Posts made by MrMalachiCrunch

2 more than me!

Hmmm, well Dylan, how many games of europe have you played and won out of curiousity?

Dylan, the game  you just played didn’t seem to favour the axis.  Didn’t Germany fall on England’s second turn?

I really don’t have a favourite, pros and cons.  Somebody else mentioned the Axis for the compact power each nation presents, I agree with that on the Axis.

However, the allies present some unique challenges and if done correctly can make you a stand out player.  I am pretty good at the Shuck, the allies are tough to beat when a steady flow of infantry plus versitile air-support is present.  An efficient supply chain is always what makes an army successfull in the long term.  Co-ordination with the the brits and americans are key to success in the atlantic ie, brits move fleet and land then americans reinforce fleet position and land position.

Full allied co-operation in the soviet theatre can be nasty for the axis.  The Axis must always think “What can the allies do in sequence to screw me up”.  As Japan, they must think, “What if the americans did this, then the russians moved in some armour to back them up, then the brits move in more forces with air” or "if the americans take out that blocking infantry then the british tanks can blitz through and attack my airforce ‘behind the lines’.  There seems to be less opportunity for the axis to have combined forces to present the same options.  However, strong Japanese airpower in Germany can really cause problems with the fleet moves of the brits and americans where they both must reach the same new SZ, the japs go before the fleets combine……

Hmm, hurt is a relative term I guess.

Turn #1 Japan builds 2 IC say Man and FIC and have to hunker down somewhat to protect them and not enough AA’s yet to defend against SBR.

Turn #2 Japn builds tanks 6 tanks and no infantry support, no navy.

Turn #3 Tanks might be able to attack Sin with little Infantry support and would be lucky to survive the attack never mind defense from soviet counter-attack.

Turn 4 Whatever tanks survive move up to Nov and get spanked.

Turn 5 If tanks survived attack J3, Defense from attack R4, then survive attack of J4 then by turn 5 something in theory might be able to hit Russian give a great deal of luck.

Moreover, the question of what occured in the soviet eastern territories and Britains threats from India has not been addressed.

If the soviets play it smart and slowly withdraw into strong counter-attack positions it forces the japs to advance slowly.

In my opinion infantry win the war for Japan and a longer term outlook obviouisly as they take so long to get into position.

test of 7 infantry, 2 art, 2 bombers
Rolls: 5@1 4@2 2@4; Total Hits: 35@1: (4, 1, 3, 1, 5)4@2: (6, 3, 4, 4)2@4: (6, 3)

It is truly scarely to think of what could have occurred had Hitler been a bit more long sighted and a bit less of a gambler.  Had he waited for his genocide campaign and used some PR he might have been able to knock off the allies one by one without the others declaring war.

I think the US naval philosophy after WW I actually saw England as the #1 force the US atlantic fleet would fight and their entire doctrine of fleet buys and strategy revolved around crushing the Brit fleet….up until the late 1930s if I am not mistaken.

Had the Germans sold their long term plan to the Japs to have them ‘play nicer’ in their brutal campaign in China the US might not have embargoed (sp?) the Japs early in 41, they might have waited a few years for Pearl Harbour or might not have needed to once the european powers finally folded and the east indies fell into Jap hands by default.

With democracies still stung by WW I’s lost generation their might not have been enough public support to win the long war…  Yikes!

I think it also depend on the allied strategy.  I don’t build ICs but rather british fleet combined with american.  Since I am building allied fleet anyways, I would welcome a fleet building contest between germany and Britain/USA.

The moment you build that first northern carrier you are commited to either writing it off, or spending more to protect it.  The Brits don’t have much to lose to the Japs that they wouldn’t lose anyways.  You can leave Japan alone for 4-5 turns and they really can’t put pressure on Russian until about R6.  By R6, with Germany out of Africa and spent countless IPC on a fleet only to be outbuilt by the allies….would be in little condition to threaten russian.

Now, if I built an IC in africa and had to split resources, different story I am sure!

Well right you are but…… the allies did nothing to stop Germany from breaking the treaty of Versailles which limited them to capital ships not to exceed 10,000 tonnes.  The pocket battleships were slightly over this but then Germany started building battlecruisers and full sized battleships like the tirpitz and bismark.

Germany could not build U-boats but started to, they reoccupied the ruhr.  They were not supposed to have much of an airforce so Germany had the best ‘civilian’ airliners and fleet, trained their pilots in the spanish civil war.

By the time 1938 rolled around, the French were still traumitized by WW I and anybody warning of hitler was called a warmongerer ie churchill.  Basically the allies pussied out, could have crushed hitler in 36 when he first broke the treaty and reoccuppied the ruhr.

Well I have to say it once more, impressive!  Sorry for even implying the total of 13 was not just a simplification.  You know how it is with small insignificant nations, we get that Napolean syndrome!

I am sure the baltic fleet strategy has been talked to death already for the veterans here but its still new for me.  I will admit never having used nor played against it.  So, based on not having any experience with it, let me talk about it lol.  I think England would find it pretty easy to build enough infantry on England to prevent operation sealion.  The German fleet if not able to invade england really doesn’t earn you much money up there, yeah it helps Norway but thats only 3 IPC.  Now, put that carrier down south and it opens up all of Africa.  Germany up 10-12 and England down 10-12 IPC will get the allies attention.  Trust me, it kills me to just lose that northern fleet, but you don’t lose the subs and they should move out into the atlantic to harasses the allies then pull them back with the Med fleet.

Until I am proven wrong by losing to this strategy, my first thought is that is good money after bad trying to protect the DD and transport.  I do like a CV and transport in the Med on G1 however :-)

I wonder….

:dice 10d20@15:

testing a roll of 5 twenty sided dice

Rolling 5d20:
(7, 10, 11, 12, 14)

I think Keredrex makes a good point about adding subs to the mix to take hits as well as the options a carrier+planes give you, not so sure about the Northern German Fleet strategy though  :-)  If you already own planes, nothing is as cost effective as a carrier with existing planes and 2 infantry provides better land defense than a single plane as you have twice the number of pieces at about 1/2 the cost.  It’s really nice to have 4 planes for each carrier, 2 on ship, 2 on land.  Try for land combat where the 2 planes on land attack then fly to the fleet, the 2 fleet planes fly out to land combat then land on well land.  It works well if you are trading a territory 3 zones from the fleet and defending the adjacent territory, thinks brits and americans attacking german units along the russian border.  Nothing I like better than taking out 4 german infantry with 3 allied infantry + 4 fighters and maybe a bomber.  On average you only lose 2 infantry, so what if you lose 3, the russians drive a tank in and out to claim the cash.

I think you need a mix for fleet.  You need at least 1 destroyer, I like 2 for the reason you might need a ship to act as a blocking unit to cover a mistake on your behalf or strategically to buy you time to move your fleet without fear of enemy fleet attack as it must stop to fight the destroyer.  A sub can’t block and a destroyer is the cheapest unit that can.  It also means you can send out 1 of 2 destroyers plus air to attack a seazone that contains more than 1 sub, ie trade an 8 IPC destroyer to sink 12 or more IPC of subs and maybe even luck out and take something out when the sitting duck destroyer is attacked.  As Keredrex mentioned, its nice to have subs to take hits and they are the most cost effective way of killing enemy ships.  Believe it or not, 1 cruiser worth 12 IPC attacks 2 subs that only defend on a 1, the subs win on defense about 60% and have a slight edge on average for IPC inflicting over taken.  I highly recommend using a combat simulator and run some various scenarios to see how battles between various fleet configurations works out.  Everyone has their favourite, I like http://www.dskelly.com/misc/aa/aasim.html

I nearly lost a game because of a stupid single jap sub that snuck around south america to harass a small combined brit and american fleet headed into the mediterranean.  The brits had moved their fleet in but required american support.  The americans attacked a lone jap sub with 1 destroyer and 2 planes, I missed completely, he hit, battle ended.  Jap sub attacks US fleet of a CC, CV and 2 planes no backup destroyer and no sub that would have taken the enemy sub hit in the first or second battle.  I had to take the cruiser off because the loss of carrier even if the cruiser took out the sub meant the brit fleet would not have had enough defense.  Just out of luck, I took the CC off the CV hit on the 2 and was able to provide enough defense to the brit fleet to allow it to live.  Just remember subs cannot be taken as hits from enemy planes unless the enemy has a destroyer, sometimes a mixed blessing!

Ah well perhaps I did.  Assuming Hitler had been smarter a few for instances.  Put Germany’s economy on a war footing in 1938 instead of 1944.  Waited a few years before starting the war, many German planners figured 1945 would be a good start date.  A fleet of bismark class ships to escort fleet carriers along with a fleet of 100s of uboats rather than the less that 100? to start the war with.  Let’s say jet power and heavy 4 engine bombers that Germany never really had.  Now let’s say they beat England, then Russia.  No way they EVER build enough of a fleet to do an invasion anywhere in Pan-America.  They would still need atomic bombs to force a defeat.

Even with superior resourses the allies would never have beaten Germany if not for that mutual meatgrinder called the USSR who accounted for 9 out of 10 casualties.  If Germany thought they had it rough in the USSR, imagine urban warfare in a city where every american had 2 really sweet guns.

I wish I could remember the title of the book I read as a kid, I think it was by Arthur C. Clarke, oh I will have to google this.  The premise was a story line about 100 years past the start of WW II.  America stayed neutral, europe and asia spiraled into the stoneage, communication was lost and amrican ships would not pass certain longitude lines bisecting the pacific and atlantic oceans.  All the america’s formed a commonwealth……now to google!

Bardoly, very impressive, those games sound like great learning tools.  I know that the teachers that showed your level of passion really touched my life throughout my life.  However, a slight bone of contention, more of a nitpick really.  Technically, Canada has only 10 provinces and 3 territories.  Off the top of my head I am not actually sure what the differrences are other than no provincial parliment members I guess.  Kudos for knowing we now have 3 territories over the recent total of 2, I wonder how many Canucks knew that?  :wink:

The Axis powers would NEVER cooperate with a communist anything.  Hitler HATED communists nearly as much as he hated jews.  I doubt Japan would have been down with a philosophy where everyone was equal peasant and samuri with was no room for the emperor.

Japan might have been able to invade Washington state if about 100 things were different.  But to trek across a few 1000 miles of territory with rather well armed and hostile natives to get to DC?  Or the other choice to launch an invasion fleet and have it sail 10,000 miles (or more?) around south america to come up on the east coast or invaded panama first to gain control of the canal to shorten the invasion fleet trip?

The allies prepared and built up for D-Day for 2 years.  They had an unsinkable aircraft carrier 25 miles from shore about the same size as Great Britain from which to launch the invasion from.  Only with sh@* luck and the incompetence of Hitler was D-day successful.

Japan had no technology to force a US surrender and for ‘old-school’ military…by 1943 the US was producing in a month as many machine guns as Japan produced in the entire war.

The ONLY way the US was going to lose is if Germany got nukes first and they were NOWHERE even close to deploying a nuclear bomb.
God I hate these text boxes, why is it that when I hit the bottom of the screen the text in the box jumps up and down when I type, friggin annoying to have to use a text editor to creat the post then copy and paste it in here…ugh!

Well, we didn’t do so well during the battle of the Atlantic WWII.  It certainly was not for lack of bravery however.  We yeah in general, pound for pound we punch way above our weight-class IMnotsoHO!

It’s too nice a day to write code now, maybe tonight I’ll fire up visual studio and whip together a re-creation of that little app tonight, or maybe I’ll got hit the bar, its ladies night at the Olympia!  Put on your thickest pair of beer goggles and geterdone!

I wrote the software utility years ago.  It’s really not that much code, hardly something worthwhile to put up as a download.

He, don’t blam it on bein Candian, weez got really good speeling eh!