Tom Hunter
Posts: 2194
Joined: 12/14/2004 Status: offline
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This is a snip from my most recent post in the Lunacy AAR: "Figuring out the naval combat exploit took a lot of work, but the combat Replay of Warspite plowing through the Japanese convoy was kind of amazing, even though she did a fraction of the damage she should have. 15" high explosive rounds at 4,000 yards in daylight should have simply obliterated Japanese merchant ships. And as for the operational side off the simulation, in Fear and Loathing there were about 100 Japanese ships in a 60 mile hex with land on three sides and 15 Royal Navy Warships steaming in at fulls speed. Operationally the Japanese lost 6 ships. It is true that some of them may sink later, but later is after they unload the infantry divisions they are carrying onto Java. Operationally that is a huge failure, caused by the tactical failings of many parts of the games operating system." I think this is a very important point. In the real war ships sink in minutes or hours, not days and if a mixed force of 2 Battleships, 6 cruisers and 7 destroyers had plowed into the Japanese invasion of Java that would have been the end of the invasion, right there, that day forever. Look at the damage the Houston did while engaging a vastly superior force of Japanese, now imagine Warspite, Revenge and freinds Vs. only a few patrol craft. Of course no Japanese admiral would ever have come close to letting this happen. But WE can let this happen, because the ships don't actually sink for a variety of reasons. So we launch invasions that would never have been launched historically. We launch them because they will work no matter what. The naval combat system simply won't allow 100 merchant ships to be sunk in a day no matter how many surface warships you send. So the risk of operational failure goes way down, and people launch crazy operations because crazy suceeds in this game. Real admirals would have launched them too if they would succeed. But everyone knows that if the forces that just clasaed off of Soerbaja had really met it would have been a massacre of Japanese shipping. Even though the Japanese got badly hurt the fact is that the 60,000 odd troops that are still on those ships will all unload tomorrow night. In fact one 20+ship convoy is still unloading supplies at Soerbaja right now, right over the beaches! The game did not allow the British to find it. The Japanese were defeated off Soerbaja in Fear and Loathing when the launched an invasion they should have escorted more heavily. But the reality is they took a gamble that in this game was a really good bet, and if we had kept Warspite and Revenge in the same TF the Japs would have suffered a fraction of the casualties they did. But in reality they should have lost tens of merchant ships, not 6. The risk of such a high loss rate would have put the brakes on doing really dumb things and forced them to play in a smarter more historical way. So I don't buy Mogami's argument. If you look at the operational picture it is deeply flawed due to problems with the underlying tactical combat system. It is just more difficult to see those problems because the cause and effect relationships are very complex and take a long time to understand. Now that I do understand them personally I can't accept them. I'm not arguing that the game was not a good effort, or that no one should play. I think I got fair entertainment value for my money. But I am somewhat disapointed, if the thing worked it would be a truly fascinating simulation.
< Message edited by Tom Hunter -- 3/18/2006 6:56:40 AM >
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