Pestholes of the South Pacific

[Chiteng]

I really hate the way that even in the best supported and
best supplied base (Rabaul) the Japs cant keep a strong force
together. It simply rots away.

Now I understand that 'IF' you assume that everything
Eric B. has to say on this topic is gospel, then that is the way
the game goes. However, why assume that?

In fact the entire game seems to be VERY faithfull to Eric B. and
his books. So much so that I cant imagine how a Zero can get off the ground w/o falling apart! (Some dont it seems)

But the ground unit attrition is a killer. The best reason to invade
Australia is so that you can park your army on a base where
'malaria' doesnt exist. You know its a LONG way to Australia from Truk, and ALOT of bad things can happen to you.

Second I hate the way I cant load a ship with JUST troops
and leave the supply behind. Unless I missed it in the rules.

Third American ships DIDNT have that great damage control
in May 1941. They LEARNED to do it by having ships get beat up and sunk. The Lexington and the Yorktown were part of that
learning curve.

Fourth the rules state that a 'baseforce' will exapnd to fit the
airbase. Well I captured PM and it was a 9/9 and I parked
a 1600 BF on it. Now a year later it is still 1600.
No replacement has ever been made to augment it.

[Toast Master]

Originally posted by Chiteng
Fourth the rules state that a 'baseforce' will exapnd to fit the
airbase. Well I captured PM and it was a 9/9 and I parked
a 1600 BF on it. Now a year later it is still 1600.
No replacement has ever been made to augment it.

I asked the same question in another thread (Jap aviation support Q) just this morning and got a very quick reply from another player. Apparently, this rule only applies to the AI. When the AI enlarges a base, one of its base units gets more aviation support squads. For human players, this does not take place. It looks like Matrix didn't make that clear in the manual.

(Apparently, this "handicap" in the AI's benefit was created because the AI is not able to effectively distribute base forces to where they are needed.)

[ATENTOKO]

Hello Chiteng,

Look positioning 250+ air service personel at RABAUL. They say it will be amazing.

I´m going to do it and we will see.

Thaks
Andy:p

[strollen]

I really hate the way that even in the best supported and
best supplied base (Rabaul) the Japs cant keep a strong force
together. It simply rots away.

Now I understand that 'IF' you assume that everything
Eric B. has to say on this topic is gospel, then that is the way
the game goes. However, why assume that?

In fact the entire game seems to be VERY faithfull to Eric B. and
his books. So much so that I cant imagine how a Zero can get off the ground w/o falling apart

I went to Guadacanal in 1998 and I found a Lonely Planets guide to the place. A big chunk of the guide was devoted to tropical disease and with good reason. Even in the 1992, 50 years after the battle and with great medical advances the malaria incidents in the Solomon Islands was over 400. No that isn't 400 case in the whole island that is 400 cases per 1,000 population. Meaning even among people who have developed a resistance to the disease almost 40% get it each year! (technically some people get it twice in a year.) (Its down to a mere 150 in 2000)

Talk show host, Chris Mathews, came back to work this week after 1+ month absence after contracting malaria. Now this guy had the finest medical care in the world and he was still wiped out for weeks and all he to do was talk to people. 30 years ago my sister and brother-in-law contracted Dengue fever while cruising the South Pacific in sailboat. They were sick for 2 weeks and they both said it was by far the most miserable experience in there lives and they both wanted to put out of their misery in their delirious state.. Imagine trying to fight in 100+ degrees and 98% humidity with these disease.... The jungles rot armies, and if anything the game understates the effects...

However, since the American's at least rotated the troops out I do wish the game made it easier to do so.

[Drongo]

Strollen,

I was travelling back and forth to Guadalcanal in '93-'98. I avoided getting malaria (but still copped some other nasties). A lot of the ex-pats and long termers (2+ years work) got malaria because many of them found it too hard to keep remembering to take tablets (and put up with side effects). They generally considered the figures that you mentioned to be acceptable over there. This was because they have very good treatments in the hospital and most of those who get it are back at work within 1-2 weeks. You can imagine what it was like there in WW2.

We also tried a one off jungle paint ball game over there when one of the pilots brought over some marker guns. It lasted 1 game in the humidity and everyone gave up. This was in their less humid dry season.

I would completely agree with the impact of the Guadalcanal's jungle environment on men and equipment. I don't know about Rabaul though. Haven't read much on it but at least it was an established port/town. You'd think that daily operations there would be less taxing (though still not great).