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mcaryf -> SD4 Plunder (10/30/2013 11:24:31 AM)
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I think there might be opportunities for “Plunder” to play a bigger part in SC than it does. Currently capturing some major cities results in a small MPP haul which can of course be adjusted by scenario designers whilst a surrendering country can yield large quantities of booty but I do not think this can be edited.
In practice recycling captured enemy equipment and deploying POWs as free labour did play a significant part in WW2. I guess the use of slave labour by the Axis powers is better known than the fact that the British used Italian prisoners to improve the harbour defences at Scapa Flow after they were penetrated by a German submarine and many Axis POWs worked in food production. The Germans were particularly good at recovering and repairing tanks from the battlefield both their own and those of their enemies and fielded several units equipped with T34s in Russia.
First, however, I would like to suggest a naval opportunity. SC currently treats raiding surface ships as a somewhat poor relation to submarines with a typically lower Raid value in the standard scenarios. In fact surface raiders had a significant additional potential in that their larger crews gave them the option of capturing merchant ships and putting a crew aboard which they often did. My proposal here is that surface ships acting as raiders should be able to steal as well as destroy MPPs. This could either be a fixed percentage of their Raid value, say 50%, or a proportion that could be set in the Editor.
Of course in terms of value the captured merchant ship itself should be regarded as an extra asset in its own right so 50% is quite modest and it might help justify raiding by surface ships which is otherwise not very cost effective.
With respect to land units the owning player gets the advantage of a cheap re-build if the unit is destroyed when its supply is more than a value that can be set in the Editor. I guess this is intended to distinguish units that might have surrendered or been cut off as opposed to those where the owning player can salvage some equipment or men. Apart from the fact that the opponent cannot rebuild I am not sure whether the player who destroys a low supply unit gets any further benefit. My proposal is that where a unit is destroyed below the rebuild threshold the opponent should be awarded some MPP bonus which might be 10% of the construction cost if supply was zero (i.e. surrendered) and 5% if it was between supply 1 and the minimum rebuild number. These values could perhaps be adjustable in the editor. In another of these SD posts I have mentioned capturing research. I would propose that any land unit destroyed with supply zero would give a random tech bonus in any research area where that unit was in advance of the opponent. Both the Axis and Allies took care with respect to when and how they deployed units with advanced technology. This addition might cause SC players to exercise the same caution.
Regards
Mike
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