LCU activation

[jomni]

Hi just some clarification.
LCU activation is for movement and attack right?
No need to activate for defense (just wait for the opposing side to activate).

[Skipjack_]

Correct. Activation is to move or attack. Defense does not require activation. Although you could activate to attempt a counter-attack after a botched enemy attack [;)]

[Capt. Harlock]

Activation also happens automatically when you load an LCU on board a ship. (It doesn't matter if the ship is going anywhere or not--which has led to more than one "oops" on my part.)

[jomni]

Why is it that I see in some of the battles that only 2 squads defend despite having a lot of troops stationed in the base.
(I'm referring to Japanese attacking based in the Philippines and Malay Peninsula in the early war).
What factors affect the number of troops who engage?

And one more thing.
If I activate to attack, do they lose entrenchment?

[Tony4245]

ORIGINAL: jomni

Why is it that I see in some of the battles that only 2 squads defend despite having a lot of troops stationed in the base.
(I'm referring to Japanese attacking based in the Philippines and Malay Peninsula in the early war).
What factors affect the number of troops who engage?

Readiness, and I believe the land rating of the commander(s) counts, too.
I'm also pretty sure that the IJA and IJN get some sort of bonus (or conversely the Allies some sort of penalty) to reflect the generally unready and disorganized state of the Allied defenses early on.

And one more thing.
If I activate to attack, do they lose entrenchment?

I do not believe you lose entrenchment if you attack, you probably just don't get benefits from it while you're the attacker. You will, of course, lose it if you move, or if you divide a unit.

[jomni]

Thanks for the clarification.

I now have a nice signature. [:D]

[Capt. Harlock]

quote:ORIGINAL: jomni Why is it that I see in some of the battles that only 2 squads defend despite having a lot of troops stationed in the base. (I'm referring to Japanese attacking based in the Philippines and Malay Peninsula in the early war). What factors affect the number of troops who engage?

Readiness, and I believe the land rating of the commander(s) counts, too. I'm also pretty sure that the IJA and IJN get some sort of bonus (or conversely the Allies some sort of penalty) to reflect the generally unready and disorganized state of the Allied defenses early on.

That's part of it, but the most important reason is the readiness checks based on experience described on page 35 of the original manual. The first check especially is a killer: if the LCU fails, readiness is reduced to 1 for the duration of the combat. in other words, the unit fights at 1% efficiency. The program uses 2 squads as the rock-bottom minimum in order to avoid divide-by-zero errors.

Incidentally, there is good reason to believe the formula in the manual is incorrect. The odds of failing the checks are higher than it says, and therefore, LCU's with an experience rating of 20 or less are pretty much useless. This is why there are so many collapses in the first year of the game: the Allied LCU's haven't trained up to effective levels yet.

[Skipjack_]

LCU Activation is also used to call transports via the "Get Transport" function. Note units under British control (SEAC, 14th Army) will not bring U.S.-type tranports (Henderson, Admiral, et. al.). They will bring the AMC/ Empress types. Usually it is a good idea to use U.S. HQs to assign them to when calling transports.