Turn 1

Turn 2

Turn 3

Turn 4

Turn 5

Turn 6

Turn 1

USN Report: The crippled California and the 7th AF are my sole escapees from Pearl Harbor.  The British fare better with both ships escaping Indonesia.  Luck goes my way for the location uncertain rolls with a total of four CV in NPO and HI.  That wins me the NPO POC (thanks to option 2a) and lets me base three CV in Australia.  That'll put a bit of pressure on the IJN -- which my ailing surface fleet definitely needs.

IJN gains 6 PoC.

Turn 2

USN Report: I prefer VASSAL but decided to try Cyberboard since Darren is a Cyberboard aficionado.  This should give me a fair basis for comparison.  The visual appearance of VASSAL is more to my taste (not just the board but also the units and method of stacking pieces).  But Cyberboard gets an early point for its grid-snap feature (although some players may like the way VASSAL looks just like a real board with pieces all over the place).

I really think Darren's offensive set on this turn is an excellent variation on more typical moves.  The surface force in the Hawaiians makes that area too risky.  Using only three CV there lets the IJN be more aggressive in Coral Sea and still put up a solid fight around the whole perimeter.  There's definitely no way I can challenge this setup in more than one spot!

In action, the IJN sink all three Allied CA in CPO and Marshalls.  In the Marianas, a night action seals the fate of the Philippines.  I sink a 118 in the U.S. Mandate to help the attrition edge slightly.

In the big SPO action, the USN loses just one CV.  However, another is crippled.  In return, Ryujo, Zuiho, and the LBA are sunk.  The Hiei is disabled with 1 damage in day action.  Fuso is disabled with 3 damage in night action but gets the chance to disable the patroller and deny the Allies a flag in SPO (and an easy two POC in Coral Sea next turn).

IJN Comments: Thanks again for your compliments about the move. I figured that you couldn't safely go into more than one contested area (or maybe Coral Sea and CPO or NPO); even then, if I hit the jackpot in SPO you could be down to 1 CV at the end of the turn. Who knows? I sorta figure this IJN opening is a bit equivalent to "Barents on One" in multiple dimensions: you (USN in VITP, Axis in WAS) feel like you have to do something, but if you get unlucky, the game could be over almost before it starts!

Anyway, I-boat goes to SPO (of course).

IJN converts Attu, Midway, and Singapore by isolation; Johnston Island and the Philippines by invasion.

IJN gains 10 PoC to increase the over-all IJN lead to 16 PoC.

Turn 3

USN Comments: With three operational CV, one repairing in Australia, and the Wasp coming next turn, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances.

Although the IJN could take Pearl with CV-only air support, I suspect Darren will want CV elsewhere too -- such that he'll need LBA to take Pearl Harbor.  That means my Marines will seriously threaten his ability to take the port and draw massive fire away from my LBA on the first round of battle.  That alone ensures I'll send all six LBA to the Hawaiians.

My patrols are fairly light.  One CA in the Marianas just to threaten a hot spot for next turn (which also helps if any Marines survive the Hawaiian Islands).  One CA in the Mandate and Coral Sea each just to hold the score down.  The British, of course, patrol heavily since I suspect Indonesia will be a gift this turn.

Darren does hit the Hawaiians hard, of course; however, he also uses CV in the Coral Sea and Marianas as well as Hosho in the Marshalls.  Darren's surface move in the Aleutians guarantees he'll get Dutch Harbor (since, alas, my CV in that corner of the world did not make it into this turn).

I react to the IJN attack by attempting to securing the POC in the Mandate and Coral Sea as well as punching a hole in the Marshalls.

We trade CA in the North Pacific and Marianas.  I sink Hosho and disable Mutsu without loss in the Marshalls.  I sink his CA without loss in the Mandate.  In the Coral Sea, I disable Hiryu while he sinks Saratoga.  Then he sinks my patroller while getting disabled by my five cruisers.  Ick -- but at least my repairing CV is safe.

The big news of the turn is in the Hawaiians, however.  The first round is pure day which is good for me since Darren will need to use a lot of firepower to stop the Marines.  Darren gambles with just six bonus shots each.  The first Marine is disabled with 1 damage.  The Marine head to Australia to target bases made available by the British control of Indonesia this turn.  The second Marine takes damage but is NOT disabled.  There goes the three IJN LBA.  That gives me the edge.  I win the fight with three remaining LBA; however, I only sink one IJN CV, so the IJN are still packing a ton of firepower.  That will make for a very interesting game!  But I'm definitely in good shape POC-wise and port-wise.

IJN converts Dutch Harbor by invasion.
USN converts Johnston Island by invasion.

IJN gains 1 PoC to increase the over-all IJN lead to 17 PoC.

Turn 4

USN Comments: With all four BB in Pearl Harbor surviving, I'm in great shape on the surface navy.  That should give me some options this turn.  With Pearl Harbor staying under Allied control, the key area of this game will be the CPO.  Darren knows this and patrols there heavily.  He also patrols the SPO heavily with an eye on securing Lae and Guadalcanal.

I can't afford to go up against the bulk of the IJN fleet, so I plan to use my LBA in SPO.  I probably can't save both bases, but I'd be happy to win the area and save one base.  I patrol lightly -- with just one or two ships in each of my key POC areas.  The British patrol heavily, of course -- since they'll be escorting a Marine and threatening Singapore and Siagon.  My other lone patroller goes to the Marshalls to threaten a hot sea for next turn.

The IJN LBA are scattered to make up POC and secure key spots.  I concentrate mine in SPO.

Darren's raiders make CPO untenable and throw CV all-around.  He chooses to back up SPO solely with surface ships -- but enough to make it too risky for the USN.  Interestingly, Darren elects to save Indonesia at this critical moment with just three LBA.  I decide to take the 50-50 shot at winning the game there.  Even if I lose, I should get the Philippines out the deal.  Elsewhere I use my surface edge to save Coral Sea and the Hawaiian Islands.  I leave Wasp in port rather than risk her in a CV for CV exchange (particularly since I'm risking all of my other CV in Indonesia).

I save both the Coral Sea and the Hawaiian Islands -- but not before my patollers are sunk.  Hiryu is just disabled when night comes, but Zuikaku is sunk.  I win the surface exchange, however, sinking both Hiei and Kongo as well as Kumano and Suzuya.

Indonesia does not go well for the Allies.  I don't shoot down or damage a single LBA!  Enterprise is sunk by the I-Boat while Hornet and Lexington are later disabled.  The only saving grace is that the first round was a night action -- allowing me to land the Marines on the Philippines.  At least my losses were low.

The SPO is just the opposite -- where everything goes well for the USN.  Here my LBA manage to SINK both NLF on the first round to force the IJN to retreat.  Saving both bases and securing the Philippines without losing any LBA will make it very hard for the IJN to control either Indonesia or SPO again.  That helps make up for the POC disaster this turn that allows the IJN to get the score right where he wants it.

I like the Cyberboard combat order markers -- nice and small and yet clear.  However, the humongous day/night markers are just too big.

USN converts the Philippines by invasion.

IJN gains 7 PoC to increase the over-all IJN lead to 24 PoC.

Turn 5

USN Comments: I let my LBA and the British do most of my patrols this turn.  I do my usuall one-CA patrol in the Marshalls.  I also put one CA in the North Pacific for an easy POC.  The IJN patrols make it clear that he intend to control the Marianas, so I split my LBA between Indonesia and the Marianas.  Later moves make me regret keeping 4 LBA for SPO, USM, and the Hawaiians.

The final disposition of IJN forces keeps the CPO door slammed shut but also seriously threatens the Philippines.  Despite 4 LBA there, I believe I can with with 2 LBA of my own and 5 CV.

In the Marianas, night lets the IJN invade and reinforce the Philippines to win that area handily.  The only way I can get the Philippines back is by having enough CV left in Indo to air raid a full-strength NLF.  However, I more than make up for losing this day/night toss by winning night in the Hawaiians -- allowing me to sink Kaga and all three remaining 118s without loss.  I lose Wichita in the Marshalls.  I lose my CA and Marine in the NPO.  No easy POC there!  However, I can't help but wonder if luring three IJN CV there was key to my success this turn.

In Indonesia, the battle is brutal.  Lexington and the Illustrious are sunk.  Hornet is eventually disabled.  Wasp is crippled.  Both of my LBA are shot down.  But in the end, I have Hermes remaining and all the IJN LBA have been shot down.  Hermes air raid on the Phillipines is less-than-inspiring, so the 2nd Marines land on Lae instead to secure my air base for next turn's conversion attempt.

With Indonesia and SPO in my camp, the POC situation is grim for the IJN -- coming back my direction just before the massive reinforcements arrive.  The Indo result is decisive -- cutting through the IJN perimeter, decimating the POC, and eliminating 4 LBA before Turn 6.

I like how the damage markers do not cover any key information in Cyberboard.  Unfortunately, the damage markers are otherwise hard to work with.  I've also found that the grid snap makes it so that ship line up differently in different stack (e.g., the British BB and British CA in Indo above).  I'm a little to much of a perfectionist, I suppose.

IJN converts the Philippines by invasion.

USN gains 2 PoC to decrease the over-all IJN lead to 22 PoC.

Turn 6

IJN Patrols: I'll carry on at least one more turn, but this does look rather hopeless.

USN Comments: In the face of disaster, the IJN throws it weight to the West in an attempt to get a half-perimeter going and stave off defeat.  Other missions are limited to POC stealing and Marine-stopping.

The IJN move relies on a night action in Indo.

The IJN doesn't get what it needs anywhere the first round.  Akagi is sunk in the U.S. Mandate at night.  Only one patroller is removed in the Hawaiians.  Haruna is lost in the NPO.  The Marines make it to Midway in CPO while Hiyo is sunk.  Daylight in Indo sees the IJN NLF sunk and the IJN surrender.

IJN Surrender: No, I think that's about enough of this game for me. :) Congratulations - well done. Not a lot went right for me this game; I guess if I had it to do over again I would have shot 8 bonus dice against each Marine on T3 in HI instead of 6, but hindsight is 20-20, eh? Apart from that I don't think I did too much wrong, but the dice obviously weren't terribly kind to me.

You actually had a pretty lucky T2 as well, insofar as your CV losses were lighter than they might have been - didn't just wait for my Pearl catastrophe! (In fairness, I did have a great set of T1 air raids, for all the good they did me...) :)

Still, you have to put yourself in position to take advantage of the dice, and you obviously did that.

Darren on Cyberboard: Re: Cyberboard vs. Vassal, the advantages I see in the former - with regard to VITP, anyway - are the following:

--You can use CB on any computer - just copy the .exe file to a pen drive and you're good to go, with or without internet access. (CB is also much smaller and less memory-intensive.)

--It's a lot simpler starting up CB - no multiple menus to access, just start the game, open your file and you're off. (It's not a big deal to have to access multiple menus if you're sitting down to play a lengthy real-time online session - you set it up once and then you're playing for a while. But when you're constantly opening up the program in response to the receipt of a new move file, it gets annoying.)

--CB uses the same set of commands across all of its modules. Vassal seems to have a much higher level of customization, which means you have to learn a new set of shortcut commands for each game...and the VITP shortcuts don't always seem to work right for me. In CB I've set up shortcut keys for auto-stacking ("S"), flipping units ("Z") and rotating units 0/90/180/270/45 degrees ("0", "1", "2", "3" and "4", respectively), and you can do the same for any other commands you want - these shortcuts remain active across any game you play.

--In my VITP module, I've made it easy to line up the counters very neatly (particularly when creating long lines of ships at the start of a battle) through the use of the "Snap Grid" and "Auto Stack" features. You haven't really used these on your end much, I don't think, but for the anal-retentive side of me, I really appreciate being able to do this quickly.

I think those are the key points - there are other features which help CB to shine that aren't applicable to the VITP discussion. Of course, Vassal has its own strong points as well - real-time play being foremost among them - but for PBEMing VITP, I can't really think of anything Vassal does better than CB. (By which I mean, some people might be more comfortable with or have a personal preference for how Vassal does certain things relative to CB, and vice versa, but in absolute terms there are some things CB does do better than Vassal, whereas the reverse isn't true.)

John on Cyberboard: I agree that the ability to put Cyberboard on any device (like a memory stick) is handy.  However, that only means that Cyberboard can run on any Wintel machine.  Vassal, on the other hand, runs on Macs, Linex boxes, Wintel machines, and any other machine that has Java capability.

I agree that the Cyberboard start up is shorter, but it has a few quirks of its own (like always looking for the wrong file types when I'm trying to open a saved game file).  My hope is that the Vassal start up procedure will improve with feedback (as have so many things with the module).

I'm not sure why Darren feels rotating units is of benefit in VITP.

Vassal's hot key for flipping units, flags, etc. is CNTL-F.  That seems more intuitive to me than "Z".  Both seem to handle stacks well albeit differently.  That's just a matter of player preference (I actually like how Vassal looks like a FTF game in progress).

I personally find the movement of ships to and from the board to be more difficult in Cyberboard -- requiring the use of various trays -- but, again, it's a matter of preference.  The Vassal board feels like it has more space -- whereas units in Cyberboard are always covering bases (necessitating the locking/unlocking sequence in order to flip a base/port).

Anyway, I agree it's a matter of taste on almost all issues.  Ultimately, of course, Vassal was the only tool the BPA would allow us to use because they insist that all such mandatory tools run on all machines and be free (such that all players can use them).  Cyberboard meets the latter criteria but not the former.  So it'll be up to players to decide what they want as long as they're willing to use Vassal when a player, who only wants to learn one tool, requests it.