Posts made by legion3

Airplanes don’t seem to be a real threat to surface ships or land units unless the airplane is unopposed or it is a small surface fleet.

In most pitched battles most airplanes seem to be wiped out in the air phase, airplanes seem to stand little chance vs the AA and CAP over a fleet. Any good size fleet with CAP is darn near impossible to attack and to score any points you must attack it with your own ships. Ships are the threat to other ships.

If player one spreads his aircraft about the board, player 2 can concentrate his where he needs them the most. Thus in our games player 1 seems to concentrate his FF’s over the fleet he wants to protect, if player 2 wants to interdict that fleet he must concentrate his aircraft and soon whoosh… no more aircraft.

Airplanes are not either the attack or defense piece they are in other A&A games.

We have played regular A&A with both of those changes, and many others. Russia has the advantage because they don’t have to worry about any borders but Germany. Germany unless real skilled usually gets crushed, while the Japanese role all over SE/SW Asia and usually begin to take Africa. Historically I understand, but it has not worked out well for the Axis in the game.
Unless you require Japan and Russia to keep forces on the Manchurian border and if they violate that rule war would be triggered, Russia just brings all there forces West. And Japan moves there forces South.

As I reread the sub rules, I think some are very interesting and might work well, will have to see.

Also the whole point of DD’s as transports was for speed, making them more plodding than transports would negate them as transports at all.

Limit DD’s to infantry or supplies only and don’t let them pack arty to the scene.

Now ships may have too much AA defense for this period of the war. Carriers were paractically defenseless against a concerted air attack at this point of the war. Your AA defenses would be more accurate at the Battle of the Philippine Sea or Leyte Gulf 1944.

The CAP in this game is really to powerful, CAP at this point in the war, did not stop any determined air attack before they reached the ships, heck even at the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” a few Japanese planes got through and attacked the ships, causing no damage. This game has airbattles where all the planes are shot down on both sides in the air phase. WOW!

At this time in the war both sides were beginning to add extra AA firepower, and some ships like the Cruisers Atlanta and Juneau were arriving as AA cruisers. Even with the AA cruisers at Santa Cruz the Hornet was lost to air attack.

And the BB’s of the time were not the Mitsubishi nightmares they would be by 1944.

The VP point tweaking has some interesting ideas. Will try some of them. We stopped playing with VP’s pretty quickly.

Subs are good again for this period of the war. IJN subs were at their height in 1942, slipping through defenses and taking out both the Yorktown and Wasp. US subs were busy trying to sort out their torpedo failures and taking down Japanese merchantships, I don’t think US subs took down a capital ship till at least 1944. Anti sub efforts of 1942 were really not that great. The British were just beginning to get a grip on German U boats and not really all that successfully either at this time.

Still you bring up some interesting points that might filter over to AAP which we have been trying to adapt to AAG rules and combat systems. On that games time scale some of your rules are interesting.

I will try your rules at our next game and see how they translate.

Will try your rules on AAG too and see….  Thanks for the ideas.

The Japanese used destroyers throughout the war to ferry troops and supplies and made particular use of them in the Solomon’s. Slow moving transports were slaughtered attempting to reinforce islands but high speed DD’s could make the run and “hopefully” be unloaded and gone before dawn. As the war progressed and more and more Maru’s found the bottom of the ocean, DD’s were pressed into this role often. Causing huge DD losses to the IJN.

Given the scale of the game you may be correct that DD’s capacity seems like its quite vast. Actually the rule should only be applied to Japan, historically.

At this time in the war ships AA defenses were not what they would be in 1944, both sides were just beginning to add extra AA defenses and learning the lesson that CAP would not hold out a determined air attack. Later in the campaign they would be more formidable. At the Battle of Santa Cruz one of the reasons Yamamoto did not push the issue is aircraft and aircrew losses to his two big carriers kept him from trying to finish off the last US carrier in the area.

No subs? then how would you smoke the Wasp?

The only other issue I have is with the VP’s too. Seems like once you get ahead its hard for the other guy to catch up. We keep track of the VP’s but fight on until one side or another has the board or is exhausted. Makes the game more combat oriented and not construction oriented. Of course it also makes the game go on for a bit longer  :wink:

Depends on the type of battle you like to wage.

I own all the A&A games and am a long time fan.

Frankly I think Guadalcanal is the best yet. Bulge is my least favorite.

Guadalcanal has big sweeping air and sea battles - something missing form the A&A series in general. Guadalcanal is like the original game (or revised) but just zoomed in to a specific part of the map, where on a smaller scale you purchase units and make decisions.

Bulge is nothing like any other A&A game and D Day basically plays you and the decisions are decided for you.

I would get them both its not like they are dreadfully expensive  :wink:

@frimmel:

So is anyone seeing a lot of big Naval engagements with all of the fleets and all of the air forces?

Every game so far, my friends are all A&A vets and are very often aggressive, In one game the Japanese reinforced Guadalcanal at the same time US forces were invading Bougainvilla. Usually turn 2 and 3 some large naval battle has occured or two small ones.

Aggressive moves lend themselves to massive big battles, which this game has. Airpower seems less dangerous to ships in this game thus most of my friends don’t even sweat being down in the die count in these battles.

Frankly if Japan stayed in Sea Zone F the US player would go looking for him and disregard the air cover. Of course he might lose too  :wink:

No the game is generally balanced and our games have been generally been very close and split. Most of the Japanese opponents I have faced and when I am them are usually more aggressive than the strategy Croggyl offers up. Even trying to reinforce Guadalcanal. It would be difficult to break Japan if they employed that strategy.

I would send my fleet to dislodge them from sea zone F, at all costs, if they are busy with buying supplies, I would counter with ships. Airplanes be darned! They seem to be more dangerous to other airplanes more than to ships, so air superiority over F (with some dice luck) I would not worry about…too much. Make the IJN fight you or retreat. May the dice gods be with you.

Frankly this is why we don’t really play with VP’s anymore, we keep track of them and the “victor” takes note but we fight till all islands are captured (except base cards) or till mental/ physical exhaustion.  :wink:

@frimmel:

I think each side needs an additional AC at this point in the first turn but I don’t think the addition of more BBs is worth the cost. But I’m thinking that in my future games there will be a more bitter fight for New Georgia and those extra dice from the sea might be needed. Maybe get them from Cruisers though instead of the Battleships?

Many of the players I play with are Classic A&A thinkers too but they also have been happy with the mighty sea battles that this game offers and let me tell you the Yamato or Iowa adds a hefty amount to the fights off New Georgia, in our recent blowout game the IJN sported 3 BB’s, 2 CV’s and about 5 cruisers in its rout of the USN, the Japanese player wanted to go for the knockout by overpowering the wobbly USN. Cruisers are a good buy, especially if you are down in the IPC count.

New Georgia was the most contested spot in this blowout game, US ground troops landed and were reinforced but were never able to secure the island and once the USN was pushed back away from the Island the US troops were wiped out. The IJN completed its destruction of the US fleet in this game and we called it off. No one reached VP points but with the IJN steaming off the New Caledonia waters it seemed pointless to continue.

In general I view this blowout game as that abnormality that won’t happen often, in fact I love this game for its balance and that its up to the players to make choices that change the battle.

In our games New Georgia is often the most contested Island.

Thank you!

Love this game, however, after 6 plays we had our first true military blowout, due to the dice gods the US lost all its airpower both turns 1 and 2, and the Japanese retained almost all of their planes, and the US just generally had a bad day in the battle box, (reminded me of a game of original A&A when a large Japanese fleet off Alaska rolled all one’s on two straight turns) thus the IJN made a charge for the slot, ultimately pushing the USN back into sea zone K where a massive naval battle took place, but that led to this question.

Can you invade the base cards? After the battle the the IJN went to the US Base with a BB and a DD, in order to wreak havoc on US supply lines.  I don’t see in the rules if this is allowed, anybody know? We allowed it in this game but wonder what the rule is?

Despite the military blowout both sides were generally even on VP’s, because the Japanese were slow to build airfields, instead they attempted to outproduce the USN in combat ships, in this they were successful.

Staying in the same zone just like AA D day, its a combat system that D Day introduced and back then we tried to use it for AAE, it slows down the march on the front lines (sometimes to WWI preportions), but adding AAG movement system should make for an interesting change.

I liked that D Day allowed for units to remain “locked in combat” and unable to disengage, more like real combat as opposed to the retreat or fight to the death battles of previous A&A games.

@frimmel:

There isn’t any big advantage I see in having the airfield on Malaitia as opposed to a second one on Guadalcanal after turn 1. No sense taking up the Transport space moving those 3 supplies that start on Guadalcanal.

Except for the VP point it gives and the ability to have at least two more airplanes closer to the fight. The way those VP points add up per turn the third airfield quickly might just put you ahead early. I am still trying to damage an airfield but have been unsuccessful so far.

If you have at least one land unit then the ships with land values contribute. It includes AA guns which are land units but have no land attack, as I understand the instruction book.

or raid a Yahtzee  game  :lol:

New Georgia is more likely an island you could get troops to and take, both times we have tried it at least 1 Jpn inf is left, as you stated it depends on the Japanese first turn and where they go.

Its not that Santa Isabel could not be attacked and taken but held?

It would seem any Japanese move would likely have some reinforcements next to Santa Isabel.

10-4 much obliged

Do you read the sub shot in the battlebox of the target you are shooting at?
:?

Example if I target a AC/CV should I roll the battlebox and look at the first dice in the #1 slot or the dice sitting in the AC/CV # 4 slot?

Also how does a subattack work on a BB? Since the BB has the first shot, no damage ability. Does the subshot count as hit # 1 or is it simply a wasted shot?

Otherwise the sub attack against a BB gains you nothing.

Thanks for any help.

I am working on a game right now just to see how long a non VP game takes.
The US won via VP’s 15-13 but I kept going. The game board looked more like a draw then a US victory. US held three islands and Japan held three islands and both navies were still able to carry on the fight, in fact the Japanese were about to land troops on New Georgia to try to retake it.

Seems like the VP game is real short, I also have not been able to damage an air field yet in order to slow down the VP rush.

On the other hand I am really fond of this game, it seems evenly matched depending on your purchases and deployment. Battles go back and forth and the first airbattle we tried opened eveyone’s eyes, its dangerous to be a pilot in the south pacific!

I kind of like the battlebox and am going to try it with AAP, substituting the aa gun for armor.

On the other hand while “no hit doesn’t hit” might work well, often in combat your weapons are aimed at something and often hit something else. In the pacific spreds of torpedoes were fired at ship A only to miss and hit ship B and sometimes even ship C. When I was a USMC tanker most of the time I hit (or missed cleanly) what I aimed at but sometimes I hit other things and many times I had to “spray and prey” as they call it. I could see how you could fire at an enemy tank but instead kill the enemy troops nearby…enough of my early 90’s “war” stories.