EUBanana
Posts: 4552
Joined: 9/30/2003 From: Little England Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns A good example would be my current AI game. The FMSV brigade defending Kota Bharu in NE Malaya surrendered after the Japanese landing forced a retreat. The odds were not that high and casualties were about 2-1 in favor of Japan, yet my unit went poof anyway. So after just one fight, the Malaya campaign lost about 30 - 60 potential AV for the Singapore defense due to the new rule. I could have lost a lot more had both brigades surrendered. At this rate (assuming I lose one or more units in every fight) Singapore won't have enough strength left to withstand the typical Japanese 3 division assault and will probably fall on the first attack. I did notice this but I dont think it was significant in my own game. What was significant was the gutting of my units in the process of the retreat from the 3 LCUs of Japanese armour. Even one defeat now can really scourge your troops. I've been playing a fairly active ground campaign in China and its even more obvious there I think - casualties from land warfare have really gone up I think. In any case I didn't move anything in Malaya until units started getting attacked, and then I pulled back to Kuala Lumpur and the base NE of it whose name I forget. That was the sum total of movements I did. In the process of that campaign, which lasted until the end of December pretty much, the Allies got slaughtered to the point that the final siege of Singers was well under a single division in strength. It's quite possible that this was defective tactics on my part, but I don't think I did much different from what I did in WITP, which usually led to Singapore lasting at least till the end of February in a siege. So I think something has changed, and to the Malaya Army's detriment. I think next time, I'll just shift everything to Singapore when the Japanese are landed in force, let them occupy the peninsula without a shot, and try and preserve my forces for the siege. As for Burma, as my game continues, I think the decision the Allies face is pretty stark and pretty obvious. If you don't reinforce it and the Japanese come in in 2-3 divisional strength, just evacuate, its pointless. If you're serious about putting up a fight, reinforce it. If the Japs make the usual attack and you've not reinforced then you're just going to get everything crumpled up to nothing. So I think my plan for Burma in future will be a fairly modest tripwire force so I can see what is coming in, and if its of the 1000+ AV variety assault, immediately railing to to the north and making the trek to Imphal. I think reinforcement is too risky for me. Though if you look at Burma Command's stuff there is some serious firepower allotted to Burma if you've got the cojones to deploy them that far forward. 7th Armoured is a Burma Command unit and arrives pretty quick - quick enough to be deployed there I think. They would definitely change the dynamic of the campaign. I suppose you might argue that as they are getting withdrawn anyway in the medium term you may as well go for it... I'm just too paranoid about India though to commit much to Burma.
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