Happy 2018 to all...and some other thoughts

[bramborough]

Happy New Year to all! Hoping all had a good 2017, and best wishes for a happy & healthy 2018. 2017 was good for my family; emotionally if not financially, and looking forward to a better year to come. I sincerely hope that the same is true for all the other participants of this forum, which, albeit smaller due to a niche game (even compared to other "niche games"), is one of the most objective, polite, and well-learned communities I've ever encountered.

In the interest of including some RTW-related content:

I stumbled across RTW perhaps 6 weeks ago, through a you-tube video. I'd watched someone playing Atlantic Fleet (itself a pretty impressive game for its modest price tag), and noticed some RTW videos in his playlist. What a revelation. It's refreshing to see someone doing something in the gaming world completely counter to the general trends. I saw a game which at first glance looked ridiculously outdated...something which looked graphically akin to what one saw well over 20 years ago. But it didn't take long to see that was irrelevant. By the end of that first 20ish-min video, I was sold.

I remember reading a Sid Meier quote years ago, something along the lines of "the best games offer the player interesting choices".  RTW does that remarkably well, on almost every turn. There's few genuinely "always good" or "always bad" choices. It's also one of the most faithfully historical games I've ever seen. No game can be perfect, but clearly the developers are deeply familiar with the subject time period...and also very attuned to what *could* have happened other than what actually transpired, and have left the door open for the "RTW universe" to include such.

The result is one of most historically accurate, but also most re-playable, games I've ever encountered. "Game" is often the enemy of "simulation", and vice versa...but Frederik and his colleagues have here wonderfully managed the tension between the two, and have produced something with the best of both. I am impressed.

I'm also impressed with this small but knowledgeable community. People clearly know what they're talking about. Disagreements are polite, and characterized by arguing the merits of the topic, rather than ad hominem attacks (which are completely absent as far as I can tell). Positions are backed up with links and references to supporting information. If all human discourse were characterized by the civility, objectivity, and rationality of that found on the RTW forums (which, ironically, is populated by folks with an interest in some of the most deadly high-firepower machines ever produced by mankind), well, the world would be a whole lot happier place.

So again...Happy New Year to all!

[Fredrik W]

Thanks for the kind words! It is good to hear that our efforts to create realistic and playable simulations are appreciated. We are presently hard at work developing RTW2, which will cover the period up to 1950, with start dates optionally in 1900 or 1920. RTW 2 will include technical and political developments in the period after RTW1, like naval aviation, radar, diesel engines, fascist and communist dictatorships etc. RTW2 will start early testing soon. We cannot provide a hard release date as of now, but likely sometime in the next 3-6 months.

[atlanticghost]

Happy New Year to all! May it be a year in which many virtual ships are sent to the bottom, and no real ones.

bramborough , I quite agree with you about the quality of both the game and the community. I've learned a lot from both playing RtW and reading the forum.

Fredrik W , thanks for the update and the artwork. May you and the NWS team have a successful and lucrative year!

[bcoopactual]

bramborough , if ever a post deserved a big ol' 'LIKE' button it was that one.  Well said and I couldn't agree more.  Happy New Year to you and yours and the rest of the RTW community.  Thanks for the update Fredrik W .  Looking forward to RTW2.    

[williammiller]

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and wishes...I wish everyone here a Happy New Year and for much good luck to follow!

[HolyDragoon]

Happy new year everyone! Also, good news on RTW2, waiting for it. 😀

[director]

Happy New Year to us all!

Let me echo the sentiments expressed above. I've been obsessed with naval history since... well, whale oil lamps, I think. I played a lot of Seapower II in my teens, wrote my own computer version of it in my 20s. I've tried just about everything from Wooden Ships and Iron Men to AH's Jutland, Alnavco's Seapower and S&T's 6th Fleet. Rule the Waves is IT - the annoyances are minor, the choices interesting and the game's recreation of surface naval combat in the Big Gun Era is simply unmatched.

It is, without question, one of the 3 best game purchases I've ever made, and a game I have recommended so loudly and so often that all my friends just ask which nation I'm playing now.

Thank you - or as Fry says, "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"

[garrisonchisholm]

Jan 1, 2018 3:59:46 GMT -6 bramborough said:

Happy New Year to all! Hoping all had a good 2017, and best wishes for a happy & healthy 2018. 2017 was good for my family; emotionally if not financially, and looking forward to a better year to come. I sincerely hope that the same is true for all the other participants of this forum, which, albeit smaller due to a niche game (even compared to other "niche games"), is one of the most objective, polite, and well-learned communities I've ever encountered.

In the interest of including some RTW-related content:

I stumbled across RTW perhaps 6 weeks ago, through a you-tube video. I'd watched someone playing Atlantic Fleet (itself a pretty impressive game for its modest price tag), and noticed some RTW videos in his playlist. What a revelation. It's refreshing to see someone doing something in the gaming world completely counter to the general trends. I saw a game which at first glance looked ridiculously outdated...something which looked graphically akin to what one saw well over 20 years ago. But it didn't take long to see that was irrelevant. By the end of that first 20ish-min video, I was sold.

I remember reading a Sid Meier quote years ago, something along the lines of "the best games offer the player interesting choices".  RTW does that remarkably well, on almost every turn. There's few genuinely "always good" or "always bad" choices. It's also one of the most faithfully historical games I've ever seen. No game can be perfect, but clearly the developers are deeply familiar with the subject time period...and also very attuned to what *could* have happened other than what actually transpired, and have left the door open for the "RTW universe" to include such.

The result is one of most historically accurate, but also most re-playable, games I've ever encountered. "Game" is often the enemy of "simulation", and vice versa...but Frederik and his colleagues have here wonderfully managed the tension between the two, and have produced something with the best of both. I am impressed.

I'm also impressed with this small but knowledgeable community. People clearly know what they're talking about. Disagreements are polite, and characterized by arguing the merits of the topic, rather than ad hominem attacks (which are completely absent as far as I can tell). Positions are backed up with links and references to supporting information. If all human discourse were characterized by the civility, objectivity, and rationality of that found on the RTW forums (which, ironically, is populated by folks with an interest in some of the most deadly high-firepower machines ever produced by mankind), well, the world would be a whole lot happier place.

So again...Happy New Year to all!

Somewhere many pages back I posted a rather similar commentary after my first 6-8 weeks of play, and I am delighted to say I have made some real friends through this forum- and I am also delighted with the new voices which have appeared to support and create content.  This is the first community that I check in with every day, multiple times, and in 13 months I have gone from novice blunderer to veteran blunderer.  This is a marvelous community.

Happy New Year indeed!  May only historical simulation harbor an absence of peace.

Fredrik W   That is a great banner!  bi-plane aside, if that image were rotated ~90* that would be close to Richard (he didn't go by Richard) Best pulling out of his dive!

(For those who don't know, "contraction-of-Richard" Best is worth knowing.  If you contend Midway was a vital battle, he single-handedly tipped the odds)

[axe99]

Great post Bramborough and Happy New Year all . And a New Year with a pretty good chance of a RtW2 is a Happy New Year indeed . Best of luck to everyone in their endeavours, looking forward to playing your next masterpiece Fredrik/William/anyone else involved .

[oldpop2000]

I echo the sentiments of all, Happy New Year and may this New Year bring success and fun to all of you. Keep reading and offering all of us your thoughts and ideas. This is how we all learn.

I also want to wish all the troops from any nation, a good, safe year.

[zeta]

Happy newy year!

So, 2018 will be RTW2 year!! it will be definitely a great year.

Thanks Fredik for the update on RTW2.

[bramborough]

Jan 1, 2018 14:35:08 GMT -6 garrisonchisholm said:

(For those who don't know, "contraction-of-Richard" Best is worth knowing.  If you contend Midway was a vital battle, he single-handedly tipped the odds)

I believe Best was the gent who, after nosing over into the dive, realized that both Enterprise SBD squadrons were going after Kaga, instead of one squadron on each carrier.  So he took the initiative to alter mid-dive and target Akagi.  Only a couple of guys followed him...but they were enough to put Akagi on the bottom.   Later in the afternoon, he also put a bomb into Hiryu...which might well mean that Best is the only USN pilot to successfully hit two different carriers on the same day.  

[oldpop2000]

I agree that Richard Best did a fine job, especially since it was his last. Due to a test on his oxygen tank, the gas fumes activated latent Tuberculosis and he left the US Navy in 1944. He did his job well.

I would like to put in a word for Lt. Commander John C. Waldron of Torpedo 8 of the USS Hornet. Without fighter escort, normally a requirement for torpedo bombers and part of Naval Doctrine, he led Torpedo 8 against Kido Butai. While searching for the IJN, he changed the formation to a long search formation and they found the four Japanese carriers. He radioed the Air Group commander saying that they had spotted the carriers but got no response. Without waiting for escort, he attacked. All died except Ensign George Gay, who ended up in the water, watching the whole battle and three carriers sink. To me, this was the man of the hour. His actions forced the Japanese carriers to land their escorts, refuel and rearm. It also caused them to come down from normal patrol altitudes and for the AA gunners to search low looking for more low level bombers. This gave the SBD's the opening to dive when they arrived, and sink the carriers. Contrary to most histories, the decks were not filled with bombers ready to launch because they were still recovering, and launching the combat air patrols.

[bcoopactual]

Torpedo 8's attack was approximately an hour before the dive bombers arrived so the Japanese combat air patrol had plenty of time to get back to altitude but you are absolutely correct . VT-8 and the other piecemeal attacks forced the Japanese to constantly cycle their CAP planes for refueling and re-arming and so they never had the opportunity to move their strike planes onto the deck. Waldron didn't help kill Kido Butai perhaps but it certainly could be argued that they saved their own carriers.

[oldpop2000]

Jan 1, 2018 21:09:13 GMT -6 bcoopactual said:

Torpedo 8's attack was approximately an hour before the dive bombers arrived so the Japanese combat air patrol had plenty of time to get back to altitude but you are absolutely correct . VT-8 and the other piecemeal attacks forced the Japanese to constantly cycle their CAP planes for refueling and re-arming and so they never had the opportunity to move their strike planes onto the deck. Waldron didn't help kill Kido Butai perhaps but it certainly could be argued that they saved their own carriers.

Torpedo 8 attack started at 0937 hrs. VT-8's attack lasted 20 minutes. The dive bombers launched their attack at 1020.  Here is the time sequence from Nagumo's report

0837— 0900— recover Midway attack force

0910— recover combat air patrol (CAP)

0932— launch CAP

0951— recover CAP

1006— launch CAP

1010— recover CAP


Notice this last entry, they were recovering a portion of their CAP about the time the dive bombers were over their carriers. So, the VT-8 attack ended at 0957, while the dive bombers began their attack at 1020. That's about 23 minutes but they were waiting for confirmation from the torpedo bombers to coordinate. The problem for the CAP was not time to climb, the Zero could climb at 4000 feet a minute and the dive bombers were at about 12000-13000 feet so it would only take about 3-4 minutes to get up to altitude to engage. The problem was location. The CAP was not in the correct location over the carriers to intercept and the carriers could not contact them due to poor radios, they had to try to use signal flares and flags to try  get their attention. The CAP that was up in the air had been scattered attacking the torpedo bomber attacks and following the surviving planes leaving the area. So the fighter controllers could not get them up to altitude. It is for this reason that I believe the hero was Lt. Cmdr. John C. Waldron and Torpedo 8. He might not have actually killed Kido Butai, but his brave action, allowed the rest of the air strike to accomplish the mission.

I am not criticizing your comments, which I welcome, just trying to clarify the real time sequence because when RTW2 comes out, this timing sequence of torpedo bombers and dive bombers has to be developed, practiced and executed or a disaster will occur for the air wings as it did for the three air wings at Midway. Great comments, sir.