they should leave their senses and do my Operation Hemmarhoid.....Hemaroid.......Hemorrhoid. Never name a game something you can't spell. I'm off to a great start.
It's July of 1943. Some brilliant guy in the German High Command with a crystal ball has determined that their war is going seriously south unless they can achieve an imbalance of power in their favor quickly and for a significant period of time. Donitz bites the bullet and agrees.
The Germans actually decide to help out an ally! 250 U-Boats and crack crews are sent to the Pacific Theater, along with production and repair facilities. They will be based in Japan and Rabaul. Goal: dominate the Pacific's many choke points and ambush American submarines. The Germans' excellent 20 knot acoustic torpedo will give them a definite edge in this warfare, and the American submariners won't know what hit them.
This would be a good deal gutsier than the SH4UBM departure, as there would be nothing historical about this at all. The players of SH4: Operation Hemorrhoid would be advernturers, not rivet counters. We'd have to be very tolerant.
The game design parameters would be to use Type VII and Type IX subs only, no fantasy subs or weapons. Operational details of submarines on both sides would be strictly factually based. So in spite of the fact that the game would be asking a big "what if" question, it would be a "what if" with persuasive plausibility behind it to tempt the rivet counters into giving it a try. We'd have to promise not to tell if they actually had fun.:rotfl:
Counterbalancing the advantage of the 20 knot homing torpedo would be a big surprise for the Germans: American subs had radar! Radar that worked!
I'm thinking this could be a big winner. The cold war sim crowd has always delighted in playing "what if" and this one has enough imagination to it to net new simmers, cold war simmers, WWII simmers and even some rivet counters.
Oh, the name? It's a working title. We could name it something else, but the name would have to immediately arouse curiosity. Also, this would not be a "manditory" add-on like SH4UBM--it would not alter any other aspect of the game. Don't want supporters of the franchise PO'd because they "have to buy" a game they have no interest in to avoid obsolescense. Any patches incorporated should be available separately on this one.