Japan 45

[Sgt_Rock]

We really could use more Head to Head testing in our products. I am an old HTH gamer for the most part and we did a LOT of that for the Napoleonic series but not as much for the Panzer Campaign series games. For the Nap series it was like 70% HTH with only 30% Solo testing. And that would be a high percentage for Solo games tbh ... I had no idea that most of our customers were Solo players (and I mean Solo ONLY). Its like 70% Solo customers. For the two Japan games it was more like 95% solo and 5% HTH with me looking over the situation very carefully before I was finally happy with it.

I am not saying that we should cater ONLY to Solo players - just saying that when I joined the Panzer Campaigns team I looked more into getting a LOT of Solo testing done. It is not like I ignored the Head to Head gaming.

Yes, the Eastern Beaches is a hard scenario to play. Both Beaches and Breakout situations. You have C morale troops against A morale troops. You will not see as much of this in the Japan '46 Coronet game .... there are fewer of those highly rated divisions in the Japanese army. I have been able to get ashore in that Eastern Beaches scenario and push inland. Its not easy but it can be done but in Solo and in the HTH play. The Breakout scenario ... I will take on anyone as the US side. Just hit me with a PM. I know how to play the US to where they do not get shredded during the game.

I am sorry that some of you guys feel you are to the point where you want your money back. However, if you would consider that John Tiller Software is one of the VERY FEW companies that continues to support their games for 20 years well you should keep that in mind. Like David said, we assumed that the PDT file was correct. Its our fault for not looking into it closely. We have done that ....

I want to also note: there are no tunnels for the series. So about the best we can do now is consider adding in more bunkers for the Japan '45 game. Again, i would add in the +20 types not the full +40 as otherwise it would unbalance the game. Those full rated bunkers are very hard to take in the game. By 1945, the US was pouring gasoline down the vents and openings to take caves and bunkers. Fire smoke at the opening and then hit it with an engineer team. Or just use a tank flamethrower.

What is hard to model in the game is the "Reverse-Slope" tactics that the Japanese started using on Okinawa. Taken right from the pages of Lord Wellington of Napoleonic Wars fame, the Japanese positions thus became harder to hit by artillery fire. US troops would come up over the crest of a hill or around it and be struck by MG fire. Very hard to call in fire on a target that is facing away from the artillery.

I still believe that Japan '45 is a fine product. Its more like Sicily '43 than Smolensk '41 or Stalingrad '42. The terrain alone makes for an ordeal by the Allies.

And I point out ... this forum is mainly "in being" to facilitate the game play of its members. I am sorry if anyone here feels that its intent is to become a place for a company to respond to feedback. It simply is not the case. While I would love to see a JTS forum I suppose its not going to happen but you must acknowledge that many of us have done our best to try and respond to your concerns on the forum. For me: well after having suffered a heart attack in May ... i am done with that. I simply cannot handle the anxiety of trying to formulate a response to a heated question. The support email system works best for me from here on out.

It was one thing to play games from 1974 until 1999. It was another to become a Scenario Designer and try and help put out a good product. I believe that the games I worked on for the Napoleonic series are fine games. Our team did a lot of work on them. I will say this: you can never find a game that gives you so much content in one package like ours do with the exception of titles like The Operational Art of War or Steel Panthers or those that pack in the content. Certainly no board game gives you what we offer.

If we don't offer enough scenarios in a title we get hit with "we feel cheated." If we offer a lot and for whatever reason the play balance is a problem then we hear "you didn't spend enough time on your product." Well let me just say that with the total of products offered coming up on 100 eventually, JTS has given the hobby an invaluable amount of variety of items to choose from. Only the very largest of the boardgame companies offer you that. Thinking of SPI, GMT, AH, etc. And I am about to add in files for the Nap Battles series for the next round up updates making this my 18th year of supporting the games I work on.

So here's to the guys that help put these products out on the market. <TOAST> .. We do not always "get it right" but we certainly did not just toss out a "sandbox" for you to crawl into.

A huge thanks to David Freer for making this all possible. The guy is incredible and really tries to make your experience with the product a meaningful one. Add in Rich Hamilton, who also wants to see vast improvements in the product like David. These could be the best years I will have with JTS. All I know is that after 20 years of doing Napoleonic games I still want to put out these games. Either I am a fanatic or totally insane or perhaps a mixture of both! ROFL

So in choosing a scenario - my advice: dont pick one where the Allies are mainly Morale C vs. Morale A Japanese troops. Find one that has a closer comparison of morale grades. For instance: there are scenarios that add in troops or change up the troop lineup for the Ariake and Eastern Beaches. The Allies end up with higher quality troops in those cases.

Final note: had it not been for the large "draw-down" of US troops at the end of the war, most of those US Divisions would have been rated "B" morale by me. That is how I feel about the US Army of WW2. By 1945, they were a much better force than in 1942 or 1943 fighting in the desert of Tunisia or the muck and mire of New Guinea. The lower numbered divisions (1st, 5th, 7th, etc) had by the Fall of 1945 seen a large percentage of veterans sent home. Other than their tradition/history they were composed of newer recruits and some old hands. I think that I could have easily have rated some of the units as "D" morale as a result of that and the fact that an invasion of Japan was highly unpopular with the Euro troops.