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herwin -> Smothering Operations (2/22/2008 11:12:34 AM)
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Last night, I played a turn of Empire of the Sun. This is not the best game on the Pacific War, but it is unusual in having a strategic focus, and Mark Herman is trying to define a good model of an air/sea offensive against a prepared defender. Two things are unusual about EotS: the special role of intelligence and 'smothering' operations on bases. On the scale of WiTP, there is probably no need to have a special mechanism for surprise attacks as long as the intelligence model is reasonable, so I'll concentrate on 'smothering' operations.
Smothering operations were the air attacks on the bases (both air and naval) supporting the target under attack. These could be land-based and gradual or carrier-based and sudden. Their effect in both cases was to eliminate the base from playing a role in the defence of the target. Gradual land-based smothering had two effects--it disrupted normal operations of the base, and it gradually destroyed the base infrastructure while it kept the base disrupted. A carrier-based strike had the same effect, but over a much shorter time scale, and without the long-term disruption.
To model this, WiTP needs to treat an air attack as forcing a naval base to pause in its refitting, resupplying, and refueling of ships. Similarly, an air attack on an airbase should disrupt the preparation of offensive air sorties and the repairing of aircraft. When base infrastructure has been damaged, the efficiency of the base in those tasks needs to be degraded. I'm not sure that the game currently gets this right. In particular, the shore bombardment mission seems to play the role in the game of the carrier-based strike in reality.
Comments?
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