Sunday night, I think.

Yesterday, John asked for a turn back so that he could run it last night. I sent it a six p.m. my time...and it entered a black hole of silence.

This morning, finding no turn in the in-box, I sent him an email reminding him that I'd be leaving town this afternoon for a weekend outing. I told him I could run any turn that arrived here by noon, my time. At 11:47 he sends an email, "I'm about to run the turn. Am I too late?"

Hiking trip ?

[JeffroK]

I reckon[8D]

That JIII had a brilliant operation that he hoped would bear fruit, Invasion of Hawaii, Massive kamikaze attack, magical 8 hex attack from 4 directions etc etc and on running the turn found they ran across some SS that gutted the KB.........

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: dave sindel

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

No turn until Sunday night, I think.

Yesterday, John asked for a turn back so that he could run it last night. I sent it a six p.m. my time...and it entered a black hole of silence.

This morning, finding no turn in the in-box, I sent him an email reminding him that I'd be leaving town this afternoon for a weekend outing. I told him I could run any turn that arrived here by noon, my time. At 11:47 he sends an email, "I'm about to run the turn. Am I too late?"

Hiking trip ?

On Sunday I'll speak on Confederate Memorial Day to a United Daughters of the Confederacy group in the little town of Commerce, Georgia. That's my wife's hometown, so we're staying with her dad tonight and tomorrow night.

The presentation will be a little story I wrote a few years ago about the remarkable interconnectivity of Georgia history: how a writer mentioned a 19th century poet who wrote about a Civil War colonel killed at Chickamauga which led his brother, a general, to leave his command in Charleston to recover the body, which delayed a court martial in Charleston, which involved a colonel (my avatar) from the town where I live, who had a great-nephew who was a used car salesman in La Jolla, California, who I spoke to by phone 20 years ago, who asked me if I was related to Daniel C. Roper (FDR's Secretary of Commerce), who had given him his first job in Washington in the 1930s.

So, somehow, I ended up with a connection to the Confederate colonel I was writing about.

[Canoerebel]

It wasn't the lack of a turn. That happens. But the total lack of communication. No heads up: "Oops, no turn coming." No, "Sorry about that; let me tell you what happened." Just a black hole of silence. That happens a lot with John. We can call it the "I can do another without issue" effect.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

No turn until Sunday night, I think.

Yesterday, John asked for a turn back so that he could run it last night. I sent it a six p.m. my time...and it entered a black hole of silence.

This morning, finding no turn in the in-box, I sent him an email reminding him that I'd be leaving town this afternoon for a weekend outing. I told him I could run any turn that arrived here by noon, my time. At 11:47 he sends an email, "I'm about to run the turn. Am I too late?"

You guys seem to play a lot of games outside the game so to speak. 18 hours I wouldn't worry about.

However, from a JFB standpoint, it can be tough for Japan to crank out turns right now, especially when the Deahtstar is looming (I am guessing he sees it).

You have to count 18+8 hexes all around and make changes everywhere. Planes, Task Forces, Troops etc.

Plus you have to think about everything else. In a lot of ways, the weird lines here make it hard to process a turn. It is a lot easier with a shortened defensive ring.

If he was flipping very fast turns I would worry he has mentally conceded already and you wouldn't want that. He was excited about something happening with the month turn....

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

It wasn't the lack of a turn. That happens. But the total lack of communication. No heads up: "Oops, no turn coming." No, "Sorry about that; let me tell you what happened." Just a black hole of silence. That happens a lot with John. We can call it the "I can do another without issue" effect.

Evil Demi-God Japanese Emperors never have to explain themselves to mere mortals ...

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: dave sindel

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

No turn until Sunday night, I think.

Yesterday, John asked for a turn back so that he could run it last night. I sent it a six p.m. my time...and it entered a black hole of silence.

This morning, finding no turn in the in-box, I sent him an email reminding him that I'd be leaving town this afternoon for a weekend outing. I told him I could run any turn that arrived here by noon, my time. At 11:47 he sends an email, "I'm about to run the turn. Am I too late?"

Hiking trip ?

Georgia road trip...

[T Rav]

Makee, that made me chuckle. But as I think about it, that is brilliant!

T Rav

[dave sindel]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

ORIGINAL: dave sindel

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

No turn until Sunday night, I think.

Yesterday, John asked for a turn back so that he could run it last night. I sent it a six p.m. my time...and it entered a black hole of silence.

This morning, finding no turn in the in-box, I sent him an email reminding him that I'd be leaving town this afternoon for a weekend outing. I told him I could run any turn that arrived here by noon, my time. At 11:47 he sends an email, "I'm about to run the turn. Am I too late?"

Hiking trip ?

On Sunday I'll speak on Confederate Memorial Day to a United Daughters of the Confederacy group in the little town of Commerce, Georgia. That's my wife's hometown, so we're staying with her dad tonight and tomorrow night.

The presentation will be a little story I wrote a few years ago about the remarkable interconnectivity of Georgia history: how a writer mentioned a 19th century poet who wrote about a Civil War colonel killed at Chickamauga which led his brother, a general, to leave his command in Charleston to recover the body, which delayed a court martial in Charleston, which involved a colonel (my avatar) from the town where I live, who had a great-nephew who was a used car salesman in La Jolla, California, who I spoke to by phone 20 years ago, who asked me if I was related to Daniel C. Roper (FDR's Secretary of Commerce), who had given him his first job in Washington in the 1930s.

So, somehow, I ended up with a connection to the Confederate colonel I was writing about.

That's quite an interesting story. Good luck with the presentation.

[CaptBeefheart]

Makee-Learn: Good one. I was scratching my head about your name until I started reading "The Fast Carriers" a couple of weeks ago. Now I know where your name comes from.

CR: So, were you related to the Commerce Secretary?

Cheers,
CC

[Canoerebel]

Yes, Daniel C. Roper was a distant relative - something like a 6th-great-uncle; so distant is the relation that there is no contemporary links between my family and his descendants. It's just an "artifact" of lineage that really means nothing...except that it gave me that coincidental connection to the Civil War colonel I was researching and ultimately wrote about.

So today was Confederate Memorial Day, which is becoming an artifact as we move more deeply into the 21st century. On a rainy, cool afternoon, I spoke to a small group of mostly elderly people in an old building in my wife's hometown. As is usually the case, my comments did not pertain to the "glory" of war or to the "Cause." Rather it was an acknowledgement of the men of both sides who served, their sacrifices, and the impact on those at home. In addition to a bit of information about Emory Best (my subject of my avatar), the comments were directed mostly at Col. Peyton Colquitt, 46th Ga. Regiment KIA at Chickamauga, and to Brigadier General William H. Lytle, Lytle's Brigade, Sheridan's Division, KIA at Chickamauga.

What I'm trying to say is that most of my historical work, teaching, and speaking deal with the cost of the war from both sides.

[Canoerebel]

7/4/44

Independence Day: John tried to create July 4th fireworks across the map. Most of his attacks fizzled...noisily but with relatively little harm to either side. Overall, though, I think the day left him frustrated, unhappy, and perhaps increasingly desperate. Detailed maps to follow.

[Canoerebel]

7/4/44

Indochina: Enemy para-assault at Rahaeng. The effort is to take the weakly defended base, thus cutting off the Allied army to the south that's advancing on Bangkok. But two fresh Allied units arrived at Rahaeng today, thus turning what might've been a close call into a route. The enemy paratroops evaporate.