Timskorn

I live outside Providence and work in Boston for Marriott, and I actually moved out here from Cali about 8 years ago as I was hired by the now-defunct Stainless Steel Studios as a scenario designer to work on Empires: Dawn of the Modern World and then Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War. Been playing SC since the original although I didn't get too heavily involved in the forums until SC2 came out. Did some AI work on the side for that and eventually joined the beta team which sadly I haven't been able to participate much in for the global game. The team has expanded to include some serious talent though so I have no doubt this will be a fun and polished product!! Whenever I get my new PC I'll be sure to be back more often and first thing I'll do is get some multiplayer games going again and shake the rust off!!

Hey guys, I'm not dead yet. My PC is though. I'm lucky enough to have it running long enough to type this out!! I miss SC and the community, but can't wait for HC to release the global game. Unfortunately it will be another couple of months before I can get back in here full time. Not really anyone else's loss, mostly mine!! Hope to be around more and reconnect soon.

Hey Scottsmm, I'd like to try. I'm sort of in PC limbo right now. I have to wait another month or two before I can get a new one, and my current one is on zee fritz. I think currently installed programs are OK, but any downloaded programs won't work right. So I'm pretty sure I can play, but I'll have to use whatever version is currently on the HD. I'm also going on vaca for a couple of weeks so maybe mid-October we can look to starting a game up again. It's been awhile since I played anyone!!

Or wait until after the game is released, then ask questions.

I'm pretty interested in the new film. The old one was great. My first mod ever for a game was for Empire Earth and I did a Red Dawn scenario. I always considered one for SC2. I have the original soundtrack to the movie, how many can claim that?? hah The scenario for the original Red Dawn could be done in SC2, not sure how they're going to set up the world scenario for a Chinese invasion but there's no shortage of ideas! And not to get too off topic, but I have to say...Red Dawn really works as a slice of time in American history and culture. Kids watching the original for the first time today probably think it's a ridiculous movie. It's going to be difficult to capture that old feeling in the new film.

Good questions. I have only played one game in 1.02 and it's my current game, so I can't make any final conclusions yet. So far it feels like it's slightly more balanced towards Japan but I still have to see how it all plays out. It definitely hasn't changed my typical playing style yet anyway. As to the first questions, Op Z is unquestionably in favor of the Allies. This is not meant to be a balanced scenario. Japan starts in a position of power and has roughly two solid years, maximum, to take advantage of their numerical superiority. Their #1 strength is her navy so it becomes paramount to utilize it to its maximum effectiveness before the US can pummel you with numbers and tech. The challenge for Japan is that you are effectively split between three fronts. Burma (vs. Britain), China and the outer islands (or wherever you engage the US). You have vulnerable supply lines and not enough MPP's to not only support your military, but also advance your tech and create extra units. This is what I love about playing as Axis in Fall Weiss (although it's more 'balanced' overall in that scenario) and Japan in OpZ. Having limited MPP's and limited units forces you to make crucial decisions every single turn. You can't afford to waste them, so whenever and wherever victory comes it's well earned. Ultimately, in Op Z though, your moves as Japan are all to buy one thing: time. Unlike in Fall Weiss where Germany has a good chance of pushing over the "threshold" so to speak, and capturing enough capitals to get a victory screen at the end, for Japan it's about holding on long enough to get a minor victory. The faster you lose your military units and the longer you take to destroy your opponents, the faster your demise will be. Just my take on it, anyway!

Currently in a pbem game as Japan, just started an invasion of Australia and taken Brisbane. So far nothing too different has happened though. Stagnant in Burma and China.

To be honest, there is little in terms of "mistakes" that I can point out in your war effort. You played a very good game on all sides of the war. Your defense of India was well done, and shuttling in US aircraft early on to assist helped a great deal. In my diary I made assumptions about Britain's ability to defend India, and was going on the assumption you had far less units available than you actually had. In this sense you were able to delay my advance into India long enough to allow the US to come to its aid. I made plenty of my own mistakes there to have sealed my doom, let alone having an opponent who took advantage of them. One thing is for sure, once I pulled the entire IJN out of the area, I essentially gave up on the Indian campaign. Without their tac and air support my troops were doomed to failure. However, I wasn't prepared to take on the USN either. My fleet had slowly been whittled down over time, and my carriers weren't full strength. I had a feeling you would come up to hit me and trap me near India like I did with the RN, and as you'll see in my diary I felt that not only would I have lost that fight, but the way to Japan would have been wide open. Having all my carriers intact would, hopefully, had kept you more cautious in your advance on Japan and buy me time. As I underestimated Britain's defense, I may have also overestimated the USN's offense. If I had wanted to I could have shuttled in more air to Malaya and tried to make a stand there, but I chose to steam back to Japan and refit. I just had little confidence in my ability to get into a situation where I could sink a lot of your carriers, which is the only result that could possibly slow down the US advance on Japan. The only thing I'll say is that you could have done some things different, but it doesn't mean what you did was "wrong". What I mean is, because I abandoned the outer islands, the USN could have been used to attack me elsewhere while the IJA was in India. At the very least, to establish an airbase to station bombers to hit my supply ports in DEI, Brunei and possibly even Malaya. At most, an invasion of the Phillipines or even an aggressive push against Japan itself. These actions would have spooked me to shift my fleet back towards Japan prematurely. Because in the end, the IJA is the only threat against the USN. If you can see all my carriers in India then it'll take a month or more before they could steam back to Japan or even the Philippines area. But as you mention you were fearful about losing India, so it makes sense that you sent the USN there first. In China I criticized the fact you walled off about 5+ units behind the river to the north, as that allowed me to easily head for Chungking and bypass those units. In the end though it helped keep China from surrendering, even if the capital was in my hands. Also, by coming at me later with the USN, rather than earlier you helped to scare me away from a conflict. Had you steamed the USN to India by early 1943 I would have felt that I had a numerical advantage and had welcomed a fight. Since you came later, and more teched up I decided to retreat. So, again, very well played game Scott!

A long, brutal war. Congrats Scott!

Yes and thank you too, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! And I hope everyone else enjoyed reading along with the AAR. Scott is a great opponent and look forward to playing him again someday and good luck to anyone who faces him. You have clear skies this turn, but we hope to fight on another day. It's currently August 18th, 1945 and Japan puts into service her last produced unit of the war, an AA battery outside Tokyo, giving the capital duel defenses against the impending Allied air assault. It likely won't be enough to slow down the 20 or so strikes I expect on my defenders, but if we are given another turn after the city is captured we will most certainly take it back! Outside Seoul and US SF unit is destroyed as the combined IJA forces in the area converge, simultaneously attacking the US and fleeing the Russians!

The steel beasts have landed in Japan, to which we have little defense against. The US lost a unit last turn from our counter-attack against Kyoto and retook the city. They retake it and we counter-attack again and destroy another invader. Our most experienced troops are now being sent to the front lines outside Tokyo but even they won't be able to hold up against the armor units, so all that is left is....BANZAIIIII!!!!

Yes, time is thankfully on our side now and each turn counts. Rain over Japan has been extremely favorable to Japanese troops digging in against US troops who are making their way up, but they have a lot of bodies, mountainous terrain and erratic supply lines to deal with along the way. A US division tried an amphibious landing just west of Tokyo, but the beaches were well defended and the next turn was annihilated. We are allowing little room for US troops to land by sea. An SNLF division makes a bold attempt to head back home from Korea and manages to safely skirt past the Allied navy. They will be most useful in the defense of Tokyo. In China we have an Army and artillery at Sian holding off the Chinese hordes, but that is all they can do. Chungking has fallen and what units we could pull back from China are now defending Seoul. Troops are also being pulled back to better defensive positions against the impending Soviet attack. We may be able to incur enough losses to force a peace treaty with the Allies before they can take our capital. Weather will be a big determining factor in that!!

I was about to say, I've definitely been following this thread and really enjoyed it and liked the style in how you guys posted. Screenshots really go a long way especially if you haven't played the scenario. I've only played a couple mini-campaigns but this reminds me to continue playing more of them, as these really set themselves apart from what was in SC2 and PDE. For those people who normally skip these scenarios, they are the hidden gems of SC2 Pacific that are waiting for you to try out.

Hey K Man you up for a game or are you busy? And yeah, 7 in a row for the Sox! Wakefield sparked our resurgence in Oakland and we haven't slowed down. With my game with Scott winding down I'm looking to start up a fresh game with 1.02. I'll take either side. Anyone game? I typically only get a turn or two in a day during the week, I play pretty casually but can sometimes do a few on weekend days.

Also check the patch notes, there's some subtle changes that should allow Japan to be more competitive like upping the naval attack value of tac fighters to 5 (US/UK gets this too though), garrison units in the island chains, scorched earth when the Allies liberate places like Brunei, increased spotting range for Japanese bombers, lower costs for subs, etc. All of these should add up to a slight shift towards Japan, if used wisely.