Froonp
Posts: 7995
Joined: 10/21/2003
From: Marseilles, France
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: peskpesk
As I promised Steve to go through all the forums post of all AI for MWiF – XXX, here is the result for Commonwealth. Some good suggestions from forum members. I have now compiled it to define 4 possible starting major convoy routes for the British and 6 major convoy routes cooperating with the France, from which the AIO will chose from. But combined the routs are quite many. so I hope we can eliminate some of them.
Daunting task.
A couple of remarks :
The Australia to Canada route can be shifted to the east. It cost 1 extra CP (6 instead of 5) but the route is also 1 sea area further from Truk and the Japan area so that losses will be lower. In the end, the CW will spare convoys by wasting 1 here to have the route more eastward.
Some parts of the convoy routes should be seen as independent "modules" : For example the NEI oil. Will it be saved in India, in Australia, in both ? It costs 4 CP (Tankers if playing with Tankers), but the way you put them at sea define where they are saved.
For example the South America resources. Do they go to England through the eastern way (Cape Verde / Cape St Vincent) or through the western way (East Coast). Both ways are 4 CP long per resource, and the western way can be 1 CP more than the eastern way for one of these resources, but the way from the USA to England is usually safer than the one from the Cape Verde Basin to Cape St Vincent.
Within the whole convoy route plan, I think that those modules should be decided independently, so that the CW don't always save its oil to India.
Also, having no convoy in the Med when playing with LOS (Limited Oversea Supply, that requires to have CP at sea to trace a supply path) is a bad idea. You may have designed the convoys routes without optional rules in mind, but LOS is often selected, and it is crutial to the CW, so IMO CW routes should be designed with LOS in mind.
Splitting the convoy routes between the Bay of Biscay at setup is a tactical mistake IMO, that the CW should never make. Splitting the route here means that there are 2 critical / important Sea Areas instead of 1 to protect, thus depletting your escort assets faster and providing the Axis with more searchinb & finding occasions. Moreover, the Faeroes Gap is the only Sea area that is garanteed to be in range from German SUBs in 39 and in 1940. Providing them with a place to hunt is a bad idea. The Faeroes Gap stays the sea area that is the closest from Kiel, so I would make my convoy go throught there only if the Bay of Biscay was hopelessly lost.
A last comment, about the use of French CP as first losses in the CW convoy lines. I may already have said this, but I do it again, I consider this as a wrong idea. The percieved advantage of this tactic, is that it spares CW CP. This is a wrong perception, as, talking to you from my experience in playing the game, the CW CP only really beggin to be threatened and butchered when France falls. So the only advantage of this tactic is useless finaly.
The downsides of that idea are :
- The necessity for the CW, when France is about to fall, to fill in the holes with CW CP anyway. So this needs the CW to have prepared in advance the right amount of CP, dispersed all along the convoy route, and take a naval to sail them all. Taking a naval is not the problem, the CW takes one per turn at minimum anyway, the problem is spreading the convoys, and not knowing in advance for real when Vichy will happen.
- When France falls, a lot of these French CP will fall in Free French hands. This means a greater flexibility later in 1941 / 1942 for the CW to fill in holes in his convoy lines, using Free French naval moves instead of CW naval moves, freeing the CW to do things he really wants to do, not only things the Axis forces him to do. So having French any CP destroyed in the place of CW CPs is a wrong idea from this sole point of view.
- Later again, when Vichy is collapsed, all French CP will become allied again, even those controlled by Vichy France previously, adding a larger amount of flexibility for the allied side in managing its convoys. These French convoys may even come handy in the Pacific, helping the USA choosing a Land action and still re-opening a supply route the Japanese just have cut.
- As soon as Free France come into existence, you will want to provide it with BPs, and you'll then need to ship those BPs to the new Fre French home country, which risks to be 2-3 sea areas away from the lender. Having Free French CPs for that job releaves the CW from doing the job, and allows the Free French to have lent BP sooner than if there were no Free French CP. And the sooner Free France have BP, the sooner it builts units, and the sooner it built units, the sooner it can be active within the allied play. Free French activity limits can be of a really good help in all the game, both in Europe and in the Pacific. Having that asset earlier is good for the allies.
French CPs are wildcards in the Allied play in the convoy / supply world of WiF (due to the added activities limits that Free French units provide), and having them take losses instead of the CW is a very wrong idea. They are so few initialy, and they will loose some even if not on CW convoy routes. I would call that a wrong good idea. It looks like a good idea, but it is nowhere one.
It will take you a couple of games to see that in actual games, but I can tell it to you already after a dozen complete games finished. It would be a pity if the computer game consistently used this strategy over and over, never realizing it is not good.
|
Printable Version
RE: AI for MWiF - Commonwealth - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread