War in the Pacific Admirals Edition

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I honestly have not been as excited by a war game since I first played PTO II on the SNES back in what 95 or 96 that was a pretty good game all things considered and it got me into war games I just picked that one up on a whim it was about the PTO so I grabbed it there was one copy at the base BX.

Same for me, except that I still haven't gotten around to playing it much... The manual is always on my desk, permanently within reach. Page through it now and then, but haven't gotten much further than that.

That has to mean it's awesome, right? When you spend more time with the manual than it takes to finish other games.

[Torplexed]

I played it a LOT last year. Got to mid-1943 as the Allies, with Japan as good as beaten but with many turns to go to make it official. It's an awesome game, almost it's own universe since there is so much minutiae to deal with. But the full campaign takes so long to play. I always thought it would have been the perfect game when I was a teenager and had few responsibilities to compete with it, or for when retired. (like that's ever gonna happen now.)

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I have always wanted a war game that would allow me to play as Japan that actually is realistic from a historical standpoint just to see if I really can win at last I have one.I personally think that you can do it but several operations must go your way perfectly.

Might be doable against the AI, but is gonna be real tough against a human Allied player. You have to score those early victories quick with some pretty limited and scattered land forces and the avalanche of reinforcements and goodies the Allies get as the game wears on is overwhelming.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Same for me, except that I still haven't gotten around to playing it much... The manual is always on my desk, permanently within reach. Page through it now and then, but haven't gotten much further than that.

That has to mean it's awesome, right? When you spend more time with the manual than it takes to finish other games.

I know the feeling sometimes with complex games I like to sort up jump in feet first and read the manual as I go along.It might take me a while to get the feel for the game though school is in session again and my daughter uses the same PC that my games are on so I will only be getting maybe a few hours a week of gaming time I should really just buy her a basic PC at some point but then again I'd still be busy with school related activities I get that duty because my line of work slows down a bit in the winter months.

@Torplexed yeah I think "winning" as Japan would be pretty hard against a human player unless the other player knew nothing about WWII.

@Raptor War Plan is $40.00 I think so cheaper than WitP or WitE.

How about Gary Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing of the Reich is it any good?It looks decent.

[Egan]

It depends on what you mean by winning. A good IJN player can certainly get a points victory - the famous Autovictory - but, imo, they have to fulfill certain criteria in order to achieve it.

I think Autovictory is only possible before mid 43 when US and Allied production tips the scales permanently into their favour. After this time Japan has virtually no chance because, quite simply, the US can replace virtually everything he loses. Japan can't.

Before this point, Japan stands a good chance if the player is good enough. I think he must commit, even before the game starts, to one of three options: Take Australia; take Pearl and several other high value secondary bases; take India. To the best of my recollection no one has achieved the last of these three options so far. The IJN player would also have to decisively beat the Allies in a succession of naval battles to garner the points from the sinking of capital ships.

Stealhead, If you are just starting out I recommend you play the Guadalcanal scenario a couple of times as a tutorial. It's a great starter because it gives you experience and training of several key facets of the game straight away: Amphibious assaults and operations, land combat, setting up airbases and maintaining your LBA umbrellas, carrier ops and supply movement. All of these are important but in the grand campaign in might be months before you get a chance to try some of them.

[Stealhead]

I suppose that the Japanese basically had that plan of action but they never got the chance to delay the US Navy for very long and things did not go their way from the start.I have read that the Japanese had originally planned to send an additional wave at Pearl that was to focus on destroying the fuel storage depots at Pearl but they where concerned that the missing US CVs might be near by so they chose not to.I think they made a poor decision because destroying or even seriously damaging those fuel depots would have seriously effected US Navy operational ability.

I am trying out the Coral Sea scenario at the moment I managed to sink the Lexington in and I did damage the Yorktown in another attack.I am doing ok so far I have not landed troops at Port Moresberry yet so we will see.There is not much to work with in this scenario though so I think I will try out the Guadalcanal scenario it does seem to have more to work with and learn.

I did find a very nice little site made by some Australian(or maybe Kiwi) guy who went and made several videos showing you how to do things.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I suppose that the Japanese basically had that plan of action but they never got the chance to delay the US Navy for very long and things did not go their way from the start.I have read that the Japanese had originally planned to send an additional wave at Pearl that was to focus on destroying the fuel storage depots at Pearl but they where concerned that the missing US CVs might be near by so they chose not to.I think they made a poor decision because destroying or even seriously damaging those fuel depots would have seriously effected US Navy operational ability.

Admiral Nagumo's operational orders were flawed in not designating these depots as priority targets in the first place. In fact, during the war game rehearsals of the attack, many of the planners stressed the importance of a quick getaway following the initial strikes. Tomioka Sadatoshi, chief of the Operations Section of Navy General Staff, had told Nagumo to get his ships home intact at all costs. Another consideration was that the morning's second wave attack on Pearl had taken the day's heaviest losses against increasingly heavy American anti-aircraft fire and had inflicted far less damage with the smoke and fires obscuring targets than the first wave had. Japan's supply of elite pilots was limited and slow to be replaced.

And as you mentioned, Nagumo was also worried about being ambushed by the missing American carriers, a fear that was not entirely unreasonable considering what would later happen six months later at Midway.

[Stealhead]

I understand that Nagumo tended to react poorly when a challenge to his original plan occurred and that he was at times overly cautious I guess the lack of direct orders in that case in addition to the fact that the primary targets where not present meant that the US dodged a serious blow.

[Stealhead]

I have been running the Guadalcanal scenario as the Allies and so far I get the concept of most things like loading troops onto ships and air operations.I notice that one of my bases though is running low on supplies it is assigned to receive supplies but not getting any how do I get a supply fleet to go to the base?Also in the manual it mentions automatic convoys though in this scenario my main base is Brisbane and it did not seem to give me the option to assign a supply fleet into an automatic convoy system.I assigned an AK and a TK that where in port at the base with low supplies and ordered them to pick up supplies at Brisbane some maybe that is the way you have to do it in the smaller scenarios?

[Raptor1]

Ah, how did I miss this?

Originally Posted by Stealhead

How about Gary Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing of the Reich is it any good?It looks decent.

Surprisingly enough, I have this as well. It's basically an updated re-release of two games (Gary Grigsby's Battle of Britain and 12 O'Clock High), so it's pretty dated. However, it's still extremely well detailed, simulating stuff like radar, early electronic warfare, night fighters, aerial reconnaissance, production (including the effects of bombing damage to it) and most everything else. The downside is that, especially in the larger campaigns, the attackers has a lot to plan out, and the interface is pretty terrible.

[Stealhead]

That sounds about inline with a review that I found on some guys Blog he said pretty much the same thing about Eagle Day.

Another question about WitP what does LRcap stand for? I assume Long Range CAP.


What about Carriers at War it seems interesting anyone played it?

[Egan]

Yup, LRcap = long range CAP. I've never used it that much. It seems to knacker pilots much quicker than regular CAP. By the way, how are you getting on with pilot training? It's one of the games real (and few, fact,) ball-breakers but it has to be done.

Carriers at War.....never played it myself and I'm not aware of a particularly large community. Don't know terribly much about it, if I'm honest.

[Stealhead]

Do you mean sending pilots to training command or the general training? Training command wise I go though each "squadron" if it has enough pilots and send one to training command for general training I have rear area units do much of it and assign a small amount to train for combat zone units unless I expect heat in which case they will not train for a turn or so.

[Fincuan]

A useful site with instructional videos for a new WitP:AE player. Even veterans might learn a thing or two.

http://sites.google.com/site/n01487477/Home

It's nice that I found it now, AFTER freeing the Aleutians a couple of times and learning most of the stuff via trial and error