Buckeye5
Posts: 77
Joined: 10/21/2003
From: Findlay, Ohio, USA
Status: offline
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I purchased UV just a couple of weeks ago, after spending the past couple of months playing PacWar (Matrix edition) very intensely.
It does share some similarities with PacWar, but there's a lot more detail relating to individual units. Here are a few of the things I'm coming to appreciate about UV:
1) As noted above, there's increased detail relating to every unit. This is to be expected, given the scales of the two games, but the fact that you need to keep track of elements like fatigue, unit disruption, and operational damage/aircraft losses throws in an extra bit of complexity missing from PacWar.
2) Reduced scale. Because UV only focuses on the south Pacific, as opposed to the entire Pacific theater, it's a little less overwhelming when you're trying to start formulating a strategy. Oh, there are still many things to consider, but it's not quite as imposing as thinking, "Well, should I target Wake, the Philippines, or China-Burma-India for that next major operation?"
Additionally, with the reduced scale, I find myself caring more about each and every unit at my disposal. I'm currently playing the Operation MO scenerio as Allies, and unlike PacWar, I find myself gloating over every Japanese transport or patrol boat I send to the bottom. Conversely, for the last five turns I've been hovering over the crippled Lexington and Yorktown as they crawl south toward Cairns after the Battle of the Coral Sea (Lexington will probably make it--Yorktown won't). You eagerly await any reinforcement, even that worthless little squadron of sub-chasers. You check that forward fighter group every turn to see if their fatigue has dropped low enough to let them fly CAP against one more bomber strike. When I first checked out UV, I wasn't sure how I was going to like this scale, but I find myself enjoying it immensely.
3) The addition of random factors like weather. Again, this is a very nice level of detail to add. A thunderstorm at the wrong time can trash the most perfectly-laid plans. In the example I cited above, I was set up in the perfect situation to attack the Japanese carriers--they'd moved down south of New Guinea, and had spent the last two days launching massive strikes at Port Morseby, while my carriers had been hiding in Cairns after savaging a transport TF at Gili Gili. His squadrons should have been heavily fatigued, while mine were completely fresh (the average Fatigue level among my carrier squadrons was about 2). So, my task force steams north, winds up about 3 hexes away from the Jap carriers, I set up the aircraft to launch strikes while holding a heavy CAP over my ships....
....and a heavy thunderstorm means my planes can't find his carriers, launching instead against the transport task force I'd crippled previously, and setting me up for a huge shootout the next day with notably fatigued strikegroups. If Lexington makes it to port, I think I still gave worse than I got--Shokaku has to be gone, even if I her sinking hasn't been officially confirmed, Shoho probably went with her (if not, she's certainly crippled very badly), and Zuikaku will be out of the war for months. But if I could've gotten off my strike on the first day, with fresh airgroups, my own carriers probably would've suffered far less, and might actually have been able to retire intact rather than desperately limping toward Oz. Ah, the fickle finger of meteorology....
Anyway, none of this is in any way intended to disparage PacWar, which I've really come to like. But the added detail (and vastly improved graphics) in UV makes it an even more satisfying experience, in my opinion.
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