Good evening, all…I just picked up a small assortment of orange Dutch pieces because I wanted to explore the possibility of adding a couple units to the Java SZ ala’ the short-lived ABDA forces that were historically formed after the initial time frame for Global40. I have no intention of messing with the mechanics of the money islands by proposing adding Dutch ground forces, just a couple naval units. Historically, the Dutch East Indies naval contingent of the ABDA forces was decently substantial in size, but I don’t want to go overboard…maybe just a cruiser and destroyer, just for the fun of having a couple orange ships in the area, perhaps, but maybe to add an interesting little twist to the early part of the game, too. I’m not opposed to tweaking the British and/or ANZAC naval forces to compensate if adding a couple extra Allied ships might alter the balance too much but I’m hoping I won’t have to. One of the things I was considering but haven’t figured out yet was leaving them off the board until a state of war exists between Japan and the ANZACs, so as to avoid unbalancing things by being able to pre-stage them in a more advantageous SZ than off Java, but I’m wondering if this over-complicates things too much.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Realistic number of units and unit types that might be acceptable? Possible changes to Japanese forces to keep or restore balance? Ideas on when/where to add them? I did look through the forum a bit for ideas/suggestions in past threads but I didn’t scan all 170+ pages; I did find this one helpful:
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=19613.0
…but it doesn’t have much to about a Dutch naval aspect so I thought I’d take a shot and see what y’all have to say.
Thank you in advance.
Rob.