HBO's "The Pacfic"

Fred Ingram

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Maybe this will finally spark me to try PTO - I just dont have a feel for the theater having read very little on it
 

King Scott

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I can't bring myself to subscribe to HBO just for this.
Luckily, I just got a flyer in the mail from my cable provider that offered three free months of HBO...I got signed up yesterday, so I'm good to go!

Semper Fi!
Scott
 

JR Brackin

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Luckily, I just got a flyer in the mail from my cable provider that offered three free months of HBO...I got signed up yesterday, so I'm good to go!

Semper Fi!
Scott
I was able to get 3 months free when Band of Brothers came out. It is worth the call to see if you can get the 3 months free from your supplier.
 

trevpr1

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Maybe this will finally spark me to try PTO - I just dont have a feel for the theater having read very little on it
I went from being vaguely aware there was a PTO to understanding it pretty well because of playing PTO ASL. Playing isn't enough, you end up reading around the subject.
 

ChrisM

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God - thsi week has been torute for me as Sunday night can't come quick enough.

I ahve been reading articles and reviews about the mini series all week - includng a really good one on Tom Hanks and his vision of America's history in TIME:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1969606,00.html

I've read all three books the series was sourced on (With the Old Breed being a personal fave) and my brother and I are scheduled to start running through all the Operation Watchtower scenarios and some of the Blood & jungle scenarios tomorrow - and running on into the next several months.

This may get him fired up enough so we can actually play our first ever ASL CG - and it looks like the Edson's Eidge one would be the choice.

I can't wait for this. I'm not going to learn anything I don't already know about the Pacific War, but to actually see some of the visuals and follow it as a story arc the way they did Band of Brothers - this should be incredible.
 

wrongway149

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I went from being vaguely aware there was a PTO to understanding it pretty well because of playing PTO ASL. Playing isn't enough, you end up reading around the subject.
ASL kind of had the opposite effect for me. I played a lot of Naval battle games; (Midway, VITP. etc,) prior to ASL, so knew most of the geography and timeline at least. Then, my first hankering for ASL scenario design happened after Gung-Ho. The Gyrenes got their own entire module, yet the US Army was still grossly underepresented in the PTO at the time. Somebody had to do something about it. (See: Highway 5, Invisible Foes, Battlin' Buckeyes, etc.)

Now what 18 years? later, I feel most of the PTO battles are overdone in ASL compared to the Eastern front, especially.(Or at least huge portions thereof)
 

trevpr1

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ASL kind of had the opposite effect for me. I played a lot of Naval battle games; (Midway, VITP. etc,) prior to ASL, so knew most of the geography and timeline at least. Then, my first hankering for ASL scenario design happened after Gung-Ho. The Gyrenes got their own entire module, yet the US Army was still grossly underepresented in the PTO at the time. Somebody had to do something about it. (See: Highway 5, Invisible Foes, Battlin' Buckeyes, etc.)

Now what 18 years? later, I feel most of the PTO battles are overdone in ASL compared to the Eastern front, especially.(Or at least huge portions thereof)
I appreciate what you're saying. However, from a player's POV, the more of all the better.

Actually, now i come to think of it - my first insight into the pacific aside from endlessly watching the four episodes of 'The World At War,' was 'Flat Top,' which was epic. Played that before I played ASL, however got almost no feel for the sea vs land and land based aspect of the battles. It too COb to do that.

I'm currently reading



...and finding it a 'right riveting read.' probably a little light wieght compared to the stuff you use for designing, but I'm learning things about the strategic decisions all the time. I can't get my head around the size of the armies and the scale of the battlefield. The UK could be dropped in the Pripet marshes and no one would find it for a week.
 

Paul M. Weir

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Now what 18 years? later, I feel most of the PTO battles are overdone in ASL compared to the Eastern front, especially.(Or at least huge portions thereof)
I think you might have a point. In terms of combination of physical area that the battles were fought on (small islands) and the limited time and even possibly the number of combatants on each side, the PTO might be best represented. I am talking about the Pacific part of the Asian war. The other Asian theatres were, in terms of the time, space and forces involved, until recently relatively under represented. The India-Burma-Indochina part has had sparodic scenarios over the years and the whole China theatre was long overlooked. The recent advent of HoB's "Long March", LFT 12 and BFP's "Blood and Jungle" have gone a long way to rectify that. Overall the Asian half of WW2 is finally catching up in terms of coverage.
 

oweng

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I'm currently reading



...and finding it a 'right riveting read.' probably a little light wieght compared to the stuff you use for designing, but I'm learning things about the strategic decisions all the time. I can't get my head around the size of the armies and the scale of the battlefield. The UK could be dropped in the Pripet marshes and no one would find it for a week.
OT comment: I too am currently reading this. I agree with your comments wholeheartedly Trev. I keep thinking of a front extending virtually the full width of Australia (the long way) ... and then my brain melts. I was initially a little disappointed that there is not slightly more detail, but given the scale, that is more indicative of my sentiment than any shortcoming of the work. Highly recommended.

Somewhat more on topic: I am coming to ASL primarily from a general interest in the WW2 period. Being an Aussie with a personal interest in the Papua and New Guinea campaigns, my inner fire starts and spreads from there. Am *really* looking forward to the day I can play PTO - although at this point I am pretty happy sitting in the corner with a broken half squad and chapter K. I have to confess I am much more a bookworm than a video watcher. I tend to watch videos mainly for the original footage - so much audiovisual material these days seems to be in a mockumentry / docudrama style, or at least have poorly done elements of this. Not my cup of tea. This HBO production (from the links provided) sounds quite good and I have been impressed by their prior releases - thanks for the heads up.
 

JR Brackin

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Now what 18 years? later, I feel most of the PTO battles are overdone in ASL compared to the Eastern front, especially.(Or at least huge portions thereof)
Wrongway, I do not know where you get this idea. Of my scenarios I own (2000 +) ,only over 10% of my scenarios that are PTO. This number includes the 17 from LM and the 46 from BFP. There are still many actions that are undercovered in the PTO. Peliu and Iwo both come to mind as well as New Guinea. It is good to see that Manilla is underway by MMP, I hope that this includes other scenario featuring the 1944-45 battles in the Phillippines also.
 

Carln0130

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ASL kind of had the opposite effect for me. I played a lot of Naval battle games; (Midway, VITP. etc,) prior to ASL, so knew most of the geography and timeline at least. Then, my first hankering for ASL scenario design happened after Gung-Ho. The Gyrenes got their own entire module, yet the US Army was still grossly underepresented in the PTO at the time. Somebody had to do something about it. (See: Highway 5, Invisible Foes, Battlin' Buckeyes, etc.)

Now what 18 years? later, I feel most of the PTO battles are overdone in ASL compared to the Eastern front, especially.(Or at least huge portions thereof)
Hey Pete, how goes? Overdone? I don't think so really. How much is really out there on say, Iwo, or Saipan or Okinawa? Really there are a lot of fights that had great importance that really have fairly sparse representation. OTOH, there are some that have plenty. I wouldn't call the theatre overdone in ASL though. You could definitely still find some fairly signifigant campaigns that are underdone, IMHO. I speak as PTO fancier.
 

Carln0130

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Wrongway, I do not know where you get this idea. Of my scenarios I own (2000 +) ,only over 10% of my scenarios that are PTO. This number includes the 17 from LM and the 46 from BFP. There are still many actions that are undercovered in the PTO. Peliu and Iwo both come to mind as well as New Guinea. It is good to see that Manilla is underway by MMP, I hope that this includes other scenario featuring the 1944-45 battles in the Phillippines also.
I really should start reading to the end of a thread before I start replying, LOL. Interesting that some of the replies were so similar though.
 

Michael Dorosh

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I can't bring myself to subscribe to HBO just for this.
The DVD set will likely top my Christmas list, however.
I'm in the same boat; I thought for sure I was going to be inundated with spoilers but glad I'm not alone. I'm actually looking forward to sitting down to a marathon of this, and having all the extras on the boxed set. I really liked the "video diary" from Band of Brothers and hope they'll do something similar with this one. I actually think I'll get to see this before Christmas - the turnaround time for DVDs seems to be getting better, though of course they also sometimes sell a plain jane version first and then hit you with an "extended" or "director's cut" a few weeks or months later - but depending on which studio, they are getting better about that too.

As it turns out though, after reading John's post below, out of curiosity I phoned my provider, and HBO comes bundled with Movie Central and two other channels, and is free for a month. And there is a "making of special" along with the episode - and it all airs without conflicting with my guilty pleasure of the premiere of Celebrity Apprentice, so I will have the opportunity of posting spoilers after all. :D
 
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fwheel73

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I can't bring myself to subscribe to HBO just for this.
The DVD set will likely top my Christmas list, however.
I called my carrier today -- Cox in Oklahoma-- and they immediately turned on HBO for free(!), for two years, because I was a "bundle" user-- telephone, TV and internet. If you just call your carrier they may have a deal for you. It comes on in 3 hours and 40 minutes!:)

Best regards,:salute:
John
 

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I have read the Leckie and Sledge books. Excellent POV accounts from both of them. Add Manchesters Goodbye Darkness and you have 3 of the best First Person ground troop accounts of the Pacific war from the US side.
 

wrongway149

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Wrongway, I do not know where you get this idea. Of my scenarios I own (2000 +) ,only over 10% of my scenarios that are PTO. This number includes the 17 from LM and the 46 from BFP. There are still many actions that are undercovered in the PTO. Peliu and Iwo both come to mind as well as New Guinea. It is good to see that Manilla is underway by MMP, I hope that this includes other scenario featuring the 1944-45 battles in the Phillippines also.
Yeah, but how much of it is just one IJA 'bug hunt' after another? Glad to see more China stuff as translations provide new tools to designers,-but even all that looks to be aging rather quickly. How many scenarios do we have on the battle for the Shanghai warehouses now?

Wait, let me take a few minutes to do the DASL version.:devious:
 
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wrongway149

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I called my carrier today -- Cox in Oklahoma-- and they immediately turned on HBO for free(!), for two years, because I was a "bundle" user-- telephone, TV and internet. If you just call your carrier they may have a deal for you. It comes on in 3 hours and 40 minutes!:)

Best regards,:salute:
John
Not a bundler, as am done with land-line phones . In fact after yesterday's debacle of trying to get the Cavs-Celtics game on HD (only the "on-demand' channels came up), I think I'm cancelling TV as well, for all I (don't) watch anymore.

I just realized I would miss at least two of these episodes anyway, so I'll wait for the DVDs.
 

JR Brackin

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Yeah, but how much of it is just one IJA 'bug hunt' after another? Glad to see more China stuff as translations provide new tools to desingers,-but even all that looks to be aging rather qucikly. How many scenarios do we have on the battle for the Shanghai warehouses now?

Wait, let me take a few minutes to do the DASL version.:devious:
Most PTO scenarios are not a bug hunt. When you look at the scenario you can tell if it is a static defense where you need to root the Japanese out of caves and fortifications. Anything else is something different.

Well, Carl N and I offered some areas. I am not a designer so then maybe this is a good area to start.
 
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