Three of us have been playing HoI online for a year now. Charles (Chuck), Andrew and Nick. Lately, we've been meeting on Valkyrienet and this Saturday, we bumped into Tomar who was in the COTN channel which is often used for pre-arranged games of HoI (because no-one plays Crown of the North). I recommended Tomar to the group as an excellent veteran player and so we started a four player game. This is a brief account from my perspective. I call this the CAN'T game after our initials.
After some haggling, we settled on the 1941 scenario with normal/normal settings at slow speed. The countries chosen were:
Germany - Tomar - this scenario puts Germany under severe pressure from the outset and Tomar was willing to accept this challenge.
Russia - Chuck - probably the best match for Tomar on the Eastern front.
Japan - Andrew - a naval power that no-one else wanted. I tend to specialise in naval powers and have played Japan and China enough to know what to do. The main thing I still have trouble with is the aircraft types - I miss the US code names like Zero and Zeke.
USA - Nick - arrived at by a process of elimination. Nick is a socialist megalomaniac so, if he can't play Stalin, FDR is the next best choice
We then had a long pause to take stock of our initial position. I made a start on sorting out the mess that the scenario gives Japan at the start - no leaders, missing ministers, bizarre naval TFs (lots of single ship TFs rather than fleets). The powers that be should be made to go through this set-up a few times to demonstrate much how they have neglected this scenario - it can't have been seriously tested. I was about 50% done when the others felt they were ready but agreed to start as we were playing slowly and filled in the remaining gaps as the game progressed.
The scenario starts with Japan at war with the China and the Allies but at peace with the USSR. I was quite happy to leave it like that as three major powers are quite enough to be dealing with initially. The army made an immediate offensive on the Chinese capital and took it quickly while other units were repositioned to reinforce weak sectors and attack vulnerable Chinese positions.
The strong force which starts in IndoChina invaded Malaya and Burma under Yamashita, as in history. Movement in these jungles takes forever but the Allied troops could not stand against these forces. Malaya was conquered and deep inroads were made into Burma via Siam which was allied. Only later did I realise that Siam was gaining title to all these conquered territories and I had to start afresh with amphibious landings in Southern India and a paratroop-led drive through the Himalayan foothills to gain these provinces for Japan.
At sea, there were early incursions by the Royal Navy into the South China Seas but these were rash and were soon annihilated, as happened to the historical force Z. More serious were escorted convoys to Hong Kong which inflicted heavy damage on Japanese cruisers based in Hainan and which retreated there to repair.
The USN clashed with IJN submarines off the Marshall Islands which they invaded. The USN got the worst of the naval fighting and retreated - I reminded Nick of the naval stacking rule which he had forgotten. I was alarmed by this early agression though and assembled two strong battleship/carrier fleets which operated in the West Pacific between Truk and Japan, defeating other small USN TFs.
But the US managed to sneak some amphibious raiders into the Japanese islands to test their defenses. They managed to land, causing alarm and chaos but as he had no control of the sea, we were able to subdue and defeat them with forces pulled back from the mainland.
By now the conquest of Nationalist China was complete and it was annexed, as were the islands of Indonesia. This leaves Communist China and the Philippines isolated but defiant - should they be ignored or or crushed too?
Back in Europe, Germany and USSR have been slugging it out in the plains of Russia. Both players have consoldated their forces into large armies of ~20 divisions and, while USSR has the initiative, Germany is still holding them. The USA has also tested German defense of its coastline but these incursions have been defeated with heavy US losses.
The date is now 29 May, 1942 so we are six months into the scenario and there's still everything to play for. We plan to resume again next Saturday at 19:30 GMT. Sayonara ...
Andrew
After some haggling, we settled on the 1941 scenario with normal/normal settings at slow speed. The countries chosen were:
Germany - Tomar - this scenario puts Germany under severe pressure from the outset and Tomar was willing to accept this challenge.
Russia - Chuck - probably the best match for Tomar on the Eastern front.
Japan - Andrew - a naval power that no-one else wanted. I tend to specialise in naval powers and have played Japan and China enough to know what to do. The main thing I still have trouble with is the aircraft types - I miss the US code names like Zero and Zeke.
USA - Nick - arrived at by a process of elimination. Nick is a socialist megalomaniac so, if he can't play Stalin, FDR is the next best choice
We then had a long pause to take stock of our initial position. I made a start on sorting out the mess that the scenario gives Japan at the start - no leaders, missing ministers, bizarre naval TFs (lots of single ship TFs rather than fleets). The powers that be should be made to go through this set-up a few times to demonstrate much how they have neglected this scenario - it can't have been seriously tested. I was about 50% done when the others felt they were ready but agreed to start as we were playing slowly and filled in the remaining gaps as the game progressed.
The scenario starts with Japan at war with the China and the Allies but at peace with the USSR. I was quite happy to leave it like that as three major powers are quite enough to be dealing with initially. The army made an immediate offensive on the Chinese capital and took it quickly while other units were repositioned to reinforce weak sectors and attack vulnerable Chinese positions.
The strong force which starts in IndoChina invaded Malaya and Burma under Yamashita, as in history. Movement in these jungles takes forever but the Allied troops could not stand against these forces. Malaya was conquered and deep inroads were made into Burma via Siam which was allied. Only later did I realise that Siam was gaining title to all these conquered territories and I had to start afresh with amphibious landings in Southern India and a paratroop-led drive through the Himalayan foothills to gain these provinces for Japan.
At sea, there were early incursions by the Royal Navy into the South China Seas but these were rash and were soon annihilated, as happened to the historical force Z. More serious were escorted convoys to Hong Kong which inflicted heavy damage on Japanese cruisers based in Hainan and which retreated there to repair.
The USN clashed with IJN submarines off the Marshall Islands which they invaded. The USN got the worst of the naval fighting and retreated - I reminded Nick of the naval stacking rule which he had forgotten. I was alarmed by this early agression though and assembled two strong battleship/carrier fleets which operated in the West Pacific between Truk and Japan, defeating other small USN TFs.
But the US managed to sneak some amphibious raiders into the Japanese islands to test their defenses. They managed to land, causing alarm and chaos but as he had no control of the sea, we were able to subdue and defeat them with forces pulled back from the mainland.
By now the conquest of Nationalist China was complete and it was annexed, as were the islands of Indonesia. This leaves Communist China and the Philippines isolated but defiant - should they be ignored or or crushed too?
Back in Europe, Germany and USSR have been slugging it out in the plains of Russia. Both players have consoldated their forces into large armies of ~20 divisions and, while USSR has the initiative, Germany is still holding them. The USA has also tested German defense of its coastline but these incursions have been defeated with heavy US losses.
The date is now 29 May, 1942 so we are six months into the scenario and there's still everything to play for. We plan to resume again next Saturday at 19:30 GMT. Sayonara ...
Andrew
