Matrix Games

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ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

Hi, my name is Brad and I am a turtle. I cannot bring myself to throw away my units in useless attemtps to stop an overwhelming Japanese juggernaut in WITP, nor can I bring myself to send them in on suicide attacks just to liven up the game for my opponent. Please help me overcome this problem...

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ORIGINAL: Nemo121

If the Allied player turtles then he simply allows the Japanese player to build up pools of experienced pilots which will keep him much more competitive than normal in 1943 ( asuming competence.... which, of course, one should really never assume).

As to resistance being "futile" or somesuch... Well, in my game vs jagdfluger approximately 2,500 IJN fighters and double that number of bombers have been downed in the first 8 months of war. And I've been fielding mostly Hurricanes, P-40Es, P-43s etc using the RHS/CHS level of Allied fighter replacements. So, fighting forward can cause absolute havoc to the Japanese and anyone who says that they can't "hurt" the Japanese simply isn't trying hard enough. You can hurt the Japanese but you certainly won't learn how to do so if you continually run from conflict.

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ORIGINAL: OldGuard1970

"If you find yourself in a fair fight, you haven't planned well enough."

By extension, your planning was really lousy if you find yourself fighting at a disadvantage.

Big fights in the early game almost certainly will favor the Japanese. A wise Allied player avoids the big fights and concentrates on seeking small fights that are "fair fights" or fights where the Allies own the advantage.

In the early game, is it even wiser for the Allied player to run, hide and decline any combat that is not forced on him? I suspect not. I do not want my Japanese opponent to have full liberty to do whatever he wants. That will make the Allied job all the harder later in the war. Instead, I want to poke, scratch, irritate and worry the Japanese player. I want him to have to cover his actions with enough force to guard against an impudent early strike by the Allies. I want him to have to try to track the Allied CVs and wonder what they might be preparing to do.

Besides... It is so much fun to arrange a small sting, and who has the patience to wait a year anyway?

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ORIGINAL: Dixie

Agreed What is wrong with conserving your forces until a favourable time to strike back? I'm not going to hide away forever, but neither am I going to sail right up to the KB in early 1942...

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ORIGINAL: OldGuard1970

rtrapasso: "Would you SERIOUSLY risk your carriers for a "small sting"? "

No, I wouldn't. You are quite correct. In fact, I would not want to risk them for much of anything in the early game.

I keep my carriers deployed a couple of days steaming away from the "front". That forces the Japanese player to cover his moves. (If the American carriers are hunkered down on the West Coast, then the Japanese player can scamper about with light forces.) I would only impudently "pounce" on an exposed Japanese force with my CVs if the KB is in another region.

The "small stings" are usually quite small... fighter ambushes, light SC TFs, reinforcement of a threatened base with a small LCU.

I am very aware that an Allied player cannot "win" the game in the early going, but he sure could "lose" it!

Order Resets: I do not see them, but my Japanese opponent in Stock Scen 15 (1 day turns) complains that he sees lots of them with TFs. He may have seen one LCU movement reset. We use virtually the same computer and operating system. (My computer has more RAM. All else is the same.) I wonder what is happening????