Pointlessly Broken

[gamerman01]

@Eggman:

The US Carrier sounds like a sitting duck.  Is there no way the Japanese can reach it?

I wondered the same thing

[AndrewAAGamer]

That, I guess, depends where the Japanese fleet is.  According to the strategy as laid out the Japanese move to SZ14 on J1, SZ8 (Aleutians) on J2 and SZ1 (Canada) on J3.  On US1 the US carrier hides with the US battleship in SZ10, behind a wall of blockers, with 2 planes plus 3 more planes that can scramble (making it very safe from a 6 plane Japanese attack), moves to SZ30 (Johnston) on US2 out of range of the Japanese fighters where the UK and ANZAC fighter subsequently land on it.

If the Japanese Navy is in a different spot they could reach the carrier but that would mean splitting their fleet and exposing one part of it to attack by US, UK and ANZAC forces as part of it must stay with the transports or they will be sunk.

[AndrewAAGamer]

Of course trying to get extra units to defend Western US is really all based on NOT having the extra $30 one-time bonus which is the official rule change.  Without the bonus the best the Allies can do is get the attack down to a 55% chance of success.

With the new One-time Bonus of $30 the easiest thing to do now is simply attack the Japanese landings in British Columbia.

With $49 the US buys 6 artillery and 4 tanks on US2.  When the Japanese land 24 troops in British Columbia, only 1 being a tank, the US has a 92% chance of taking/clearing it.

[gamerman01]

55% is not high enough, because that means probably 80% of the time Japan is losing almost all its air.
This means even without the fix, Japan would have a 45% chance of absolutely losing the game and probably a 30% chance of probably losing the game and 25% chance of probably winning, when trying this assault.

Anyway, P40 is a gimmick afterthought.  It’s been changed dramatically from OOB, more than once.  Maybe now with this +30 deal it is fun, but why spend hours and hours playing a P40 game that was never the end result that was in mind.  Besides, it’s retarded that there are no Russians to deal with.  That’s what makes this game a laugher more than the 17 IPC USA income.  OK, that’s the other thing.  As I said all along, it’s ridiculous that the USA is fighting Japan with basically California alone, and that the UK can’t sail her fleet one inch west of Z39.  I guess the world really is flat.

G40 is the game to play.

[vonLettowVorbeck1914]

I’m not saying I liked P40 when Japan didn’t have the 30 IPC bonus to contend with, but Pac alone is now extremely one-dimensional. There is no option of helping the Germans with the Soviets as Japan. There is no balance of deciding where to commit forces between India and Egypt as UK. There is no decision for balancing the pacific and Atlantic as USA. Perhaps Japan can choose between going for Australia or India first, but I really don’t see any other actual strategic choices. And to me that is what makes the game fun, trying new strategies; not trying the same strategies and just adapting them a bit to different dice.

I still think that the 30 bonus is a good thing because before it Japan was far too powerful, but in fixing the gimmicky overpowered KUSAF, it brought the game closer to balance, yes, but still hasn’t made it exciting. I suppose we have the lesser of two evils though.

[gamerman01]

@vonLettowVorbeck1914:

I’m not saying I liked P40 when Japan didn’t have the 30 IPC bonus to contend with, but Pac alone is now extremely one-dimensional. There is no option of helping the Germans with the Soviets as Japan. There is no balance of deciding where to commit forces between India and Egypt as UK. There is no decision for balancing the pacific and Atlantic as USA. Perhaps Japan can choose between going for Australia or India first, but I really don’t see any other actual strategic choices. And to me that is what makes the game fun, trying new strategies; not trying the same strategies and just adapting them a bit to different dice.

I still think that the 30 bonus is a good thing because before it Japan was far too powerful, but in fixing the gimmicky overpowered KUSAF, it brought the game closer to balance, yes, but still hasn’t made it exciting. I suppose we have the lesser of two evils though.

I whole-heartedly agree with your conclusions.

I’m afraid in reality, the release of P40 and E40 packaged as stand-alone games was little more than a ploy to generate more revenue.

BUT
At least we had P40 to play and start getting used to half of the new 1940 map and the new rules while waiting for the finished product!  Except that the product wasn’t finished in September 2010, it was more like October 2011  :-P  Or was it 2012 - I’m losing track.

Sure makes a difference when there are Russians on the board, UK is not trapped in Z39, and USA is not playing with one hand tied behind her back!

[vonLettowVorbeck1914]

Europe standalone is OK, but it is still lacking in options. Honestly, I don’t really plan on playing pacific alone ever again.