Caranorn
Posts: 424
Joined: 8/31/2001 From: Luxembourg Status: offline
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I let the computer run ai against ai a bit today and last night. I could not stay at the computer most of today to watch it, but I again noticed Hong Kong fall within 5 or 6 days of the first Japanese units arriving in the hex. On the other hand, The move on Singapour was a bit slower (had it run scenario 16 so different starting setup, but the advance on the main axis is pretty much identical to scenario 15). One reason for that slow down was probably in the ai's routine, when I play the allies as human I always evacuate Victoria Point, apparently the ai does not target an empty base (at least under those circumstances) and instead marches towards it's next target (Alor Star). So in my allied vs. ai games I tend to see the IG division arriving about 3 days earlier then at times where I sacrifice that base force (historically they did retreat, VP was not on the IG's route of advance either, or at least not it's target). But in any case, movement along rail seems to be too fast. A possible solution might be to reduce movement rates as I proposed and institute some sort of strategic movement (the specific idea I had would probably clash with the fog of war rules (no enemy lcu visible w/i 3 hexes and no bomber unit withing range of the starting hex)). In any case, the examples I used all ignored pursuit as they were either concerned with straight movement without enemy opposition (Indo-China to Malaya or Indo-China to Burma) or simple combat execution. On a scale of 60 nauticals per hex you cannot expect to conquer a large land area in a few days, particularly in the predominantly bad terrain of the pacific. Small islands are an entirely different issue from coastal or continental areas. Before posting this thread, I took a look at various attoll and island battles and found that most of the serious fighting (in WitP till a base is captured, which can lead to added fighting against the stuborn japanese) took place within a few days of the initial landing. Larger areas on the other hand required much longer periods of fighting. In Witp this later fact only happen if forces are roughly equal in strength and quality, yet in reality this also happened otherwise (in the Malay campaign I consider the Japanese to have had 3:1 and more odds at any time and front not even considering their troop quality, yet it took them months to capture Singapore (and they originally expected at least another month necessary to complete the campaign)). That is where I feel the concept of base size comes in (was it UV that had it or PacWar?). The same odds should lead to drastic differences in conquest rate depending on your location. In the end, when land combat in some cases seems to be at least twice as fast in WitP then historic events, something is wrong with that part of the game. When land movement also seems to be off at least when using rail movement that greatly increases the problem. Pursuit if combined with longer battles might actually work (though it should not be instantaneous), say you fight over some 60 nauticals of terrain for two weeks and finally push the enemy out of it's last defensive position in the area, after a short rest and refit period you would logically set out in pursuit and have lost no more then a day or two distance (a force in flight can indeed move faster, though it might be realistic to add heavy equipment loss to retreaters). Anyhow, as it is now, the land warfare is barely tollerable to me. It's almost impossible to organise an allied land defense early in the game. The final defense of Singapore and Bataan don't seem to be impossible (ai against ai showed Bataan holding until march 42, but I expect that reflects a quick retreat to the peninsula as the PA seems barely scratched), but the previous delaying action seems to be impossible (oddly, the more I try the faster the japanese can advance and I'm in no way a novice to wargaming (GG's combat systems and games)). I will start a new game today, possibly letting the eastern portion of the war run on automatic and just concentrating on the Phillipines, Malaya, Burma and the NEI (to run more tuns in a relatively short time). Marc aka Caran... P.S.: I never play the Chinese or manchurian areas on automatic as I don't know much of the historic course of that conflict, nor do I feel partisan warfare to be reflected well in the game (but then that's tough to do anyhow (most people don't seem to understand it even today as I realised from a documentary I saw on TV a few days ago (on the GPW))). P.P.S.: I don't think to be an excellent, possibly not even good wargamer. But organising a defense like Malaya or the Phillipines once you understand a game system is pretty basic. So the problem I expect ain't my skill level;-)
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