Posts made by legion3

I was a tanker in my former life. I have been in or operated with several on the list.

With Combat experience, the M1A1 and the Challenger have the most and are excellent tanks. The Merkava is great for what the Isreali’s need it to do.

Without much real combat experience the Leopard and the LeClerc are very good tanks.

I have met several Soviet made tanks (without Soviets inside them) and they were handled poorly and did not survive very long. If the Soviets or Russians had operated them…who knows but in general they were outclassed (and this was in my M60A1).

Those tanks that have proven themselves on the battlefield and have shown both their strengths and weaknesses are tough to pick against. We really don’t know what the Leopard II and the LeClerc would do in actual combat conditions.

On another note the Europeans often add really great stuff to their tanks because they simply don’t make that many. Again the US mass produces (sort of) the M1 series and must cut corners on some of the extra niceties and cool stuff.

Well it does extend the game, sometimes it really extends it, sometimes we just quit and sometimes we right down where we were and finish later. We have been able to play with up to 4 players giving seperate US and Japanese fleet assignments and land areas.

For example US Admiral 1 would have the north sea slots ABCD and K to deal with and the islands of Malaita, Santa Isabel and Choiseul
and Admiral 2 would have the other three Islands and the southern Sea zones E, I and J and both would deal with threats from the slots.
Allocation of forces is the tricky part and the two need to work together…which can also be the tricky part too.

We have had several major battles, my game playing friends are usually pretty aggressive even if the situation doesn’t call for it. However, If you play the game with just the VP’s in mind the strategy of avoiding a big fight is the way to go, instead of being a Admiral you are a foreman of an airfield construction company.

We however play on after the VP winner has been declared, we take note of it, but fight until (1) all six islands are owned by one side or (2) exhaustion. Usually #2 comes first  :wink:

Thus to win all 6 islands you have to fight. Airplanes are not the threat they should be in this game so most naval moves I have seen are pretty bold.

One game where the US was crushed the final battle took place on the New Caledonia Island board, the IJN was preparing to invade the island when the US player called it quits.

PS we like this game very much for the big (and lots of small) naval battles

Grant and Sherman  :wink:  Hey it worked for Lincoln.

Well if it has to be WW2 Era

On European land : Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Felix Steiner or Oberstgruppenführer und Generaloberst der Waffen-SS Sepp Dietrich

On Sea : Fleet Admiral Bill Halsey

On Pacific Islands: General Tadamichi Kuribayashi

Actually whatever they might have done was not as cool as what they did.

The Kriegsmarines most impressive (big brass ones) act, right up the middle so to speak much in broad daylight and even when the Scharnhorst stopped TWICE the Brits ended up with egg on their face. Cheers to the German sailors. Its like being on a team that only wins a game or two every year and this was one of them.

Nothing they did would have helped much but I agree with try to get them into action somewhere as soon as possible.

If the carrier wasn’t obsolete from a military point of view, I’d say the US ought to build one.

:?

Is not the US currently building the George H W Bush?

I need to know why the carrier is obsolete?

Your trying to be too historical. Carriers in the slot are not always doomed…mostly but not always.

Other members have also had issues with the games historical accuracy, but as has been said if you make the game to accurate or realistic so that the Japanese player will always lose, who would want to play as the Japanese???

What’s cool about A&A?  Conquering the USA with the Japanese.
In real life they could not finish China, didn’t want to go into Australia, only nibbled at India, but something cool about marching down Pennsylvania Avenue with my Samurai Sword unsheathed demanding unconditional surrender.  :-D

Carriers did not operate in the slot, there were two carrier battles in the guadalcanal campaign,

Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz Islands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eastern_Solomons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EasternSolomonsChart.jpg

At Eastern Solomons the IJN Carrier Ryūjō was sunk and the USN Enterprise damaged.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Santa_Cruz_Islands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SantaCruzChart2.jpg

At Santa Cruz the USN Hornet was sunk and the USN Enterprise was damaged. The IJN Shōkaku was damaged.

Also the USS Wasp was torpedoed and sunk by the IJN Sub I-19

From Wikipedia;

On Tuesday, 15 September, those two carriers and North Carolina—with 10 other warships—were escorting the transports carrying the 7th Marine Regiment to Guadalcanal as reinforcements. Wasp had drawn the job of ready-duty carrier and was operating some 150 miles (240 km) southeast of San Cristobal Island. Her gasoline system was in use, as planes were being refueled and rearmed for antisubmarine patrol missions; and Wasp had been at general quarters from an hour before sunrise until the time when the morning search returned to the ship at 10:00. Thereafter, the ship was in condition 2, with the air department at flight quarters. There was no contact with the Japanese during the day, with the exception of a Japanese four-engined flying boat downed by a Wasp Wildcat at 12:15.

About 14:20, the carrier turned into the wind to launch eight fighters and 18 SBD-3s and to recover eight F4F-3s and three SBDs that had been airborne since before noon. The ship rapidly completed the recovery of the 11 planes, she then turned easily to starboard, the ship heeling slightly as the course change was made. The air department at flight quarters, as they had done in earlier operations, worked coolly at refueling and respotting the ship’s planes for the afternoon mission. Suddenly, at 2:44, a lookout called out, “three torpedoes … three points forward of the starboard beam!”

A spread of six Type 95 torpedoes were fired at the Wasp at about 14:44 from the tubes of the B1 Type Japanese submarine I-19. Wasp put over her rudder hard-a-starboard, but it was too late. Three torpedoes smashed home in quick succession about 14:45. In an odd occurrence, one torpedo actually broached, left the water, and struck the ship slightly above the waterline. All hit in the vicinity of gasoline tanks and magazines. Two of the spread of torpedoes passed ahead of Wasp and were observed passing astern of Helena before O’Brien was hit by one at 14:51 while maneuvering to avoid the other. The sixth torpedo passed either astern or under Wasp, narrowly missed Lansdowne in Wasp’s screen about 14:48, was seen by Mustin in North Carolina’s screen about 1450, and struck North Carolina about 14:52.[2]

All the rest of the naval battles in the area were mostly surface ship engagements, some Battleships early on but mostly Cruisers and Destroyers and the Japanese won many of these fights.

@Shakespeare:

Timerover

You seem to have so much knowledge about the Guadacanal campaign, having visited there and all that:

Did any carriers go up and down the slot or manuever thru the islands or did they only stand off from afar and send their planes from the periphery/safe positions?

Were any carriers lost in the actual Guadacanal campaign?

How would you house rule that?

Increase the fighters range?

Carriers did not operate in the slot, there were two carrier battles in the guadalcanal campaign,

Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz Islands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eastern_Solomons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EasternSolomonsChart.jpg

At Eastern Solomons the IJN Carrier Ryūjō was sunk and the USN Enterprise damaged.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Santa_Cruz_Islands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SantaCruzChart2.jpg

At Santa Cruz the USN Hornet was sunk and the USN Enterprise was damaged. The IJN Shōkaku was damaged.

Also the USS Wasp was torpedoed and sunk by the IJN Sub I-19

From Wikipedia;

**On Tuesday, 15 September, those two carriers and North Carolina—with 10 other warships—were escorting the transports carrying the 7th Marine Regiment to Guadalcanal as reinforcements. Wasp had drawn the job of ready-duty carrier and was operating some 150 miles (240 km) southeast of San Cristobal Island. Her gasoline system was in use, as planes were being refueled and rearmed for antisubmarine patrol missions; and Wasp had been at general quarters from an hour before sunrise until the time when the morning search returned to the ship at 10:00. Thereafter, the ship was in condition 2, with the air department at flight quarters. There was no contact with the Japanese during the day, with the exception of a Japanese four-engined flying boat downed by a Wasp Wildcat at 12:15.

About 14:20, the carrier turned into the wind to launch eight fighters and 18 SBD-3s and to recover eight F4F-3s and three SBDs that had been airborne since before noon. The ship rapidly completed the recovery of the 11 planes, she then turned easily to starboard, the ship heeling slightly as the course change was made. The air department at flight quarters, as they had done in earlier operations, worked coolly at refueling and respotting the ship’s planes for the afternoon mission. Suddenly, at 2:44, a lookout called out, “three torpedoes … three points forward of the starboard beam!”

A spread of six Type 95 torpedoes were fired at the Wasp at about 14:44 from the tubes of the B1 Type Japanese submarine I-19. Wasp put over her rudder hard-a-starboard, but it was too late. Three torpedoes smashed home in quick succession about 14:45. In an odd occurrence, one torpedo actually broached, left the water, and struck the ship slightly above the waterline. All hit in the vicinity of gasoline tanks and magazines. Two of the spread of torpedoes passed ahead of Wasp and were observed passing astern of Helena before O’Brien was hit by one at 14:51 while maneuvering to avoid the other. The sixth torpedo passed either astern or under Wasp, narrowly missed Lansdowne in Wasp’s screen about 14:48, was seen by Mustin in North Carolina’s screen about 1450, and struck North Carolina about 14:52.[2]**

All the rest of the naval battles in the area were mostly surface ship engagements, some Battleships early on but mostly Cruisers and Destroyers and the Japanese won many of these fights.

If the Germans won the Battle of Britain, the Germans still have no Navy to support an invasion. The Royal Navy would risk it’s destruction to stop an invasion.

But with no air support The RN would have had a real tough time. And the invasion would have been both by sea and air.

The Italians might have been strong enough if the British Isles were not functioning as a supply base for the Western Desert Force. While manpower could come from India and Austrailia equipment had to come from the UK and if the UK is fighting on its own soil, even in a limited German invasion, might have made the difference.

On the other hand the Italians might never have been strong enough as they had numbers and supply and lots of equipment but that is not always enough.  :|

@legion3:

Macchi C.202 Folgore of the Regia Aeronautica

The Italian Thunderbolt

I voted for the 262 and the FW190

Please note that I gave love to the Italians (even posted some pics) and I agree that some
Italian fighter should have made the list but as the German clerk in Schindler’s list said, “the list is correct sir, there’s nothing I can do.”

The German and Japanese airforces were also failures in the long run.  :wink:

Still love the poll.

On the others,

Japan had already had its butt kicked by the Russians twice in 1938 and 1939. Nothing to gain there.

Midway as already pointed out just would have slowed the US battle against the Japanese. Those Americans would not have given the fight up so easily as our current populace.

Taking Egypt and the oil fields of the middle east would have helped if the AXIs could have gotten the oil back to Germany and Italy unhindered. However the allies had US oil supplies which would have countered that loss.

A D-Day defeat would have been a huge blow but in his D-Day speech FDR stated that even if we are pushed back we will come again and again until victory is achieved (or something to that effect), he was hedging his bets and trying to let the American people know that the invasion might not succeed. Also remember the Russians already had Operation Bagration planned and the resulting destruction of Army Group Center (more losses than Stalingrad).

Let me throw out this what if…

What if Japan had avoided attacking the US, gone around the Philipeans and simply not engaged the US anywhere. Gone only after the Dutch, French and British forces? Would US opinion have been enough to go to war?

The failure to take England out early was decisive. It allowed the Brits to regroup and gave America a solid secure base to attack Germany from the air, the sea and eventually on the ground.

Failing to defeat the Russians quickly began the process of wearing the Germans down but victory in the Battle of Britain (and it was there for the taking, had they not shifted attacks to cities and kept on the plan to attack the RAF directly) and somesort of airborne/ limited sea attack might have pushed a shaky England out. Heck just taking Southern England and digging in could have changed the war. Britains Desert forces would have been cut off and not supplied.

And remember the USA did not began Atom Bomb construction until 1942. Might never had started if England was already gone.

True the Brits probably would have fled to Canada and kept up the war but the British Isles were critical to the west.

However many men the Germans lost in an attempted Sealion could not have been as bad as the losses in Barbarossa.

The Sherman had sloping frontal armor only. Which is good. The Shermans turret was straight sided, although rounded, the tanks sides were also flat and straight. The rear engine area had some slope but not much.

The T34 had sloping armor all around and on the turret.

An rpg clanged off the side of my M60 which had similar/angle sloping armor like the t34 and the rocket went hissing up into the sky. Had it been a Sherman or a Tiger 1 it probably would have impacted the turret. Which would have sucked.

Often the turret is all you can see of a tank target and a flat sided tank is less likely to survive a direct hit or even a glancing blow.

Frankly if I could have any WW2 tank a later model Panther would be the choice.

Initially I started out as a Crewman then a Commander of the LVTP7A1 the “amtrac” a Marine MOS 1833. An E3 could command an amtrac.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/aavp7a1.htm

After a couple of years I transfered to Tanks, Marine MOS 1811, promotions were better, I went from corporal to sergeant in 1 year, and I was a creman and then a tank commander of the M60A1 which is what my unit had in the Gulf War 1991.

http://www.battletanks.com/m60a1e1.htm

Then at the end I commanded one of the M1’s the older Abrahms version with the 105mm main gun and later in life I was in the Army NG and was a crewman on another M1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_Abrams

I really like armor  :wink:

UK : The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest military decoration awarded for valour “in the face of the enemy” to members of the armed forces of some Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories. It takes precedence over all other orders, decorations and medals. It may be awarded to a person of any rank in any service and civilians under military command, and is presented to the recipient by the British monarch during an investiture held at Buckingham Palace.

Japan: Order of the Rising Sun

Germany: The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross (German language: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, often simply Ritterkreuz) was a grade of the Iron Cross. The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross was the second highest military order of the Third Reich, second only to the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. It was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II. Also could include Oak Leaves and Swords and Diamonds.

Adolf Hitler reinstituted the Iron Cross as a German decoration in September 1939, with the Grand Cross again as the highest grade (above the various classes of the Knight’s Cross). Hermann Göring became the only recipient of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II when it was awarded to him on July 19, 1940. Shortly before his suicide Hitler deprived Göring of the Grand Cross because he felt betrayed by him.

An even higher decoration, the Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, was intended to be presented to the most successful German general of World War II once Germany achieved victory. Awarded only twice to Field Marshals Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and Paul von Hindenburg, a prototype 1939 Star was discovered by the Allies in 1945. It is currently on display with Göring’s Reichsmarschall baton in the West Point Military Collection.

France and Belgium: The croix de guerre (English translation: War Cross) is a military decoration of both France and Belgium, where it is also known as the Oorlogskruis (Dutch). It was first created in 1915 in both countries and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts. The croix de guerre was also commonly bestowed to foreign military forces allied to France and Belgium.

Croix de Guerre with Bronze Palm

The T34 was a better design, sloped armor, simple with a good gun.

The Sherman was better made with a better engine and more crew friendly and comfortable.

Having been a tanker for over 10 years I can tell you a crew friendly vehicle is better.

I would like the T34 with the Sherman’s Detroit Engine and the 90mm gun…thanks  :wink:

The Sherman was held in high esteme by Albert Speer Minister of Armaments for Hitler. He would use this tank to show the German Army what an all around tank should be. Medium weight, all terraine, all weather, adequately armed and armored, easy to transport, easy to maintain, with a very reliable engine.

Speer rightly noticed that the German tank industry had too many tank designs, not enough overall tanks, too many different calibers of guns and so forth. While Speer was able to do a great deal with the German industry, increasing output all the way through 1945, he was never able to bring order to the chaos which was German tank production.

Total German tank production (all types) was in the area of 27,000 + vehicles

Total Russian tank production was around 40,000 + vehicles

Total Sherman tank production was around 50,000 vehicles.

In this case numbers trumped quality but the Sherman had a quality all its own.

The Betty for long range

The Stuka as the symbol of Blitzkrieg

The B29 because What a plane!!!

My choices may not be the best bombers but they are my favorite.

My true favorite big airplane in the war was the FW 200 Condor, just a cool looking bird.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200

The airliner that went to war - Churchill’s “Scourge of the Atlantic”

“Very worrying”, Colonel-General Heinz Guderian, Commander of Second Panzer Army.

“We had nothing comparable”, Major-General F.W. Mellenthin, Chief of Staff of XLVIII Panzer Corps.

“The finest tank in the world”, Field-Marshal Ewald von Kleist, First Panzer Army.

“This tank (T-34) adversely affected the morale of the German infantry”, General G. Blumentritt.