Bill101

MacArthur actually left before the Philippines fell, having been ordered to do so by President Roosevelt, so I don't think we're going too far wrong by having him arrive in Australia even if the Philippines are still fighting. But I will think some more on this, my mind is not closed!

I would think that it is the result of an intelligence report, as funnily enough, I've had an intelligence report of one just a little further away from Honolulu in a pbem game I'm playing, and we're at about the same stage of the game that you are. Hopefully I can sink it before my opponent reads this thread!

I've just been on the website of The Times of London's digital archive and it has clarified the situation. Japan took Foochow in April 1941 but on the 3rd September 1941 the Chinese announced that they had taken it back (see The Times, Thursday, Sep 04, 1941; pg. 3; Issue 49022; col C). An article from July 1942 clearly shows that it was still in Chinese hands in 1942. The article was called The Threat to China and said that 'Wenchow and Foochow are the only seaports still in Chinese hands' (The Times, Tuesday, Jul 14, 1942; pg. 5; Issue 49287; col C). It was then captured by Japan for the second time in October 1944, and liberated in May 1945.

I've been thinking about this and although I get your point about the fighting on Hawaii itself preventing salvage work, Japan does benefit from a chance to re-sink the Nevada while it is at low strength before the US has a chance to move it away or reinforce it. So things kind of balance out a little. I will study this a bit more though, leave it with me.

Ah, ok. I'd better have a rethink then!

Or go for the USSR!!

Hi Colin Thanks for the comments, I'm glad you're enjoying the game and I'll see if we can make some of them a little less predictable. As to the battleship being refloated, are you referring to the Nevada (in 1942) or the return to service of the California in May 1944? If the latter, the California was refloated at Pearl in 1942 and sent back to the westcoast of the USA where she spent two years being repaired before venturing forth to do battle against the Japanese.

Ah, sorry Xwormwood, I think changing the map is our only option here. I will get it changed.

Yes, it was something like that. Alas, the smile was wiped off my face later on... but this victory did buy me a lot of time.

Hi Nupremal Thanks for this. I've just revisited all my books and looked at numerous websites, and I have the strong impression that the Japanese only occupied it briefly the first time, before they finally took it again in October 1944. There seem to be conflicting sources, such as wikipedia which says here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzhou#History However, not only is the above quote from wikipedia rather vague on dates (which are available in other sources) it is wrong in saying that Japan held it until they surrendered (the Chinese liberated it in May 1945) and it is also quite clear from looking at other sources that the Japanese took Foochow in October 1944. How do we explain this? I am very interested to learn more, because if this is wrong then I will be more than happy to amend it.

Definitely! In one of our playtests I did manage to sink two US carriers that were escorting an allied invasion fleet from NW Australia to the Dutch East Indies, and although I also suffered some losses it really took the wind out of the allied invasion fleet's sails, delaying their invasion for a long time. I've also found that sinking carriers has a big impact on players' morale... at least it certainly does have on mine!

They will still need a HQ or resource for supply, so all opposed landings require proper planning and reconnaissance, with naval and carrier/air units in support to work. But one good thing about the Marines and SNLF is that if your landing goes wrong then they have the potential to evacuate without using a port, something regular units don't have. I have managed this a few times, and occasionally got away with it!

I did keep moving my ships and carriers from port to port towards the end to confuse the allied intelligence reports and also because I was scared of being attacked before I was ready. If she isn't doing very well then Japan does find it hard to find the MPPs to repair all her ships, and that's why it took me a while to prepare the navy for the final battle. As it is one or two carriers went in without full tech. One thing about the naval battles is that if you can strike at one portion of the enemy's navy while the rest of it is several turns' distance away, then you can hit hard, sail away before the enemy counterattacks, and after refitting and resupplying in port be ready for the next battle. It takes a good mixture of both skill and luck to work!

Hi! I'm glad you enjoyed reading through the AAR, we had a lot of fun playing it! The USA starts the game with level 1 in intelligence and 2 further chits invested, with the potential to go up to level 5. British India also starts with 1 chit invested, so even without investing anything more, the allies could have a good chance of intelligence reports informing them of the position of enemy units. I don't know off hand what level the allies reached, but you are right in saying that if they were allowed to go too high then it could ruin the game. But despite that, the allies do have the ability to reach a high level and get a lot of intelligence reports. As Japanese, not knowing whether or not the enemy know where your fleet is really does affect your strategy. As I moved the Japanese fleet into battle towards the end, I was thinking "does he know where I am?", "am I walking into a trap?". I felt rather tense and nervous as my carriers surged forward... to a brief victory followed by ultimate defeat!

Thanks! It's been a real pleasure working on this project, and I look forward to working on more.

Hi Page 58 onwards of the manual has a Beginner's Tutorial which you'll hopefully find useful. It explains how to move units, attack, upgrade units, etc, all in the context of the first few turns of Operation Z. Feel free to play around a bit too, to see what happens where, and if you have any further questions please ask here. Interesting point about having a guided tour with the demo... it's something to consider.

When the Dutch East Indies falls to Japan, the new convoy route will appear on the map after the country has surrendered. However, it won't be working for a few turns as Dutch troops will blow up the harbor facilities before surrendering, but once it gets working allied subs can start interdicting it. Japan relies on all the convoy routes, you'll see a lot of them on the map once Japan has conquered the Dutch, Malaya, Burma, Sarawak and the Philippines, so yes, interdiction is the name of the game!

It's because the destroyers have a naval spotting range of more than 1. In the main scenario, Operation Z, they have a shorter range than they might have in some of the smaller scenarios. The manual takes Operation Z as the default rule, so you might find slightly different ranges in scenarios such as the Midway one which work to a different scale.

I've just taken a look and you're not misreading the rules. What he's doing is using his destroyers to search for your submarines, and then striking with his ships and aircraft to sink them. Fortunately the more effort he uses on sinking your submarines, the worse his supply will be once your carriers enter the fray.

Hi John! Japanese aircraft automatically outrange everyone else's by 1, so rather than give them long range level 1, their base stats are slightly higher than everyone else's. There are a few different stats for different nations, not in everything as that would be too confusing, but just in some key areas. For instance, aircraft range is one good area for Japan, but going the other way their tanks don't compare so well against their allied equivalents. China has the worst equipped infantry, and US marines are the best equipped. As to the weather, it is the dry season in some parts but less so in others. For instance, the Philippines have a higher chance of rain outside of the Monsoon season than Burma (in Burma the weather can have a big effect as there the chance of rain varies from 0 to 95%, whereas in the Philippines rain is more spread out throughout the year).

Hi Al It is a big map isn't it! I'm sure that in no time at all you'll have familiarised yourself with a lot of it though. We did experiment with quite a large range of colours but found that this worked best. Believe me when I say that we did try very hard to get a good range, but many colours and shades were really out of bounds as they really didn't work. One thing we had to bear in mind was co-ordinating them all together, so that there were enough similarities and contrasts. Factors to bear in mind were that the weather can affect the colour of the land, so the chosen colour had to work in all its variations, and also because allied minors need to be similar but at the same time distinct from allied majors. This would be a lot easier to explain if I could show you some of the colours that we experimented with, but I don't think I've kept the graphics files. Many seemed good in theory until we loaded them up in the game, so through a process of trial and error we ended up where we are today.

Playing the AAR game was great fun, especially the struggle in China and the big naval battles around Marcus Island. Carrier battles are extremely tense, real "edge of the seat" stuff, and watching your opponent's turn unfold can be very nerve wracking indeed. We had a few "Midway moments" in that game when the wrong aircraft were sent up, just as in real life! I think you're all going to love having a go at it yourself as soon as you get the chance!

Looks great!

Researching Naval Warfare will improve your ships' protection from enemy bomber attack (either from land based or carrier borne aircraft) whereas air defense only protects your ships from fighter attack, and as fighter attack against ships is already pretty poor, and doesn't benefit from any upgrades, no boost here is really needed.

2D icons come with the game, when you start a new game just go to the Options and click on view 3D units in the top left, these can be toggled on or off. You can also amend it during a game by going to Options. You'll be able to see some of the 2D images if you look at the Operation Z AAR, as some of the shots (e.g. of the fighting in China) were taken showing the 2D images.