Tankerace
Posts: 6400
Joined: 3/21/2003 From: Stillwater, OK, United States Status: offline
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I just won my first scenario with a decisive victory, and before I go cranking up the difficulty to ungodly levels, I want to comment on one thing I noticed about the game. In most games covering this type of warfare (in fact, the only ones that come close to this scale are Koei's PTO and SSI's GNB III) submarines are quite ineffective, and practically worthless. I found that in the beginning phase of my scenario (17), from May to October 1942, I was at a distinct carrier disadvantage (I lost the Lexington and Long Island, while Sara, Enterprise, and Hornet were badly damaged) and having no battleships, I chose a defensive campaign using my submarines. By late 1942, American subs had practically sank every ship with the word "Maru" in its name. In addition to that, they removed quite a few DDs for few losses (I think I lost 6 during the entire scenario, of which 4 were to DDs, 1 to enemy aircraft, and 1 to surface gunfire). Since they removed any chance for invasion by the Japanese, I was free to build up, to a point were I was able to force a huge carrier battle off Guadalcanal (I won, due to weather and luck. Lots of luck). Japanese subs (with hist. doctrine) had a very different story. The sank a few merchants, mostly stragglers limping back to Nomea, and they did get a few DDs and 2 cruisers or so. In all, I think they sank about 16 ships total (and that is beefing the total, IMO), mostly destoyers and merchants. I will give them credit for putting 2 Long Lance's into the CV [I]Wasp[/I], effectively removing her from future combat (it was in November 1943), but other than that, they did nothing but be a little pesky. Over half the enemy ships sunk (about 400 total) were caused by my submarines. They might not be big and beautiful like a flattop, but you ain't gonna win without them. They spotted enemy carriers, at one time torpedoed 2 and damaging them, and at one point the Soryu ran into a mine laid by the USS Argonaut. The took the fight to the enemy when the surface guys couldn't. Well, these are just my thoughts
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Designer of War Plan Orange Allied Naval OOBer of Admiral's Edition Naval Team Lead for War in the Med Author of Million-Dollar Barrage: American Field Artillery in the Great War coming soon from OU Press.
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