It would be fun to try Nuttz! I'd join. I had fun in AW's Pearl too.
IMO the only way to do Pearl would be to do an event/scenario with a twist to it. The main aspect of Pearl was the "surprise" right? Well there's no way to mimic that so you really do need to "surprise" the Allied players. They'll know war is coming but as they did back in 1941 they will not know "when."
So hold a sign up for sides. Balance them out, no need to restrict either side to any certain number of players. And the big twist is to not schedule a specific date for the actual attack.
Only the IJN staf/players know the actual date of the attack. Although this may be a hard secret to keep from leaking out.
During the course of a 6-8 week period the CM team makes sure that certain milestones are arrived at so people on both sides can prepare for the eventual clash;
1. CM staff announces relations breaking down. Impasse in talks. This would mean the attack will occur within the next two weeks but not within 72 hours of the news release.
2. USAAF staff told war inevitable. This indicates war within the next week but not within 24 hours from that announcement
3. USAAF staff told USN sunk sub off Oahu. This indicates war within the next 24 hours.
4. USAAF staff told experimental radar reports large group of planes indicated. This means the attack will strike within the next 1 to 2 hours and they can now scramble to get the word out to all Allied "pilots" via email and the Allied vbb forumn.
With people at work, unable to show that day, not getting the word and other real life issues you would be damned lucky to get 25% of the Alied pilots in the air to meet the full blown IJN attack.
I imagine this might not be too popular with folks who would like to sign up for the Allied side though. Although I'd sign up to fly a P-40 or a P-36. Like the lottery it sucks to miss out but when you hit it man that would feel good. (And fugg substitutions too. I want the right planes )
To help the USAAF pilots they would get color bar indicators in the grids while the IJN recieved no info like that at all - as they would not have had it over Oahu anyway.
Icons would be long friendly and short enemy of course. I would prefer NO enemy icons set but one, I'm not sure that is doable in AH and two, it may penalize the USAAF more than help them unless only the IJN could have the no enemy icon setting.
Westy
p.s. You could make the event bigger and string it out longer by adding into the plan the Japanese surprise strikes on Malaya, HongKong, Borneo, the Phillipines, Guam and Wake island.
