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swagman -> RE: "House Rules" for UV PBEM (4/18/2004 12:13:49 AM)
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House Rules do have their place, in particular in a tournament situation where all players are supposed to be on an even playing field. Games do have programming absurdities and bugs, which are often secret knowledge beholden to only a few. A typical human trait is to use any advantage to win (bar shooting your opponent, though that does happen occasionally), and using house rules are an excellent tool to stop this happening.
In a non-tournament PBEM, the most important thing is for both players to be playing to the same set of rules. As such, Mario's items are a useful check list to alert players to bugs and issues and on which they can agree on what is allowable or not. If players want to include all of Mario's items or exclude them, it is up to them.
For my part, I think some a very valid. I would like to thank Mario for making these available, particularly as it is so easy to criticise what someone else has put forward, rather than coming up with original suggestions of our own...I have included my comments below.
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ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée
This is the most common one ie the one I use;
"House Rules" for UV PBEM (Scen #18-19)
#1 Maximum allowed altitude for all aircraft in UV is 20000 ft (approx. 6500 m). This is because, historically, aircraft in South Pacific in 1942/1943 (UV timeframe) didn't fly in stratosphere due to lack of proper gear/facilities (not to mention time and loss of range because of very very hard climbing in humid atmosphere).
While this may have historically been the case, it doesn't up-set the game balance. As such, it is a simulation preference. As mentioned, some bombers like B-17's and B-24's did commonly exceed 20,000 ft...but probably not more than about 5,000 feet, so a 20,000 ft limit doesn't matter that much for them...probably to the US advantage, since it makes it more likely that Zeros can intercept and get chewed up by defensive fire.
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ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée #2 Fighter-Bomber strafe attacks (i.e. "Sweep" at 100 ft) against enemy ground units are not allowed. This is because there still appears to be bug in current UV v2.30 regarding this (hundreds and even thousands of troops can be killed that way which is totally unrealistic).
As a bug issue, I think this is good to exclude. However, if two players want to massacre each others troops, then let them.
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ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée #3 "Commando" style attacks with very small number of troops (i.e. troops that can be loaded on single/few submarines and/or ships) against populated enemy bases are not allowed. If such attack is wanted whole unit must be used. This is because with such "commando" style attack you can learn 100% true composition of troops in enemy base (i.e. it's cheat/exploit).
This is a game absurdity, since 20 commandos dropped off by a sub could never count to the last man the 50,000 troops at a base, and know the fighting capacity and manpower of each unit. The best they could do would be to learn something like the bombardment result, that is 20,000-40,000 troops and over 100 guns. In addition, since there areno 20 strength commando units in the game, it is obviously not something the game was designed to accommodate.
In addition, the only way to do this is to send in a suicide squad that will be eliminated in their attack. Such deliberate suicide attacks were not the norm. Where attacks with little hope of escape were mounted, they were done so with the intention of destroying something important, not information gathering...and there was also a rescue plan in place just in case the party made it out alive.
Furthermore, in game terms, someone had to be left alive to carry the intelligence back to HQ, given that if infantry portable radios existed at the time, they were not very reliable and had little range and were not designed for communication with submerged submarines.
In the house rules, if a player really want to do this, he can still drop off the entire unit, which only takes 15 subs to carry a 900 value battalion. However, it does mean the player pays the penalty of losing the unit, and there are only limited units of this size in the game.
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ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée #4 "Commando" style attacks with very small number of troops (i.e. troops that can be loaded on single/few submarines and/or ships) against HEX that is possible enemy retreat path are not allowed. If such attack is wanted whole unit must be used. This is because with such "commando" style attack you can effectively block path of enemy retreat with very small number of troops (Example: As Japanese you invaded Port Moresby. If your ground troops are stronger enemy can be driven out. The near by, 1 HEX away, allied base is Lea Lea. If you take Lea Lea loosing enemy troops from Port Moresby will be destroyed instead of just retreating there).
Another game absurdity...like for #3. There are no 20 strength commando units in the game, so why create a unit the game was not designed for. But historically, did 20 soldiers ever capture/destroy 20,000 retreating enemy? The answer is NO, so it should be left out of the game...unless players agree between themselves to keep it.
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ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée #5 Barges (and US PT/LCx boats) can not be used in open seas. This is because such small craft can only be used on coastal routes. ALLOWED: Gili - Port Moresby, Lae - Gili Gili, "The Slot" ... DISALLOWED: Rabaul - Gili Gili, Cairns - Port Moresby, Luganville - Lunga...
An item of player preference. Barges could be many things, including local trading vessels not otherwise included in the game. Today these vessels commonly sail from Indonesia to Northern Australia to poach or land illegal immigrants; so they were capable of carrying small amounts of supplies to outlying bases in WW2.
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ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée #6 Only one submarine can be placed in submarine Task Force. This is to simulate that automatic "Wolf Packs" were not historically used in South Pacific in 1942/1943 (UV timeframe).
As pointed out, the game only allows a single sub attack, so not sure this matters. Again, I would leave it up to the players to dedice.
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ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée #7 Japanese Sub Doctrine OFF Fog of War ON Allied Damage Control ON Advanced Weather ON Allied/IJN Reinforcements VERY VARIABLE Allied Ship Commitment 100% IJN Ship Commitment 120%
Player preference. Jap Sub doctrine off does make the japs and US even.
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ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée #8 All kind of night air attacks or just bombing attacks (i.e. airfield/port/ground unit air bombing) are unacceptable.
Player preference. Since the game revolves around a few turns in which major carrier/surface engagements and invasions occur, air attacks are one of the few on-going entertainments the game offers. I would certianly not omit this.
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ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée #9 F4U's Corsair should Never operate on a US CV in UV. This is a know game bug, the US Navy did not Use F4U's from CV's untill mid 44 ifrc, certainly not withen the time frame that UV cover's.
Player preference, since what does one aircraft type matter to the game balance.
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