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[Fishbreath]

So, I just finished reading Ian W. Toll's excellent history of the first six months or so of the Pacific Theater (The Crucible), and that got me in the mood for some Pacific Theater action. Unfortunately, there aren't many options: there's the beer-and-pretzels War Plan Pacific, which struck me as a bit simpler than I'd like. Obviously, there's War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition, but that costs a whole pile of money, and, as far as I can tell from Erkki's excellent and entertaining AARs, is only playable by Finnish robots.

I'm not a Finnish robot, so I poked around Matrix's website a bit more and found their (free!) re-release of the 1992 classic Gary Grigsby's Pacific War. It uses a one-week turn (which makes a real-time Pacific Theater plausible), strikes a good balance between simplicity and complexity, has an easily-available and easily-understandable rulebook, and has delightfully retro graphics which I wouldn't have to crop (like I do with Arsenal of Democracy).

 Unfortunately, my choices for that seem to be the old SSI version acquired from an abandonware website somewhere, which has a decent AI (for a game from 1992, anyway) and a much better scoring/victory points system, but significantly worse aircraft modeling and a few pretty nasty bugs, or the Matrix edition, which fixes the bugs and the aircraft modeling, but gimps the AI while removing AI Japan's oil issues, introduces a few problems with aircraft availability dates, and fiddles with the scoring/victory points system such that the Allies always win (which is historical but boring). To complicate things, there are some modified scenarios that fix most of the issues with the Matrix edition, but further break the AI.

That led me to the idea I presented in the title of this thread. Rather than deal with any of those problems, I could run it as a grand-scale community game: Bay12 vs. some other forum, playing the role of the respective general staffs while I play as sort of a referee. Obviously I'd have to finish my Arsenal of Democracy AAR first, which makes this something of a long-term plan, but I'm mostly just feeling for interest right now anyway.

What do you guys think?

[Anvilfolk]

I am so into this it hurts

I am absolutely fascinated with the Pacific Theatre - mostly the air and naval war. Haven't read The Crucible yet - is it any good? I've tended to focus on isolated battles and the more human and technical aspect of the war. I miss the overview...


What other forum would we be battling against?

[a1s]

I have little (more than none, but it's not my favorite by far) interest in naval warfare, but I'd like to see a working Forum vs Forum game- count me in.

[MonkeyHead]

In like an inthing.

[Fishbreath]

I am so into this it hurts

I am absolutely fascinated with the Pacific Theatre - mostly the air and naval war. Haven't read The Crucible yet - is it any good? I've tended to focus on isolated battles and the more human and technical aspect of the war. I miss the overview...


What other forum would we be battling against?

The Crucible is a pretty darned good overview of prewar to Midway. I don't think it's up to the same standard as Six Frigates (Toll's other book, on the US Navy from 1787 to 1815), but it's still an engaging read. He puts a lot of focus on the people rather than the history

As for the opponent forum, I haven't decided. I'll look around when I'm closer to kicking this off.

[Sheb]

Count me in.

[Xanatos Jr.]

Inner than an...uh...in.

[warhammer651]

Facing another forum in what is essentially Planes And Carriers: the war?

Hell yes

[Fishbreath]

Great. I wouldn't expect anything to come of this before about the end of summer, but in the interim you can have a look at this stuff if you're interested in getting a feel for the game (it's got manuals and the modified scenarios I'd like to use).

If I can tear myself away from Rise of Flight tonight, you can expect an Arsenal of Democracy update.

[Anvilfolk]

Can't wait to get a computer that runs Rise of Flight decently (although I think IL2 stole my heart permanently). Low FPS just doesn't do it for flight sims. I'll also have to have a look at your AoD LP... probably going to lose a few hours with that

By the way:

Code: [Select]

You don't have permission to access /pacific-war/wga-amplified-rulebook-100511.pdf on this server.

[mainiac]

Interesting idea.  Is this game accessible enough that I could pick it up and join the team?

[EuchreJack]

Arsenal of Democracy update.

This is great news.

And I'm love to see this forum crush and destroy some other forum.  Because we love difficulty here, you'd have to play Japan.

[warhammer651]

question: would we have to download the game for this, or can we just submit orders through the forum?

[MonkeyHead]

Having read the manual, Japan might actually have some good early advantages, especially if we deviate from thier historical approach...

[Fishbreath]

Can't wait to get a computer that runs Rise of Flight decently (although I think IL2 stole my heart permanently). Low FPS just doesn't do it for flight sims. I'll also have to have a look at your AoD LP... probably going to lose a few hours with that

By the way:

Code: [Select]

You don't have permission to access /pacific-war/wga-amplified-rulebook-100511.pdf on this server.

Fixed those permissions.

IL-2 used to have my heart, but Rise of Flight has soooo much more character.

Interesting idea.  Is this game accessible enough that I could pick it up and join the team?

Probably. On a scale of Tic-Tac-Toe to Actually Commanding A Real War, I'd put it at about a 7-- it's on the order of a complex board wargame. The detail is finer than, say, Arsenal of Democracy, but it's probably easier to play. The interface is probably more problematic than the mechanics.

question: would we have to download the game for this, or can we just submit orders through the forum?

You'd be playing the role of, say, CINCPAC and CINCH, or the Japanese Naval General Staff and Combined Fleet-- submitting orders and targets for task forces, missions for air wings, and such, and I'd be inputting the orders for you and the other forum, summing up the turns, putting up the combat replay for each turn, and maybe providing saved games for your perusal.

And I'm love to see this forum crush and destroy some other forum.  Because we love difficulty here, you'd have to play Japan.

That would be up to you guys. My ideal role in this would be 'put in pre-arranged orders, report results'.