500lb Gorilla
I've been playing and enjoying the demo. It does share a lot in common with one of my favorite old board games, Victory in the Pacific.
Four turns is not anywhere near long enough to tell, but what is to stop players from massing up into one (or maybe two) huge fleets (the 500lb gorilla) and simply smashing any opposition? There doesnt seem to be a high price for not 'defending' your bases (unless the enemy invades). And after a few turns you should have severely damaged the enemy fleet if they tried to defend against your mass. Eventually they wont have enough to offer meaningful resistence and you can then start splitting into smaller groups.
The foil to this in VitP was two-fold. One, there were serious VP penalties to be paid for letting the enemy control vast amounts of the board. Two, once you controlled a sea zone, you have a better chance of dictating the type of battles that would be fought there so it was easier to 'defend' them than to attack.
Especially earlier in the war the real combatants were not all massed up and they committed forces here and there for raids and support. Later in the war, they really DID tend to mass up into larger carrier groups. Are there any mechanics in place to discourage players from simply massing up with huge fleets? To me that would seem to lead to a couple of hit or miss battles with the 'winner take all' issue. Of course thats exactly what Yammamoto tried at Midway....but I think it makes for a less compelling game if its profitable to just mass up and go stomp.
Thanks!
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