Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post accounts of your memorable victories and defeats here for other wargamers to share.

Moderators: JAMiAM, ralphtricky

Post Reply
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

Thomas Harvey has sent me a copy of the latest version of his Pacific at War 3 25 14 and I thought it might be
fun to playtest it. I'd like Thomas to be able to post stuff in this AAR from time to time to give us his thoughts as we
go along and maybe comment on stuff as it happens. Anyway, I'll do a hot-seat of a game since there's no AI for
either side yet.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (253.38 KiB) Viewed 1258 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

I booted up the scenario and started looking over the Jap forces and one of the first things I noticed was the Allied partisans. This
has the potential to change the character of the game. Also, there are fewer Jap forces surrounding Hong Kong at the start in this
version. Not a problem though.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (369.28 KiB) Viewed 1256 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
thomasharvey
Posts: 1377
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 6:11 pm

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by thomasharvey »

I would recommend the Japanese player send scout ships to Pearl Harbor and Singapore on the first turn to spot the ships for the strikes. Then do what the Japanese did in the war in the following turns.
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

ORIGINAL: thomasharvey
I would recommend the Japanese player send scout ships to Pearl Harbor and Singapore on the first turn to spot the ships for the strikes. Then do what the Japanese did in the war in the following turns.
Sounds good....I'll try it. In earlier versions the first strike usually loses a lot of planes so I'll try one-dot attacks.
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

Something else that is different: the Manchurian Garrison starts the game in garrison mode. Makes sense.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (348.25 KiB) Viewed 1256 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

In previous runs through this scenario I got good results dropping some paratroops near Khola Lumpur ( sp? ). So I did it
again this time. It seems to delay the Allies getting very many combatants up to the Bangkok area.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (299.92 KiB) Viewed 1256 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

Here's northern China now. There's a lot of frontier perimeter to cover with only a handful of divisions so I railed in some more
people but it's still got gaps and the Chinese are experts at getting into gaps. Acting as the Allies, I treat the partisans as throw
away units, useful at getting into the enemy backfield to destroy bridges and deny the use of the railroad etc.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (357.59 KiB) Viewed 1256 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
thomasharvey
Posts: 1377
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 6:11 pm

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by thomasharvey »

The army in Manchuria is the Army that was left in 1945. I put it on garrison so the Japanese player does not move the units to other uses. The way to attack enemy fleets is to spot them with either a visible on map appearance, and or send a search ship to further locate the enemy fleet or fleets. Only then can you bring in your fleet within range and send an attack with naval dive bombers and or torpedo bombers that are set in different units. Set the fighter units on air superiority. They will act as escort automatically and also defend on the base they are assigned to. You do not send them. Make sure all aircraft are in range. After the raid, if any portion of the turn is left move the carriers away so they are not visible to the enemy on the next turn.

The ships can't really be hit in port if there are ground troops in the port as the attack is spread over all the targets in the hex.
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

The Range of the KI-27 "Nate" seemed too long for to me so I looked it up on Wikipedia and here's what I found:


Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (56.9 KiB) Viewed 1256 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

And here's what the equipment display says the effective range is for the Nate:

So even if you use the ferry range that's still only 13.9 hexes. Round it off to 14. I'm guessing that for the game purposes
it might be reasonable to use 3/4 of the ferry range ( to include using the drop tank ) for the effective range and that's
only 511km and therefore only 10 hexes. So for game purposes I'm going to drop the range for the Nates manually to
10 hexes. I suspect the other aircraft as well.

EDIT: I was confusing miles and km and my figures are off. I'm seeing the ferry range as 1100 km now and that means
that the ferry range is 25 hexes so the range Thomas is using is okie dokie by me.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (345.34 KiB) Viewed 1256 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
thomasharvey
Posts: 1377
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 6:11 pm

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by thomasharvey »

The Chinese front should be a nonstop battle zone with no victory or defeat for either side. The Japanese player will need to breakdown some of his divisions into smaller units to cover the front. He will also need to send more troops to China to help out. The allies will want to keep the Japanese army engaged the entire war to soak up their forces to make less available for use in the island combat. However, this latest version has more Chinese units that should be good on defense but poor on offense. Hopefully the balance will be about right.
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

I dropped some paratroops on the bridge over the river Quwi ( sp?) and now the Allies will have to repair the bridge to get at
my units moving into Malaya. I believe that I can get some land combat troops there unless there's an Allied unit between
the bridge and the Jap forces. The paratroops may be behind enemy lines already. Besides they need a supply path to them
anyway.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (321.99 KiB) Viewed 1258 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

Here's the planes and ships of the Empire of Japan. There's a lot of planes on hand but that's because a lot of them are
going to be used to fill up the units deployed already. And there's some ships listed but not assigned yet, that's normal.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (86.16 KiB) Viewed 1258 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

I moved a BB adjacent to Wake island and the CD guns unit evaporated. I'm there as part of a multi-ship TF to
bombard the air unit at Wake to try to destroy it before the transports carrying troops get within range in a
future turn.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (143.64 KiB) Viewed 1258 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

I was moving some ships into aircraft launching positions and none of the Allied ships were showing up yet so I thought I'd move
a DD unit in closer and actually ran into the USS Arizona but at least now the Allied ships are showing up. I needed some
search planes or something. Maybe I should have moved the carriers into their final firing positions so that the aircraft would have
exposed the Allied ships. Something for somebody to find out.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (144.48 KiB) Viewed 1258 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

Something new with this version is spotter planes. Here's a Jake parked at Iwo Jima. It's got a pretty hefty range too.
It can do any mission except Air Superiority. I'm going to move this plane unit to Guadacanal if I ever capture it.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (220.38 KiB) Viewed 1258 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

I moved some spotter planes down to near the Saigon area to see if they might expose some Allied ship or two but no joy.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (288.57 KiB) Viewed 1258 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
User avatar
larryfulkerson
Posts: 40907
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ,usa,sol, milkyway
Contact:

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by larryfulkerson »

I found a place where there's three spotter aircraft hovering over the water instead of based at Iwo Jima. I'm thinking
they need to be moved a hex or two rather than make the player move them manually.

EDIT: I found a simalar situation at 91,65.

Image
Attachments
temp.gif
temp.gif (256.73 KiB) Viewed 1258 times
Interviewer: "What is your greatest weakness?"
Elderly Gentleman: "My honesty."
Interviewer: "Well I hardly think that could be a weakness."
Elderly Gentleman: "I don't give a fuck what you think."
Chattez
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 11:32 am

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by Chattez »

If the Japanese are going to be successful, they are going to have to move harshly and quickly
before the allies rebound. The clock is always ticking for the Japanese player.

Japan can pursue a "western" strategy--invading India-- but it will require a full commitment of resources, including capital ships and carriers. But this means 1) removing the carriers from any use elsewhere in the Pacific; and 2)
placing them in a vulnerable sea without much land-based air cover, for several turns.

Alternately, the Japanese might pursue a "southern strategy", and try and cut off Australia from the US. Seizing the island bases means that allied planes cannot make the transit by air; and presents the allies with major problems in reinforcing Australia. Australia itself may then be invaded.

But again, this will require a full commitment by Japan, and will place the balance of the Imperial navy where the allies
can find it; and it will be without much land-based air cover.

But a choice must be made, and made early in the game, since the Japanese carriers cannot be risked with impunity.

A less risky, but more difficult, option, is to leave the conquest of India to ground forces alone. If Australia is taken (or at least invaded) one can assume that Japanese units there may not be able to be evacuated later (as the strengthened allied navies will then prevent that). But the allies will have to spend time liberating the area; and since Japan is playing for time, that may serve a useful purpose in itself.

Finally, if any attempt at taking Hawaii is made, this must also be done early in the game. The allies must recoil from any early confrontation with the entire Imperial fleet; and there is just a chance that a successful invasion might be made on one or more of the islands. The Imperial fleet will have to rely on its only planes for air cover (no land-based planes), but early in the game
the allies are not strong enough to penetrate this. However, this again risks the carriers, which Japan cannot afford to lose, should they fall prey to an allied attack.
Chattez
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 11:32 am

RE: Playtest of Pacific at War 3 25 14

Post by Chattez »

Remember, the control of the Pacific rests on "ten ships"--the Japanese carriers.

As long as Japan has those carriers, its forces can go anywhere it wants, and close off the Pacific to the allies.

Once those ten ships are lost, it is the allies who can go anywhere; the Imperial Army can only buy time.

It must be the allied goal to destroy those "ten ships", and then move in on the home islands (securing
island bases for air cover as they go).



Post Reply

Return to “After Action Reports”