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 GMT Website posted:Empire of the Sun (EotS) is Mark Herman's third card driven design since he introduced the system to the hobby in We The People. EotS is a strategic level look at the entire War in the Pacific from the attack on Pearl Harbor until the surrender of Japan. EotS is the first card driven game (CDG) to move the system closer to a classic hexagon wargame, while retaining all of the tension and uncertainty people have come to expect from a CDG. Players are cast in the role of MacArthur, Yamamoto, Nimitz, and Mountbatten as you direct your forces across the breadth of the globe from India to Hawaii and from Alaska to Australia. This is represented on a single map based on a 1942 equal area projection of the entire theater of conflict. This will be a cooperative game, with goons playing the Japanese against Erasmus 2.0, controlled by me. I'll need one person to be the Commander, who will have final say on all decisions for the Japanese. Good luck! EOTS Rules: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/gmtwebsiteassets/nneots/EOTSRULES2015v3.pdf Erasmus bot: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/153608/erasmus-beta-v20
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Sep 25, 2018 19:27
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 02:43 |
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Allied Reinforcement Schedule Japanese Reinforcement Schedule Taran_Wanderer fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Sep 25, 2018 |
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Sep 25, 2018 19:27
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Allies ENM: DD US Asia to Batavia [CA US Asia] to Biak Dutch CL to Soreabaja CA Kent to Gili Gili CA Exeter to Dacca  Japanese Hand:  Allies Hand:  Vassal Save
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Sep 25, 2018 19:28
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To get the discussion rolling, I think the Japanese hand is okay? The Military Events aren't great, but there's enough of them to get the DEI conquered, at least. Card drawn on the ISR and Subs should help, too, even if the subs aren't going to hit anything great. Of course, the first order of business is to take out the air units in Manila and Singapore to get the Allied HQs out of supply (OOS). I'm thinking of using the Comb Fleet HQ with either Operation RI, to move some Air units out of Japan and into more useful places, or Grand Fleet Escort, to do the same with the Carriers.
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Sep 26, 2018 16:21
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I wouldn't mind trying to play this--the game looks interesting!--but I've never played before and the rulebook is hard to follow. Do you have a cheat sheet or some other resource?
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Sep 26, 2018 16:28
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Davin Valkri posted:I wouldn't mind trying to play this--the game looks interesting!--but I've never played before and the rulebook is hard to follow. Do you have a cheat sheet or some other resource? Sure! If you're familiar with VASSAL and want a visual guide, there's a series of logs on boardgamegeek that serve as an excellent tutorial. It needs an older version of the EOTS VASSAL module, though, available here. Also on BGG is this nice guide that summarizes the main points.
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Sep 26, 2018 17:01
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Here's a map showing the AZOIs:
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Sep 26, 2018 19:07
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First order of business must be to knock out the weak Allied air units in the Philippines and Malaya. If we do that, we'll be able to interdict those HQs and prevent them from moving units around. The less they evacuate from Singapore and Luzon, the better. Second order of business should be Rangoon - we want that hex no matter what, it will only get more fortified with time, and we have two land offensives in hand. Why not put them to work? Tevery Best fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Sep 26, 2018 |
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Sep 26, 2018 19:25
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Tevery Best posted:First order of business must be to knock out the weak Allied air units in the Philippines and Malaya. If we do that, we'll be able to interdict those HQs and prevent them from moving units around. The less they evacuate from Singapore and Luzon, the better. Rangoon is probably the lowest priority target. You need to secure the DEI to stop ABDA being a gigantic thorn in your side.
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Sep 26, 2018 23:35
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Tevery Best posted:First order of business must be to knock out the weak Allied air units in the Philippines and Malaya. If we do that, we'll be able to interdict those HQs and prevent them from moving units around. The less they evacuate from Singapore and Luzon, the better. To do the first one, do we need to move the naval units or the air units around? Is (for example) the stack of units under the Zuiho counter in position to hit the allied air units in the north, or does it need to move north? Sorry, the counters are kinda small.
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Sep 27, 2018 15:45
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tomdidiot posted:Rangoon is probably the lowest priority target. You need to secure the DEI to stop ABDA being a gigantic thorn in your side. Erasmus prioritises dropping ABDA if Malaya and Manila are OOS, then fortifies Burma. There is next to nothing we can do to prevent ABDA popping up in Tjilatjap next Allied activation. We can, however, gank it once it does. If we push for Rangoon, we can easily and safely secure it before that 12-12 Indian Corps rolls down there. Davin Valkri posted:To do the first one, do we need to move the naval units or the air units around? Is (for example) the stack of units under the Zuiho counter in position to hit the allied air units in the north, or does it need to move north? You can move units around before the attack and after the attack, so that's not an issue. For the record, however, we can grind Manila into dust without moving, then move our planes to where they will be more useful for the next Offensive. We'll have to move planes around to hit Singapore, though.
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Sep 27, 2018 16:05
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So my understanding of the rules is something like this: 1) Play a card to get points to attack. Say, Operation RI 2) This card gives 5 OC points. It's added to the activation of a Japanese HQ unit. I, uh, can't seem to find one on the posted map. 3) Combined, the total allows the activation of (total) Japanese units within that HQ unit's command range. 4) We then declare a target hex for battle. Probably Malaya/Corregidor. 5) Add all the strength of the activated units, then roll a die for a final multiplier of "hits", which can be used to damage, then take out, enemy units. Do I have this right?
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Sep 29, 2018 06:12
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Davin Valkri posted:So my understanding of the rules is something like this: Close, but no cigar. The OC value of a card is the big number in the top left corner. In the case of Operation RI, it's 3. This number is always 1, 2, or 3. The small numbers next to it are the surprise values, which tell you how likely you are to get a surprise attack against the enemy (higher is worse; the Allies have better surprise values in general, although the Japanese can make up for it on occasion with One Weird Trick using carriers and naval air at max range). Now, provided we play the card for OC, and not for the Event offensive, that means we get the 3 activations from the Operations Value, and then we pick a Japanese HQ. There are three: South Seas in Truk (hex 4017, 12 range, 2 command value), South in Saigon (hex 2212, 12 range, 1 command value), and Combined Fleet [Yamamoto] in Kure (13 range, 3 command value). So if we want to hit Manila, we would probably pick Combined Fleet and have a total of 6 activations. I can't remember if you declare battle hexes before moving your units or after, but it should not make much of a difference. In any case, if you perform an offensive using a card Ops value, rather than its event, you can only declare one battle hex, but move any number of activated units anywhere you drat well please as long as they don't engage, they are not obligated to take part in the battle. If you use the event, you can declare several battle hexes (which would be great if we wanted to take down both Malaya and Manila on the same activation). Somewhere around this point you make a surprise roll. If you roll above the surprise value, good job, you got a surprise attack and get to wreck the enemy's stuff pretty hard before they can even respond. If not, they'll get to react, activating one HQ of their own (their ops/logistics value is the same as yours for all purposes, but they add their own HQ modifier) and moving units to the battle hex. If your units cross an enemy AZOI at any point, the roll gets a +2 modifier, making it harder to surprise the enemy. And yeah, the battle process itself is pretty much the way you describe it. There are some modifiers to the die roll, too. Finally, after everything is resolved, you can do post-battle movement with your units that took part in the battle. This gives them essentially refreshed movement allowance, which means they can go really far in one turn.
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Sep 29, 2018 11:16
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For the record I am following along but I've only played the US and then badly, so I'm not sure on tactics from the Japanese side
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Sep 29, 2018 15:29
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Tevery Best posted:Close, but no cigar. Okay, I think I understand. So the order of events is: 1) Play Operation RI for 3 OC points 2) Activate Combined Fleet HQ for 3 command value. 3) Any 6 Japanese units within 13 hexes of Kure, where the Combined Fleet HQ is, can be activated. I'm not sure what is best for this--maybe the two air units on Formosa, the air unit just north of Manila, the Zuiho, the Japanese army unit SE of Manila, and the 4-6 navy unit at Luzon? 4) We declare our target of Manila/Corregidor. 5) We make whatever moves we need to (I think Tevery said we don't need to move), and Taran rolls to see if they detect the attack. 6) We sum up the attack strength of our units and roll for a multiplier to convert it to "hits". Using hits, we degrade, then destroy, units in Manila. This is right?
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Sep 30, 2018 01:54
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Davin Valkri posted:Okay, I think I understand. So the order of events is: Pretty much, yeah. When creating offensive task forces, it's best to think about how badly we actually want to destroy the enemy units and how much the enemy can respond with. In this case, the answers are "absolutely needs to die" and "nothing," so we want at least 37 attack worth of units, as the worst roll in combat, a .25 result (rounded up), would still be enough hits to kill FEAF. As Tevery said, though, we can also play Operation RI as an EC to attack both Manila and Singapore. Still playing it with Comb Fleet HQ, we would activate 7 units, which could be the following: 5AD to 1913, 21AF, 22AF, 23AF, and 25AF to 2112, all attacking Singapore 1AD and 2AD to 2812, attacking Manila That would give us enough attack to guarantee the elimination of both air units (assuming I counted correctly). Of course, this would have us cross an enemy AZOI, so they'd be more likely to intercept us and score a crit, but that risk is fairly low.
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Oct 1, 2018 15:59
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Taran_Wanderer posted:As Tevery said, though, we can also play Operation RI as an EC to attack both Manila and Singapore. Still playing it with Comb Fleet HQ, we would activate 7 units, which could be the following: Since we're playing as Japan (and thus going for high risk, high reward options is expected and necessary), is there any reason not to do the EC attack version? Should we just say yes, do that?
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Oct 1, 2018 16:24
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Davin Valkri posted:Since we're playing as Japan (and thus going for high risk, high reward options is expected and necessary), is there any reason not to do the EC attack version? Should we just say yes, do that? We could use a different mix of air units, or we could forgo the guaranteed kill of the MA Air in Singapore and move some ground units instead. We'd probably still want to attack with at least 35, so that a .5 or better would result in it dying (leaving it alive on a 0-2 result). That can be done with only 2 air units (e.g. 21AF and 22AF to 2212, attacking Singapore with 36), so with 4 air units total attacking Singapore and Manila, we can move 3 ground units. We could, for instance, send down the 25th and 28th armies down to attack Kuantan (2014), and the 15th Army up to attack the 1B Division in 2108. We could also move units around to set up future Amphibious Assaults, say 1SN or 3SN Brigades to Truk (4017). We could also do most of the same by using General Adachi on the South HQ, though we would activate one fewer unit overall. If we wanted to move some Naval units and attack both targets, our only option is to use Grand Escort Command as an EC. We could have the 1AD and 2AD attack Manila as before to destroy FEAF, but now we can send CVs Akagi, Soryu, and Shokaku (total attack of 36) over to hex 2313 to attack Singapore. They could then move over to Miri/Saigon to help support DEI offensives. Still, we probably want to save this card so we can Amphibious Assault (with naval escort) multiple hexes at once.
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Oct 1, 2018 17:37
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Taran_Wanderer posted:We could use a different mix of air units, or we could forgo the guaranteed kill of the MA Air in Singapore and move some ground units instead. We'd probably still want to attack with at least 35, so that a .5 or better would result in it dying (leaving it alive on a 0-2 result). That can be done with only 2 air units (e.g. 21AF and 22AF to 2212, attacking Singapore with 36), so with 4 air units total attacking Singapore and Manila, we can move 3 ground units. We could, for instance, send down the 25th and 28th armies down to attack Kuantan (2014), and the 15th Army up to attack the 1B Division in 2108. We could also move units around to set up future Amphibious Assaults, say 1SN or 3SN Brigades to Truk (4017). We could also do most of the same by using General Adachi on the South HQ, though we would activate one fewer unit overall. The most important thing is to kill the Singapore air, kill the Manila air, and start grabbing ports in the DeI to stop ABDA popping up inconveinently. Honestly, I'd probably devote the minimum effort that is guaranteed to kill the Manila/Singapore Air units (2 Army Air Wings in Singapore, 1 Army air wing in Manila), grab Sorebaja in Java, and maybe knock out one of the resource hexes in the DEI as well. The DEI is the easiest for the Allies to reinforce, so I think focusing on grabbing it now before the turn 3 reinforcements arrive is super -critical. I would probably start with RI to activate the 3 air units and a ground unit. Ground unit to take Sorebaja and probably send a cheeky ground unit to try taking one of the resource hexes on Borneo for low effort. tomdidiot fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Oct 1, 2018 |
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Oct 1, 2018 22:12
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tomdidiot posted:The most important thing is to kill the Singapore air, kill the Manila air, and start grabbing ports in the DeI to stop ABDA popping up inconveinently. Honestly, I'd probably devote the minimum effort that is guaranteed to kill the Manila/Singapore Air units (2 Army Air Wings in Singapore, 1 Army air wing in Manila), grab Sorebaja in Java, and maybe knock out one of the resource hexes in the DEI as well. The DEI is the easiest for the Allies to reinforce, so I think focusing on grabbing it now before the turn 3 reinforcements arrive is super -critical. I would probably start with RI to activate the 3 air units and a ground unit. Ground unit to take Sorebaja and probably send a cheeky ground unit to try taking one of the resource hexes on Borneo for low effort. Sounds good, except that we can't take Soerabaja without a naval escort while the Dutch CL is there.
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Oct 4, 2018 16:08
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So... update post card 1 and Erasmus response?
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Oct 14, 2018 16:42
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Japanese Action Round (AR) 1 Japanese play Operation RI as an EC, activating Comb Fleet HQ in 3407 (Kure) and 7 units. 1AD: 3706 (Tokyo) > 2812 (Clark Field) attacking 2813 (Manila) (Battle A) 22AF: 2212 (Saigon) > 2112 (Kota Bharu) attacking 2015 (Singapore) (Battle B) 23AF: 3009 (Taihoku) > 2112 (Kota Bharu) attacking 2015 (Singapore) (Battle B) 5AD: 2812 (Clark Field) > 2415 (Miri) attacking 2616 (Tarakan) (Battle C) 35th Army: 3007 (Shanghai) > 2616 (Tarakan) (Battle C), using 1 ASP 21AF: 2909 (Tainan) > 2415 (Miri) attacking 2517 (Balikpapan) (Battle D) Allied Intelligence Roll: 3 - 2 (drm for offensives unit moving into an enemy AZOI) = 1 Intelligence condition changed to Intercept. Allies decline to React (Erasmus cannot meet its Reaction Force Criteria)  Battle A Air/Naval Combat JAttack: 20 AAttack: 4 Japanese Roll: 0 .25 result is 5 hits. No damage. Allied Roll: 3 .5 result is 2 hits. No damage. Battle B Air/Naval Combat JAttack: 36 AAttack: 6 Japanese Roll: 6 1 result is 36 hits. MA Air is reduced and eliminated. Allied Roll: 3 .5 result is 3 hits. No damage. Battle C Air/Naval Combat Skipped. Japanese player only player with air/naval units and only one enemy ground step in battle. Ground Combat JAttack: 9 AAttack: 1 Japanese Roll: 5 -2 (drm for mixed hex) +2 (drm for only player with active air units) = 5 1 result is 9 hits. Dutch regiment is eliminated. Allied Roll: 1 +3 (drm for attacker using Amphibious Transport) = 4 1 result is 1 hit. No damage. Japanese take control of hex. Japanese resources increased to 5. Battle D Air/Naval Combat Skipped. Japanese player only player with air/naval units and only one enemy ground step in battle. Ground Combat JAttack: 9 AAttack: 1 Japanese Roll: 5 -1 (drm for jungle hex) +2 (drm for only player with active air units) = 6 1 result is 9 hits. Dutch regiment is eliminated. Allied Roll: 4 +3 (drm for attacker using Amphibious Transport) = 7 1.5 result is 2 hits. No damage. Japanese take control of hex. Japanese resources increased to 6.  Japanese PBM Where do we want to PBM our air units to?
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Oct 17, 2018 15:53
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