Well, I finally kicked off another PBEM. I had serious cold feet (like I usually do) before starting another one, but I took the plunge. I've had a history of losing opponents, usually in late '42, but I think I'm safe here.
Cannonfodder has been great to talk with so far, and I think our philosophies on what makes a good WITP-AE game are pretty much in synch.
We're doing the DBB-C Iron Babes scenario (30, I think), with this setup:
HOUSERULES AND GAME SETTINGS
REALISM OPTIONS
FOW ON
Advanced weather ON
Allied damage control ON
PDU ON
Historical first turn OFF
Dec 7 surprise ON
Reliable USN torps OFF
Realistic R&D ON
No unit withdrawals OFF
Reinforcements +/- 15
GAME OPTIONS
Combat reports ON
Auto sub ops OFF
TF move radius ON
Plane move radius ON
Facilities expand OFF
Auto upgrade ships and airgroups OFF
Air and ground replacements OFF
Turn cycle 1 TURN
1st turn rules:
Allied player only able to command TF already at sea
No transferring or loading of squadrons
Max 30% cap set per squadron
No Japanese invasion TF will finish the turn more than 15 hexes from a starting Japanese base DBB:C / DaIronBabes + no Mersing Gambit on turn 1 (turn 2 is fair)
Game rules:
No 4e naval bombing below 10k
Sensible use of paratroopers
Pay full PP for units to cross national borders
No strategic bombing from or into China
Picket ships allowed if of the military type
All of this is pretty much my usual conventions.
I've just returned my Dec 7 turn. All 5 minutes that it took me. The real work is next turn. My only adjustments thus far was to disband Force Z, and adjust the path of my two CV TFs to help keep them out of harm's way.
Next turn, I'll most likely heed Churchill's demand to "do something" and send Force Z to Kuantan. It's an old habit of mine, and at least half the time, I'll get some good results. PoW can easily handle any Kongo which may be supporting. In one past game, I sank one with barely a scratch.
The Vindicators at sea I'll see if I can get to the PI via Guam. Hopefully I can use drop tanks from there.
Apart from that I'll keep my CVs out of the way until the initial storm passes.
I generally like to work out of just one port on the west coast, for better control over things. I usually randomly pick between San Francisco and Los Angeles. I'm favoring SF this time. Any Pearl survivors will probably wind up there and when finished, I can easily arrange an escort back. I also work out of Seattle to support the Alaska area. My SOP is to put an AR and an AS at Dutch Harbor and run a bunch of subs from there. IIRC, I only have three ARs, so they're very precious right now.
I'm favoring the Nimitz plan right now. I'm not sure if I want to get tangled up badly in the Solomans. If Suva or Pago Pago is threatened, I'll have little choice. I'd like to beef up Moresby as lots of bad things can happen if that goes. Any hint of that going, and I'm going to clear out Darwin.
This should be fun. With our time zone differences, this may take almost as long as the real war.
Ed-