IJN Comments: My Top 10 game against Ed has just finished – it ended at the conclusion of T7, with my IJN leading by +23 POC before the bid (and +17.5 POC after my bid of 5.5). Just good enough to clinch it for me, although I did my best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for the second time in a row against Ed in this particular tournament!

USN Comments: Congratulations Darren on your win. I got a lot of luck but the hill was just too steep. I needed something during the middle turns to go my way and couldn't get much. T4 comes to mind where my 6 lba shots whiffed on your one marine giving you Guad. Oh well.

Always fun. Good luck the rest of the way.

IJN Comments: Thanks, Ed. That was a very tense finish – and if you’d thought I’d forgotten our previous Top 10 game… http://www.gameaholics.com/vitp_ten_07/vitp_5t10_ed_v_darren.htm …while we were finishing this game up, you’re dead wrong!  I really thought I might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against you twice in a row in this competition.

It took me ages to figure out which way to go this turn after your patrols. My end-of-T6 basing had been designed to set me up to control JI and NPO (patrolling each with half of my fleet), leaving me 2 POC to save on T8 with half of my fleet based in Dutch Harbor and able to go west or south from there. Then I decided to be a bit more cagey than that and not patrol NPO at all, giving me options – I could always patrol NPO with 4-6 LBA later on if I felt I needed them. That wound up being one of the three main options I considered for my LBA, along with the HI-centered strategy I eventually adpoted and also a plan to put 6 LBA in the Marianas. The latter plan could have won the game by controlling that area or by decontrolling the Marianas and suiciding against your Marines in CPO and HI, but it also promised to save Truk and both open up raiding lanes for T8 and also pose you basing challenges that would make it tougher for you to heavily patrol JI. Honestly, I think the HI strategy I chose might have been the weakest of my three options, if only slightly – it’s tough to calculate the odds accurately in a situation like this – but after a certain point my head was starting to hurt and I just wanted to try and get the game done before the next round begins tomorrow. ;)

Anyway, best of luck to you the rest of the way as well – the way John has set up the rotation means I now have to play Mike and then Andy before the schedule softens up, but we’ll see what happens!

USN Comments: Oh yes I remember that game as well … and our WBC semi’s where you also fought in the HI.

You had several very viable options as you point out. All with really good odds for you. I needed more patrollers in Mari’s & HI but was needing to be able to respond to any of several choices you might make including the NPO option. One marine each for CPO/HI wasn’t enough for me either if you chose to go after them. It was just too much for me to have a real chance. But at least the dice made it exciting … teasing me just enough to get my hopes up before dashing on the rocks of probability.