Posts made by saburo sakai

@rjclayton:

Agree.

Note: I said in 1 turn, not in Turn 1! (meaning that from Japan a transport could reach all the way to unload in WCAN)

Right you are, “1 turn” not “Turn 1”.  I see the distinction now.

SS

@rjclayton:

Watch out for SZ63!  Sometimes Japan will use it to land troops directly into WCAN and ALA from Japan in 1 turn!  Can sneak up on the US if you’re not careful!

Unless there is a bid transport placed in sz60 before the start of the game, this would not be possible.  Japan starts the game with only 1 Trn in range of Alaska and WCan and cannot launch 2 amphibious assaults from 1 transport.

However, this is certainly an option on J2 or J3 after most of the UK and US units have been moved east to fight the Germans.

SS

I posted my previous message as my assessment of one factor leading to the failure of the German campaign in Russia.  I then went looking for a source to back me up and lo and behold, it seems there are no original thoughts because Bevin Alexander, an author on military history, comes to the same conclusion:

His most disastrous error was to go into the Soviet Union as a conqueror instead of a liberator. The Soviet people had suffered enormously at the hands of the Communist autocracy for two decades. Millions had died when the Reds forced people off their land to create collective farms. Millions more were obliged to move great distances to work long hours, under terrible conditions, and little compensation in factories and construction projects. The secret police punished any resistance with death or transportation to horrible prison gulags in Siberia. In the gruesome purges of the 1930s, Joseph Stalin had systematically killed all leaders and all military officers who, in his paranoid mind, posed the slightest threat to his dictatorship. Life for the ordinary Russian was drab, full of exhausting work, and dangerous. At the same time, the Soviet Union was an empire ruling over a collection of subjugated peoples who were violently opposed to rule from the Kremlin.

Vast numbers of these people would have risen in rebellion if Hitler’s legions had entered with the promise of freedom and elimination of Soviet oppression. Had Hitler done this, the Soviet Union would have collapsed.

http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/barbarossa.aspx

SS

One thing IL touched on but I think needs greater emphasis is enlisting local populations in the fight against the Soviets.  I believe that the only way the Germans could have won was to accept the role of liberators, especially in places like Ukraine and the Baltic states.  There was no love of the Russians in those places.  If the Germans had moved in and permitted local populations to have some autonomy in governing themselves and invited them to participate in their own war of liberation and the defeat of Stalin, they would have had a much greater resource of soldiers to draw upon and a much easier time controlling their rear areas.

Stalin induced a famine in the '30’s that killed millions in Ukraine.  The survivors were ready to rise up against the Soviets and would have made fanatical and willing allies.  Instead, Hitler saw the Ukrainians and other slavs as an inferior race, not worthy of the National Socialist ideal.  As such, he missed an opportunity to greatly strenghthen the attacks on Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad and probably his best chance of forcing Russia out of the war in 1941.

SS

Generally, there is nothing wrong with the concept of multiple attacks on Japan on UK1.

However, I typically don’t like the idea of moving the AC to borneo because then you have allowed the Japanese BB in Java sea to get into the game and absorb the first hit.

I would usually use the DD to kill the transport, 2 infantry from India to take Borneo, 2 Inf from Australia to take New Guinea and the sub to attack the Japanese sub in sz45.

If you really want to be aggressive, move the UK AC to sz36 to block a BB attack on your DD in sz59 and then land the UK fighter on the US AC in sz52.  You can also have the fighter attack the Japanese sub on the way by.  Or, the fighter can land in Buryatia to support 6 Russian infantry there.

SS

Cool,

Your historic inaccuracies are many:

You called this a very, very smart strategic move.  This is not an accurate statement because the raid was never conceived of in strategic terms.  It was simply intended as a limited attack in retaliation for Pearl Harbor.  The fact that it later turned out to be stategically significant because of the reactions of the Japanese does not make the move “smart” as you suggest.

You suggest that the US’s intention with the raid was to make the Japanese focus on the Chinese and leave the US alone.  Not true.  As stated many times, the US raid was a morale booster, nothing more.  It was certainly not designed to push the Japanese in the direction of China.

You state that the USS Hornet beat a cowardly retreat and that the planes should have landed back on the carrier.  For one, it was hardly a retreat when it was part of the plan that the Hornet would return to Pearl Harbor after launching the planes.  The reason for this was that the flight deck was not long enough for the planes to land on - so what you suggest was physically impossible, therefore historically misleading and inaccurate.

You say that the US was “cheating on its Ally”.  This is false and is demonstrated by the reactions of the Chinese when the encountered the US airmen after they had landed their planes in China.  The Chinese did not feel cheated.  They assisted the airmen to escape the Japanese and most only returned to the US with Chinese help.

You state that the Chinese turned on the US after the war, suggesting that the Doolittle Raid was the reason for this.  Hogwash!!  The Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai Shek were defeated by the communists in the Chinese Civil War.  They retreated to Formosa (now Taiwan) and remain a staunch ally of the US to this day.  The fact that the communists did not support or side with the US has everything to do with the fact that they were communists and nothing to do with the US war record in China.

SS

@dezrtfish:

You’ve got to be kidding me.

That is the most rediculous pulled out of thin air nonsence I have heard in quite some time.Â

It looks to me like yo uare trying to bait an arguement, because you can’t seriously think this tripe is acurate…

I have to agree.  Not only is Cool’s comment historically inaccurate but it is slanderous and inflammatory as well.

SS

Arguably, it also confirmed Japanese thinking that something had to be done about the remaining US carriers, which was the purpose of the attack on Midway.  Of course, everyone knows what happened there.

While the Doolittle raid was not intended to provoke the Japanese to attack (it was really just a propaganda exercise designed to boost morale in the armed forces and civilian population), the fact that Tokyo was bombed and the emperor potentially put at risk pushed the Japanese to concoct an elaborate plan to trap the US carriers.  While not a “turning point” in the war, the Doolittle Raid did play a small part in precipitating the actual turning point of the Pacific War at Midway.

SS

Jennifer,

That’s the total number of crimes - not murders or homicides.  Your previous post said that there were 40 “murders” on February 16.  There may very well have been 40 “crimes” but not 40 “murders”.  You suggested that there were more criminal deaths in Chicago on a single day than at Virginia Tech.  This statement is simply false and you should simply acknowledge that fact.

SS

But I did find a website for ChicagoCrime.org:  http://www.chicagocrime.org/types/homicide/

It lists the same types of homicides that you listed and if you look at the crimes on or before February 16, 2007, it matches the number that you have cited.  But, these are all the homicides in the year to February 16.  These homicides did not occur all on February 16 and it is clear from the way they are reported that this is the case.  No reasonable person could have concluded that these homicides all occured on the same day.

So there have been approximately 40 homicides in Chicago in the first 6 weeks of the year - which puts Chicago on pace for around 500 homicides for the whole year - not 40 in one day (14,600!! for the year).

Your research is shoddy and your reporting of it is even worse.  How then can you expect anyone to respect your opinions.

SS

It doesn’t look like your website - chicago crime rate . org even exists.

In 2005, there were a total of 448 homicides in Chicago - less than 2 per day.  See number 19 in this list:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Cities_by_Crime_Rate

I don’t believe your statistic and you haven’t backed it up with a verifiable reference.

SS

I’ve been meaning to get around to this but haven’t found the time until now.Â

Mine is not a particularly interesting story - no particular hardship or drama, so probably won’t be made into a documentary anytime soon.  Still, it is generally a happy story, so who am I to complain if it lacks suspense.

I was born in 1966 in a small town (less than 3000) in the Canadian Prairies.  I am a third generation Canadian who’s great grandfather immigrated to Canada from the Ukraine just after the turn of the last century.  My father’s first language was Ukrainian and my grandparents spoke only a little English.  In contrast, I speak very little Ukrainian and my kids none at all.

I was the third son born to my parents, but my oldest brother had died in infancy before I was born, so I have just one brother.  I spent my first 18 years in my home town, going to school and getting into only mild amounts of trouble.  Arrested once, but it was only for drinking after hours at my place of employment and they let me go with a warning and didn’t even notify my parents or my employer.  I graduated from high school in 1984 having been at the top of my class academically the last 3 years.  I was a starter on the basketball and volleyball teams and was a high jumper in track.  I was a lifeguard at the local swimming pool.  My mom was a teacher and until he had a heart attack my dad managed an auto parts store.  How much more middle class can you get!

After high school, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do but I knew it would involve university, so I enrolled in a Bachelor of Commerce degree program with an emphasis on computers.  Got bored with that pretty quick, so in my second year, I took the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) and scored in the 97th percentile.  I started getting offers from law schools all over the place to enroll but being not yet 20 years old and having met and fallen in love with my future wife, I decided to stay at the same university and got my law degree in 1989.  Got married in 1988, between 2nd and 3rd year of law school.  I’m still married too.  It will be 20 years next year and while there have been some tough times in our life, I can’t honestly say that there have been too many tough times in our marriage.

After law school, I got an articling position at the largest law firm in the province and have worked there ever since.  Made partner after a few years and can’t say I have regretted any of my time here.  I make exceptionally good money, I own 4 cars, none of which is more than 5 years old and I live in a 7000 sq ft house with 7 bathrooms, an indoor swimming pool, a poker room and media room with a 133’ projection TV and 7 speaker surround sound.  The house backs on to a park and a lake and it takes me about 12 minutes to drive to my office.

I have three kids.  None of them have had any particular health problems and all have been easy kids to raise.  My oldest, a daughter, was born while I was articling and is graduating from high school this year.  Her academic average is above 90% and has been for years.  She wants to follow in Dad’s footsteps and become a lawyer.  My oldest son was born in 1990 and is in grade 11.  He also has an academic average about 90% and is interested in journalism or politics.  He was invited to attend a Global Young Leaders Congress in Washington and New York this summer and is looking forward to it.  My youngest son was born in 1994 and is finishing grade 7.  We’re not entirely sure, but he may be the least academically inclined of our kids but he is the most athletic.  He plays Tier 1 hockey and has been a provincial champion in speed swimming.  As far as I know, none of my kids are on drugs, drink too much or engage in any criminal activity.

I have been to Europe twice in the last two years, travelling there with my daughter the first time and my two oldest kids just last week.  It was a great experience watching my kids and their friends take in another culture and try to learn a new language or two.Â

Like I said, not too interesting.  On balance, a successful life at the midway point with prospects seeming quite good going forward.  We shall see.

SS

So you only act like a moderator when it suits you.  Ok, just so I understand.

SS

I couldn’t give less of a crap what some fag at the Economist thinks…

So, if you don’t like the message, call the messenger a “fag”.  Is that the kind of behavior we should expect from moderators on this board?  Disappointing, really.

SS

There’s a good point made by the Economist in its coverage of this tragedy.  It is not so much about guns be available generally, it is the type of guns that matter.  Hunting rifles, for example, are less likely to be involved in a murder than hand guns.

If Cho had walked into the post office with a hunting rifle or walked towards a classroom building carrying a rifle, do you think he would have been able to enter and start killing.  Maybe, but it also would have been much more difficult to kill so many while reloading a rifle.  The 15 round and 10 round clips in his weapons and the semi-automatic rate of fire directly contributed to the number of victims.  The Glock is freely available in the US but is a restricted weapon in almost any other country.

SS

From the Economist:

Cho Seung-hui does not stand for America’s students, any more than Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did when they slaughtered 13 of their fellow high-school students at Columbine in 1999. Such disturbed people exist in every society. The difference, as everyone knows but no one in authority was saying this week, is that in America such individuals have easy access to weapons of terrible destructive power. Cho killed his victims with two guns, one of them a Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a rapid-fire weapon that is available only to police in virtually every other country, but which can legally be bought over the counter in thousands of gun-shops in America. There are estimated to be some 240m guns in America, considerably more than there are adults, and around a third of them are handguns, easy to conceal and use. Had powerful guns not been available to him, the deranged Cho would have killed fewer people, and perhaps none at all.

But the tragedies of Virginia Tech—and Columbine, and Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, where five girls were shot at an Amish school last year—are not the full measure of the curse of guns. More bleakly terrible is America’s annual harvest of gun deaths that are not mass murders: some 14,000 routine killings committed in 2005 with guns, to which must be added 16,000 suicides by firearm and 650 fatal accidents (2004 figures). Many of these, especially the suicides, would have happened anyway: but guns make them much easier. Since the killing of John Kennedy in 1963, more Americans have died by American gunfire than perished on foreign battlefields in the whole of the 20th century. In 2005 more than 400 children were murdered with guns.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=9040170

@rjclayton:

@losttribe04:

Was ART worth adding to the game?

Yes

@losttribe04:

Lets say you wanted to buy 8 INF and 2 ARM in classic, in revised you now choose to buy 6 INF, 2 ART and 1 ARM. Now you have spent more IPC’s and got less units to show for it.

Count again.

8 INF 2 ARM = 34IPC , Count=10, OPunch = 14, DPunch = 22
6 INF 2 ART 1 ARM = 31IPC

You’ve spent less money for fewer units.

Try 7 INF 2 ART 1 ARM = 34 IPC, Count = 10, OPunch = 16, DPunch = 21

Same money.  Same units.  Defensive punch is 1 less.  Offensive punch is 2 more.

Actually, the defensive punch of the 10 units in Classic is 20, as armor defends on a 2.  So, both the offesive and defensive numbers are better in AAR.

SS

@dezrtfish:

Several people disagree with me so I am just going to address this em mass.

I am NOT saying that having a gun will give you a magical bullet shield.  What I am saying is if a would be robber believes that the chances are say 25% that the person he is robbing has a gun will he still follow through?  what about 50% or 75%.  Do you think this guy in VA may have reconsidered if there was a chance that someone in the building had a gun?  Why do you think he chained the doors?  Maybe to keep the odds at 0%?

No.  He would not have done anything differently because he was crazy.  He knew he was going to die.  In fact, he set out to die.  If everyone was armed, it wouldn’t have made any difference to his intentions.  It may have made some difference to his preparations.  He probably would have brought more guns, or bombs or worn body armor.  Whatever he did, gun possession by everyone in the classrooms he attacked would not have deterred him, because he was crazy.

On the other hand, if it had been impossible for him to legally buy a gun, how many people do you think he would have been able to kill carrying a kitchen knife?  You can say that he could have obtained a gun illegally, which is true.  However, how much more likely would it be that he would have been stopped before taking his action if owning a hand gun was illegal for him.  With his history of mental illness and run ins with the law, I suggest that it would have been more likely that he would have been arrested and his guns taken away long before April 16, 2007.  But, as matters stand in the US, he could lawfully own two guns, keep amunition in his dorm room and walk around with it.  Until he killed 2 people at 7:15 am, he had done nothing that any law enforcement official could even question him about.

The arms race comment is rediculous.  Right now at this very moment there is nothing legal to stop me from carriing my AK47 with me and wearing as much body armor as I want.  Why don’t I? because it’s not worth the benefit.  My compact .45 is plenty.

You are suggesting that a society is safer when everyone is carrying a gun, when all the evidence is to the contrary.  I will not quote a source on this because I know it to be true.  You can disagree if you choose.  Dezrtfish, I am sure that you are a responsible gun owner and I am sure that your kids will also grow up to be responsible gun owners, but not everyone is and as long as a society accepts gun ownership as a right that can never be taken away, guns will be used for all purposes - good and evil.  And since guns are, by design, intended to kill things, people will continue to die as a result of gun ownership.

SS

Frankly, amd with the greatest of respect, you people are insane.  You think that by arming everyone, you are protecting everyone.  In fact, all you are doing is creating an arms race.  If everyone is allowed to carry handguns, then the next shooter will walk in carrying assault rifles and grenades and wearing body armor.  If you think being heavily armed makes you safe, why do US soldiers and marines die everyday in Iraq.  They are among the most heavily armed individuals in the world.

By advocating a society where everyone carries a gun, you are promoting a culture of violence that suggests that the best solution to everything is a hail of gunfire.  It is not surprising, considering the actions of your governments (whether led by Democrats or Republicans) have been a consistent resort to violence as a means to virtually any ends.  Not surprising, perhaps, but sad and tragic for the entire world.

SS

32 dead in Virginia Tech shooting.  :x

SS