TBD/SBD Flight Simulators?

[FarAway Sooner]

The South Pacific in the first 6 months of the campaign was literally about the only place where the Americans ever fought anybody in WW II on anything approaching a rough balance of forces and materials.  Pretty much everywhere else the Americans fought on the ground or at sea anywhere after that, they had a significant preponderance of stuff and major air superiority.

In that sense, the South Pacific would make for a much more balanced gaming environment.  Both sides were fighting on a shoe string, but that also they meant there was a lot of improvisation.  Not just P-40s, Dauntlesses and PBYs versus Zeroes and Vals, but there were numerous variants of the B-25, including the ground-strafing B-25C1/D1 variants.   And if you stretch the theater into mid-1943, you can start to interject F-4Us, P-38s, and others.  Plus, a ton of float planes used for things besides just reconnaissance.

And, if you include the Commonwealth forces, you get even more in there (they flew some Hurris down there, didn't they, along with the mostly American planes)?  I get the glory of carriers, but starting out a gaming system in a place where you have land-based planes mostly operating against land and naval targets, it gets much easier to release a minimum viable product.

[MengJiao]

The South Pacific in the first 6 months of the campaign was literally about the only place where the Americans ever fought anybody in WW II on anything approaching a rough balance of forces and materials.  Pretty much everywhere else the Americans fought on the ground or at sea anywhere after that, they had a significant preponderance of stuff and major air superiority.

In that sense, the South Pacific would make for a much more balanced gaming environment.  Both sides were fighting on a shoe string, but that also they meant there was a lot of improvisation.  Not just P-40s, Dauntlesses and PBYs versus Zeroes and Vals, but there were numerous variants of the B-25, including the ground-strafing B-25C1/D1 variants.   And if you stretch the theater into mid-1943, you can start to interject F-4Us, P-38s, and others.  Plus, a ton of float planes used for things besides just reconnaissance.

And, if you include the Commonwealth forces, you get even more in there (they flew some Hurris down there, didn't they, along with the mostly American planes)?  I get the glory of carriers, but starting out a gaming system in a place where you have land-based planes mostly operating against land and naval targets, it gets much easier to release a minimum viable product.

All true (except I don't think any Hurricanes made it to the South Pacific -- Spitfire Vs at Darwin would be the closest case I suspect).  You could start the South Pacific with Japanese Floatplanes versus Pt Boats and p-39s against barges-- which I think is another start-up appeal of the theater -- lots of little boats to shoot at.  I guess you could also have barge versus canoe or canoe versus salt water crocodile.  BAGOOMBA!

[Staggerwing]

IIRC, Hurricanes were used in SE Asia and in the Dutch East Indies in small numbers. Possibly in Burma as well.