motaman
Posts: 31
Joined: 7/17/2002
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The way it looks from here, when making an amphibious assault on a hex, the *large* transports very simply dock right up to the beach, dirt, rock, 100 foot cliffs, whatever, and unload their troops with the greatest of ease. This would work fine if the transports were equipt with HELOCOPTERS !
Everything I've read or seen suggests an amphibious assault was a very complicated, rehursed, gamble where many factors have to be in the "green" before the odds for sucess are favorible enough to even [I]think[/I] of invasion. I think it's way too easy in UV.
[I](Disclaimer: I have not *fully* thought this through)[/I]
I would suggest that once a TF arrives at it's destination to land troops, an Amphibious Assault mode should be initiated. This mode would consist of multiple phases that would ultimatly lead to whether the landing is successful or not. The first priority should be [B]weather[/B]. A succession of phases should come into play after weather has allowed the invasion, and the TF is located in the designated hex.
The phases should go something like this: Coastal Battery Fire, TF Counter Fire, Landing Craft "Load and Hold", Coastal Battery Fire, Shore Bombardment and Smoke Placement, LC Approach, Coastal Battery Fire, Landing and Ground Defensive Fire, Shore Bombardment, Obstical Removal, First Wave Assault, 2nd LC Approach, Coastal Battery Fire, Landing and Ground Defensive Fire, Shore Bombardment, Obstical Removal, 1st and 2nd Wave assault, and then the normal combat process would take effect.
An implemation of many details would be needed for each phase. I'll go over the more important ones:
The Beach: A hex should have a percentage of its mass designated as "landable beach" (LB from now on.) The quality of the beach for invasion purposes should be represented by a number and used as a modifier for overall sucess. A number indicating beach size should also be factored in to set unloading time. The combination of beach size and quality should determan where shore batteries are placed. Two options should be available when building fortifications: Airstrip and Beach. The ammount of LB would be added as a modifier determining the pace of the fortifications advancment. These beach fortifications would represent all the standard anti invasion defenses used in the PTO. In addition, an adjustable percentage of combatants should be designated as "on beach" to occupy the trenches, pillboxes, or bunkers located directly on the beaches. These options give the player the ability to defend at the beaches or inland. The latter being the case for most, if not all, invasions agianst the Japs. This does not mean, however, it should be by default. Especially for both sides. In an even more level of detail, a sub-percentage of the beach combatants should be devided among each LB in a mannor similair to a slide-bar, decreacing from one area while advancing in another. And of course with every beach, there are....
Tides: High and Low tides. I'll spare you the details, but they should be accounted for when caculating invasion sucess.
Coral Reef: What about coral? Im under the impression a coral reef can have devistating results when contact is made by a ship. Coral could cover certain LB's in a hex. Invading a coral beach should require specialized equiptment, like tracked landing craft, for it to be allowed. With the "beach troop slider" (as mentioned above), combatants could concentrate on LB's with a better quality rating.
Weather: Obviously more attention needs to be givin to weather. Predicted and current forcasts need to be givin for each individual hex. Degrees of intensity for each weather type need to be givin. Amphibious Assault or not. Weather obviously has a huge effect on the success of an invasion. When weather is bad, LC losses, disruption, and unloading time should be dramaticly increased. Thats if the weather even allows an invasion. In addition, the scattering of LC's due to weather can be represented by the scattering of forces along LB's. Overall, weather needs to be givin the proper respect it demands "in the real world."
Landing Craft: As suggested before, large transports, though some occasions the conditions would allow it, do not have the ability to just park on the beach and unload. The landing craft included with UV, that are used as... barges (sigh), should also be used for ferrying combat troops to the beach. This could be done by: When creating a TF, depending on the class of ship, an automatic caculation is made giving you the ammount of LC available to the TF. Apon arriving at the hex, ships will automaticly create the LC, designated and pre-indicated as to the ammount needed during TF creation, shuttle them to ships loaded with combat troops, and send them to assault the beach in waves. The time taken to do this should also be modified by weather and hostile gun batteries, which would result in the number of waves of LC's and the number of troops on the beach by the end of the day. The time would also allow a prep-bombardment by any ships capable. Losses along the way could be modified by weather, gun batteries, and the fortification level.
DD Tanks: That'd be useful
Landing ships: I think these are the guys that actually park on the beach, providing there is no coral reef, unloading tanks, supplies, relief. I've noticed they're represented in the game, I think they should be a more significant piece in the amphibious assault.
Smoke Bombardment: It might be represented in the fine print, but I have not seen it mentioned for other than surface combat. Weather obviously effects smoke, so levels of intensity, which could also represent accuracy, should be added and to the LC Assault caculations.
With all this factored in I envision an amphibious assault going something like this:
A pop-up over the targeted hex shows me there are 3 LB's. Two close together, one medium and one small. And another medium beach seperated from the two others. I send recon flights over the target hex, gaining information on the quality of the LB's, whether coral is present, the fortification level, and a rough estimate, represented by a percentage, of the number of combatants defending each beach. There is coral covering 1 LB, and the conditions on the other 2 are favorable. The report also indicates the beaches are well defended. I will concentrate on the 2 beaches close together. The beach with coral shouldnt be defended as well, but it's small. I'll put the majority of my force on the 1 good beach, which will be the main beach, and the coral secondary.
I create an Invasion TF. Since one of the beaches im invading has coral reef, I select a percentage of the over-all LC ammount to designate "tracked."
The loading of troops will put front line combatants into AP's first, while overflow, armor and any support would go to LS's. I designate which formations will be assigned to tracked LC's. Supply is loaded onto AK's. Ships capable of bombardment are assigned beaches and whether to fire smoke or not. I make sure the weather is fine by selecting a button that gives me the forcast and predicted forcast of the selected target hex, aswell as the prefered, current, and predicted tide over the beaches. I now select the "set destination hex" button. Once clicked, I hovor the mouse pointer over my destination hex which reviels a popup that gives the number of days to arrive, and the predicted forcast on that day. I confirm my invasion. I also select the "LC(t) (for tracked) destination hex" button to confirm the beach they will assault. If left undesignated, it will automatically, and randomly assign it a coral beach. Since there's only 1 coral beach I leave it alone.
Apon arrival, the shore batteries open up instantly sinking an AP. Counter Battery fire from a BB and a few CA's destroy some guns, but the beaches are fortified well. And the recon flight didnt give a correct assesment on the ammount of gun emplacments.
A weather check is done to allow for modifiers, and whether or not the invasion can even take place. The prediction was a little off, there is quite a bit of wind blowing to the south causing some moderatly rough waves. Hopefully the current wont be too bad. The tide levels were a bit off too. Seems a bit high on the main beach.
The LC's now start forming arround the AP's loading troops and maintaining a holding pattern. The weather has caused this process to slow a bit, but it's not too bad. I should be able to get both waves off by the end of the day. Coastal batteries open up agian, this time a hit on an AP and the loss of a LC. But my men are ready now for their assault on the beach.
The assigned ships for bombardment and/or smoke blast away now. Since the wind has picked up, the smoke I ordered probably wont help much. But since half that ships firepower goes towards bombardment, it's not that great a loss. A BB and some cruisers pound the main beach, while 2 CA's pound the secondary. I should have sent bombardment TF's ahead.
The LC's are all loaded with troops now and are ready to head for the beach. The first wave splits up, with the LV(t)'s heading off to the coral beach.
I pay the price for not prepairing the beach days ahead. The coastal batteries open up agian sending 4 LC's, and 1 LC(t) to the bottom. I'm sure a few survivors will wonder onto the beach once its occupied.
The assault force of LC's and (t)'s land on their beach. Apon landing, the combatants defending the beach now get their shot. Luckly the LC's provide cover from small arms. The combatants must not have much other than small arms as only one LC was damaged, but I did take rather heavy losses. The good side is the LC's armorment provided enough firepower to keep the combatants from overruning the beach. Same goes for the secondary beach, except I had half the losses.
Since I passed the "Hold Beach" check, the LC's return for more infantry. Another bombardment from my TF causes light casualties. Now any engineers will attempt to remove obsticals. The beach was said to have a fort. level of 5. My engineers cleared 28% on the main, not much but enough to make a few lanes, and 54% on the secondary, favorable. Now it's time for my first wave to assault the defending infantry on both beaches.
The results were devistating on my main beach, so much so the TF commander, being of moderate agressivness, called off the assault on just the main beach. Instantly turning arround the LC's to pick up whats left on the main beach. At the same time the LC(t)'s are bringing the second wave in, and the remainder of the combatants designated to LC(t)'s, as their results were quite favorable, but they did not overrun the beach. Both LC's and LC(t)'s take a few losses from yet another attack from the coastal batteries.
The remaining forces left on Main beach loaded what they could on the remaining LC's and loaded back up onto their AP's. At the same time, the remainder of the combatants defending the secondary beach fire on my troops. Light losses. Another TF bombardment and assault group 2, both first and second waves, makes their final assault to overrun the beach. It succeeds.
BUT, because of the limited number of LC(t)'s, the remainder of the TFs' combatants cannot be unloaded onto Secondary beach in a days time. A check, (based on odds between the invasion force numbers/firepower, and all beach combatant numbers/firepower) used to see if an attack can be made to clear the beaches or not has failed. 1-1 odds or lower caused the last hope of a sucessful invasion to fail. The invasion force is loaded onto LC(t)'s and sent back to the TF, which automaticaly sets a destination for home base.
(NOTE: If you think this is stupid... well, my name [I]is[/I] Motaman afterall ;) )
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How I want an Amphibious Assault... - 
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