Typhoon of Steel V2.02 PBEM

[Misfit_travel]

China burst out of the beachhead at Nagasaki and stormed Saishu (destroying the only defender - a fighter squadron). 10 tanks stormed across the Japanese home islands and captured Osaka, Tokyo and Akita (destroying two carriers in port along with 2 fighter squadrons). Emperor Hirohito is in our hands.

We demand the complete and unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces or we will begin mass executions.

(How I did it. I load 5 tanks on a transport at Pushan, moved them 3 squares to outside Nagasaki, offloaded them onto another transport with movement points left, moved that transport into Nagasaki. That gave me 5 medium tanks and 5 elite light tanks to storm the defenses on the remaining Japanese cities. I only needed 4 units to capture 3 cities, so 6 tanks were held in reserve).

Seriously though guys, this game is over. LostKnight will systematically lose cities now that his major production centers have fallen. I have 4 marines ready to move down the island chain, taking out one after the other. My tanks will now move back onto Mainland China and bludgeon their way through anything in their path. There is no way for him to dislodge me from the Japanese home islands.

Its been fun but to continue is just playing the inevitable.

Misfit

 

[LostKnight]

Actually my main production was indochina but yeah, the games is over. I have made a big mistake not attcking china and I paid the price.

It was a good game anyway. Losing dont spoil my fun!!

 

[Misfit_travel]

LostKnight:

I did some experimenting and with the game start units available to you, it should be possible to virtually wipe out China's starting forces along a pretty wide front so that 3 of these 4 cities (Kumming, Sian, Nanning and Hankow) fall on turn 2 or 3. I'm not sure why you went after Foochow with your army. It has little strategic value.

I think if I were the Japanese I would pummel the Chinese back until I capture Sian, Nanning and Hankow, then artillery all the raillines I could reach. Taking out Kumming would be ideal, but unlikely as the Anzac infantry would probably move over the mountain to bolster the defenses. If the Japanese capture the barricade south of Kumming and drop a couple of infantry in it, the Chinese would be very hard pressed to take it back. On Turn 1 it is very vulnerable to a single artillery bombard followed by an infantry unit attack.

Once the Chinese are pinned back, I'd use bombers to systematically bomb the rail links (and keep bombing them). Without those rail links I would not have been able to execute those massive hit attacks against you.

I don't think you need to conquer China, just contain them enough that you have a complete rail link around the coast. Then you just do the reverse of what I did to you, swing all your forces around to smash a hard point of the enemy (I'd probably pick Rangoon).

My two cents.

Misfit

 

[LouLong]

Too bad, I could have sunk some ships in Indonesia next turn and I would have captured two more VP islands...

Since there are few cities in the Pacific, the US role is pretty slim and you can add to that the fact I did not play too well.

 

[LostKnight]

Well, I played it with some of my friend in hotseat and it took me 5 turn to wipe china and india. I choose foochow to cut chinese sea.

See you all in next game!

 

[rcoutme]

Actually, I was somewhat amazed that the Dutch lasted as long as they did. Basically, I think that FirstKnight may have been too conservative in his advances. My measly forces could not possibly hold back Japan for long.

In either of these two scenarios, the biggest problem facing Japan is too many enemies. The Commonwealth was producing >400 gpt in the end. Enough to rush 2 units per turn (so long as some of their big industry cities had already done some significant production). When I took over for Eric, he had >1200 gp! I was ready to slap him silly as that money could possibly have saved Palembang from capture

 

[Misfit_travel]

I agree. There is no reason to sit on money in the short game. The units they can produce (as seen by China when you guys kept giving me money) are well spent.

Thankyou for an interesting game.

I'd suggest that the next multiplayer combine China / Netherlands in one player, since it is highly likely one or the other will be completely eliminated. Its not a lot of fun playing a side you know will be destroyed.

Misfit

 

[rcoutme]

Actually, I sort of disagree. I had a lot of fun playing the Netherlands. It was kind of exciting to see if I could survive, and I knew that each turn I delayed the Japanese was leading to ultimate victory for my side.

So long as the others were sending me their reports (secret and thread based), I had no problem even if I was totally wiped out.

Not that China and the Dutch can not be combined, but I did have a lot of fun in this game.

 

[eric_A]

Not taking out Rangoon on the first turn was a bad move IMHO.
It is the key to the Commonwealth position in Burma and a victory
location worth 100 points per turn. The other blunder by Japan was
not destroying the radar tower in the Philipines. near Davos. That tower
kept feed us useful information throughout the game.

As far as Allied mistakes, (yes the were a few) my main complaint is
what happened thr the US research? I could have made good use of
some fighter-bombers in the latter part of the game. The basic allied
fighter is not so great and has rather short range.

I will be starting up a new TOS game in about a week.

 

[LouLong]

About research, considering I would reach advanced airforce a few turns before the official ending (and that I knew the game would be won for one side or the other much before) I prefered to make money to strengthen the Chinese and (less) the Dutch which proved quite efficient so I don't regret it. It was a choice. But you should have told me you considered it a mistake...

 

[Misfit_travel]

LouLong:

I thought you made a good choice sending money to China. With a stagnant front there, I could quickly take away initiative from the Japanese and bring his troops into combat. The U.S. side take a long time to get enough of a strike force together to do that.

You also saw how easy it is to have a setback building for a naval assault. The safer choice was to support an ally who already have a combat force ready to take the offensive to the enemy.


Eric_A:

If you start another TOS game (and have some of the same players) you may wish to consider toggling some of the game start locations for naval and certain combat units (like guerrillas) on the Allied side. Having played the game a few times its likely that the player(s) will know exactly where to look for game start submarines / guerrilla units. That would be a unfair advantage when playing the Japanese.

Just a thought....

Misfit

 

[LostKnight]

Yeah, I was beaten cause I wanted to hold china while getting the rest since I "tought" they wasnt able to produce a lot of troop. But when china is filled with cash...

 

[eric_A]

About research, considering I would reach advanced airforce a few turns before the official ending (and that I knew the game would be won for one side or the other much before) I prefered to make money to strengthen the Chinese and (less) the Dutch which proved quite efficient so I don't regret it. It was a choice. But you should have told me you considered it a mistake...

It was a mistake in the sense that I was not aware you were shuting
down research. Reading back thruogh your reports I can see now
what you meant by this comment:

"Since I won't reach the A bomb in this short version I try to make money for
you guys."

but at the time, it was not clear what it meant.

As for the Commonwealth cash horde the Rcoutme mentioned
I was planning to rush-build an army with the money, I had
a military academy in Brisbane.