Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: sermil
My considerations are based on the AI's performance. By AI I mean what control of the game you don't have yourself. I won't go into the details because there are far too many things that I've found inconsistent. I don't have the impression that playing the Grand Campaign is going to change how the AI performs in Naval, Carrier and air combat. Unless you tell me that the scenario itself is flawed and that the AI is actually different in the Grand Campaign, then I would give it a try. But my impression here is that I've been playing roulette, not a computer Wargame.

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC



For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.

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Then there's the AI. I thought I would see some more sensible decisions being made. But here's what I see: playing the Allies I've damaged two Japanese carriers off the Salomons, but instead of retreating they end up in naval combat in Lunga?
To conclude there was one improvement I wanted to see in the game: when a carrier task force is being attacked by kates and vals, the main focus of sorties should be the ennemy carriers. Instead the sorties are still wasted on nearby freight ships. This doesn't make good sense to me.
Final thought, this is scenario related: how am I to acquire new sorties for my carriers? (haven't read thoroughly the manual for this one).

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2194725&mpage=1&key=�

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After four runs as the Japanese in the Guadalcanal scenario (even at Historical level) I've come to the conclusion that this game was designed with the IJN being complete idiots. You won't be hearing any more from me.
Regards.

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Losses were realistic. Zeroes got 4:1 kill rate in their favour.

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ORIGINAL: Tazo

 
You know sermil, this game takes time to master. If your TF do not opperate as you planed them for, this is certainly that you miss some point,
as everybody during this kind of never ending learning process. For instance, to make you surface TF knock the convoy and come back, just
use a full move of 10 hexes (5+5) with a waypoint, the encounter has some chance to take place during the night half turn surface phase
with your TF + the convoy in the same hex. Likewise, if your carrier clash occured during stormy or very overcast weather then it may
happen that the CVs are hidden under a cloud (it was the case several time to escape raiders, only the protecting BB/CA can be attacked,
they are always around in close protection to take torpedoes in place of the big guys and providing side AA). With such a massive raid,
save you turn after orders and settings then try to run it several times, I'm sure that very often you will severly hurt the CVs. Note also
that if several TFs are in the same hex then depending on the coordination of your attacking groups they can very well spot only one TF
and attack this one believing it is the right one... even if no CVs can be find eventually. Stacking TFs without merging is a good defensice
attitude (but the strikes back are not well coordinated and often are lost).

This is to say you that the "AI executing your orders" is not deterministic and driven by circumstances and inspiration of your leaders,
not only your wishes. You are not giving the tactical orders as a fleet commander. And thus you need to experience many desappointing
situations before fully mastering the right "settings/orders" to be given to your units to obtain the organization and reactions you want to.
This is the flavor of this game, to give good directives to the right units (to be well known, strengh and weaknesses) given a FOWed situation,
then look at what really happens as a spectator. Different players will give you different advises and have many tricks and tactics. Find your
own way but be aware that what will happen is not fully explained but most of us find it very realistic, so just imagine the modeled truth, and
then adapt you commands - or repeat the same phases or beginning of scenarii to learn more by practicing the outcomes.

Mastering Guadacanal from the oppening move to the last one is not an easy task. And if we play together and move our masterpieces carriers 
facing each other, neither you or me will do the decision as players, this tactical encounter will be managed by the AI with respect to leaders,
weather, hundred parameters among which our respective settings. But, say, I win the clash. Well, nothing decisive right now, the final decision
will depend on my reaction and your subsequent plans... One right decision can be not rewarded enough. But hundred bad decisions can not be
always rewarded. Imagine you try to clean the aera in an overconfident way, then I can trap your carriers in another way. We both have 99%
other small things/units to do/use and maybe I prepared a when timed invasion you have not spotted now. What I mean is that after 5 months
of thousands orders this first clash, even desappointed for me and rewardful or you, will be really forgotten... This game is about long and mid
term planning and reaction to unexpectedly bad news. BUT what you're talking about is the initial step of the short term tactical management of
units in front line, in the way you want to see them act, and this can only be learned by understanding your mistakes and what was modeled by
the game in each of your desappointing situations. Most of the threads are to ask others what can have happened reading such or such report.
Sometimes there are answers explaining what should have been done before reaching the situation...

Good luck with your learning of tactical short term management. But remenber that after this necessary step the heart of the game is still something
else, the way you plan a mid term operation... of course in avoiding tactical unaccurate ways. I've to start my fourth Guadalcanal campaign - I've
seen a lot of actions, many no-no encounters, each easilly explainable and exiting for the next step (abort or insist ? withdraw the convoy ?...), and
very few yes-no clearly decisive compared to the long trend to maintain optimal rythm and high/low intensity and risk.

Regards, TZ

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ORIGINAL: sermil
1) as an aside I'm not sure the program itself isn't corrupted since I've been having the Betty's image on the map again while playing (see my previous bug report).

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2) You will probably give an explanation to these points but:
Carrier to carrier combat, I play the Japanese. I send about 60 vals and kates from my four carriers, plus 45 escorts (I didn't keep the results to show you I'm sorry). The escorts make it through more or less (seems like my pilots are in a bad shape). But then the vals and kates attack. They get four good hits off a BB and a destroyer (maybe they didn't find the carriers, do I have to increase search to 100%?)although they did try to hit the Enterprise a few times. This left me with minus 3 carriers.

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3) This is more weird: the USN sends a few ships on a suicide mission near Rabaul. My Bettys sink all the ships save a destroyer. As my carrier head for Lunga to meet the USN, they send 45 zeroes (you've heard me) on something that looks like an attack on this one destroyer. Now that was kinda funny...

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4) Since the carrier combat is a no-no, I've tried to be clever and use a tactic against the AI as I did on a previous game: I send a surface combat TF to Shortlands and keep my carriers out of reach but close enough so the AI doesn't really know where to clobber me. Then next turn I send the Surface combat TF to Tessarafonga to sink the ennemy transports (which as you know are not escorted) overnight. They do successfully sink a few transports, but from what I gather, the latter managed to break out, so my TF remained until after dawn looking for them? You can easily imagine the result of that, with the USN carriers 2 hexes away. Note I did leave the "retreat" option on default for this TF. Minus 7 ships.

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Then there's the AI. I thought I would see some more sensible decisions being made. But here's what I see: playing the Allies I've damaged two Japanese carriers off the Salomons, but instead of retreating they end up in naval combat in Lunga?

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To conclude there was one improvement I wanted to see in the game: when a carrier task force is being attacked by kates and vals, the main focus of sorties should be the ennemy carriers. Instead the sorties are still wasted on nearby freight ships. This doesn't make good sense to me.

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC



For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.

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ORIGINAL: m10bob

After just 4 days in Basic Training....I was Positive the Army was going to make me do push ups every day for the rest of my time in, and I was going to be yelled at by a really angry guy with a smokey the bear hat..

"To meaningless French Idealism, Liberty, Fraternity and Equality...we answer with German Realism, Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery" -Prince von Bülov, 1870-

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ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

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ORIGINAL: m10bob

After just 4 days in Basic Training....I was Positive the Army was going to make me do push ups every day for the rest of my time in, and I was going to be yelled at by a really angry guy with a smokey the bear hat..

And after 4 years you found out that it was true?

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ORIGINAL: EwingNJ

And freezing rain, unless it was unbearably hot and dusty, and cold, indigestible coffee, cold, indigestible C-Rations, eaten in the rain, sleeping in the mud, unless you were sleeping with the scorpions, and freezing in the winter, unless your were broiling in the summer, and tepid showers, except in the winter when ice cold water was the only alternative and……

Oddly enough, I still miss those days.

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ORIGINAL: Yamato_Blitzer

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ORIGINAL: EwingNJ

And freezing rain, unless it was unbearably hot and dusty, and cold, indigestible coffee, cold, indigestible C-Rations, eaten in the rain, sleeping in the mud, unless you were sleeping with the scorpions, and freezing in the winter, unless your were broiling in the summer, and tepid showers, except in the winter when ice cold water was the only alternative and……

Oddly enough, I still miss those days.

Sounds like my job.

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ORIGINAL: CLEVELAND

In Guadalcanal, the Japanese have two carriers (the Ryujo is terrible with not so good pilots) to stand up against three US carriers.  They cannot go toe to toe against the whole US carrier fleet.  It's not advisable to gamble with them on carrier battles.

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ORIGINAL: joey

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ORIGINAL: Yamato_Blitzer

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ORIGINAL: EwingNJ

And freezing rain, unless it was unbearably hot and dusty, and cold, indigestible coffee, cold, indigestible C-Rations, eaten in the rain, sleeping in the mud, unless you were sleeping with the scorpions, and freezing in the winter, unless your were broiling in the summer, and tepid showers, except in the winter when ice cold water was the only alternative and……

Oddly enough, I still miss those days.

Sounds like my job.

Ya kinda make you happy I joined the navy instead!