14 months of turns or

[oldman45]

I really don't have a life [:D]

Its February 7th and I thought I would stop and post some thoughts of my campaign against the AI.

Pro's

Love the map and the ability to move units strategically through off map locations. The logistics issues that I have to deal with, repair, ammo resupply etc, it works great as far as I am concerned and I love it.

The added ships and units provide a level of depth that makes the game even more enjoyable, thanks to all those who worked so hard on this.

The AI showing up where I did not expect it, the aggressive subs and mini subs really added a lot to the game.!! I am sure those that did the scripting had their ears burning when a couple of CA's hit one of my amphib groups that had not picked up their escort yet. It was pretty ugly.

Having to use the right ships for the right job requires more planning than I am used to but it too adds to the flavor of the game. Putting together a proper invasion force and seeing it work is worth the effort.

Con's

There are the known issues of the subs, and of course the combat routines that involved surface combat. I know they are being addressed.

There are a few items that I want to address;

Would it be easier for the sub to just check if its home port is still in friendly hands? My boats keeping picking their own ports with no rhyme or reason. An example would be the Gato boats operating out of Soerabaja. They go out on patrol and then I find them heading to Perth. There is no good reason for this because I have supply, AS's and fuel at their home port.

The AI made some moves that made no sense and allowed for the destruction of all of their fleet carriers and most of their surface combatants CL and above. For about 6 weeks they would move to PM, cruise back and forth for a short while and then go to Rabaul and park. The problem is they (AI) didn't own Rabaul. They stayed long enough for me to cycle all of my carriers from PH to come down and hit them. Not to mention the planes from PM and Rabaul itself. Once that cycle ended, the AI then started sending units to Oosthaven, this has continued into 43 with the last CVL going down in late January. I also owned Oosthaven. Kinda of took the fun out of this campaign now that there is little threat from the IJN.

Plane repair and combat.

I sent the carriers to raid the Gilberts in late 42. It was a disaster as far as the air groups were concerned. I lost almost all the strike planes and most of the fighters. That is not the problem, when I got back to port, it took over 3 weeks to replenish the squadrons. Between weak production numbers and a very long repair times of the planes by the carrier crews, I found that it did not “feel” right. Also there are limits to how often and how many planes you can take into the squadrons. There were no F4 squadrons or SBD-3's operating any where and I keep the reinforcement button switched off. So I would think that production could of kept up. I could be out to lunch but like I said, it just didn't feel right.

The AA fire from IJN ships historically was nothing to write home about, but I am finding that my planes “seem” to be suffering too many damage results. Again, its just how it feels, no hard data.

I finally got some light bombers trained up in low level naval attacks but they still seem not to hurt the merchants they find and instead of skip bombing they are getting hits with their 50 cals or 20mm's. That is a little disappointing.

Along the same lines, it seems that it takes far too many 1k bomb hits to put down the BB's. I can understand the 500lb bombs and the fact that pilots lie about the number of hits, but in one turn it was reported I got 30 hits on the Hyuga all 1000lb bombs, even 1/3rd that number should have put her down. It took another day of air strikes and 12 more hits to sink it. While the Yamato went down in 3 days of strikes but most of those were 500lb's bombs from strike aircraft flying out of PM and until the carriers got in range with the TBF's it looked like it might get away.

Supply

In my game I never lost Java or Palembang and because of this supply/fuel is not a problem. In fact I transferred two of the carriers over there to start the offensive and in a few months had the Celebes and southern Borneo back under allied control. It just feels like there is too much supply being generated. I did run out of fuel in some of the ports in Australia but it was never a real issue or problem to any operations I was running.

AI Air missions.

Once the AI took the Celebes and southern Borneo they had several airfields in strike range of Soerabaja but it never launched any strikes against the port. Between the forces stationed there and the 2 divisions the Allies get early on made it impossible for the AI to take Java allowing me a major advantage. My ships would sortie out and destroy amphib groups on the first day of the landing and this cut off the troops they dropped from supply making it easy for the Brit or Australian division to move in and wipe them out. Had the AI made it impossible to keep the ships in Soerabaja I might have ended up losing Java. In fact other than strikes against the ship that was parked at Wake and the damaged ships I had in port at the Gilberts the AI never attacked a port. Its something that might be looked at in a coming patch.

Over all, I am very pleased with the game and I know it will bring years of playing. Thanks again!

[Don Bowen]

Would it be easier for the sub to just check if its home port is still in friendly hands? My boats keeping picking their own ports with no rhyme or reason. An example would be the Gato boats operating out of Soerabaja. They go out on patrol and then I find them heading to Perth. There is no good reason for this because I have supply, AS's and fuel at their home port.

The sub rebase code in the current release includes a rather high fuel requirement (left over from WITP). Any base that can not meet this requirement is excluded as a possible base (including home port). You may have seen some posts about subs evacuating Manila and rebasing to San Francisco. This was do to players running down fuel stocks on all closer bases to that the rebaser ignored them.

This has been addressed in Patch 1. The fuel requirement is still there but is 1/10th of what it was. Still, subs have an deep carnal desire to be where the fuel flows.

[oldman45]

It just appears that something else is at play when it changes home base if the current base has everyting it needs. I never went under 50k fuel in Soerabaja.

[Don Bowen]

Post a save then, and I'll give it a peer.

[oldman45]

I have pulled all the subs in for the time being, when I send them back out I will check for it to happen again and post it. Thanks

[Yamato hugger]

Good to know that in WW-II sub skippers were able to ignore orders and go base themselves where they wanted. This is my way of saying that the GAME should never change the players orders. If the assigned home port is captured, then yes, I can see the computer assigning a new base to it, but reassigning a base that is still in friendly hands? Nope. No possible justifiable reason for this.

[SteveD64]

The problem is they (AI) didn't own Rabaul. They stayed long enough for me to cycle all of my carriers from PH to come down and hit them. Not to mention the planes from PM and Rabaul itself. Once that cycle ended, the AI then started sending units to Oosthaven, this has continued into 43 with the last CVL going down in late January. I also owned Oosthaven. Kinda of took the fun out of this campaign now that there is little threat from the IJN.

Pretty much the same thing happened with me in the Guad scenario. As I was massing shipping at Rabaul for the invasion of Guadalcanal the Allied AI sent a BB strike force against Rabaul and what could've been a nifty hit and run raid (but probably suicidal) turned sour when the Allied AI never left the Rabaul sea hex and got pounded. It caused a lot of damage for me but the end result was pretty bad for the AI. I loaded the game as the Allied player and saw the destination was "Rabaul" but that the Home Port was listed as "none" meaning that once the TF was hurt it was never returning back to its home port.

[Montbrun]

I think something has gone awry with the "self preservation" routines.

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: Yamato hugger

Good to know that in WW-II sub skippers were able to ignore orders and go base themselves where they wanted. This is my way of saying that the GAME should never change the players orders. If the assigned home port is captured, then yes, I can see the computer assigning a new base to it, but reassigning a base that is still in friendly hands? Nope. No possible justifiable reason for this.

Is auto sub ops on?

[Yamato hugger]

Certainly not in my games. I leave nothing under computer control, ever (unless you count a handful of CS convoys).

[oldman45]

Don

Yes, I have auto sub turned on. Lets face it, I am a lazy player, thats why I don't do PBEM. [;)]

[Chad Harrison]

ORIGINAL: oldman45

Along the same lines, it seems that it takes far too many 1k bomb hits to put down the BB's. I can understand the 500lb bombs and the fact that pilots lie about the number of hits, but in one turn it was reported I got 30 hits on the Hyuga all 1000lb bombs, even 1/3rd that number should have put her down. It took another day of air strikes and 12 more hits to sink it. While the Yamato went down in 3 days of strikes but most of those were 500lb's bombs from strike aircraft flying out of PM and until the carriers got in range with the TBF's it looked like it might get away.

This is one of my only remaining frustrations from vanilla WitP: the 1000 pounders just dont do the job on any battleship, and even the IJN carriers can soak up quite a few of them. Sure they will sink eventually - but taking litterally 30 hits from 1000 pounders is staggering.

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: oldman45

Don

Yes, I have auto sub turned on. Lets face it, I am a lazy player, thats why I don't do PBEM. [;)]

That's the reason the AI feels it can rebase your subs. There may be another one. Are you seeing a message in the ops file about subs diverting for replenishment before resuming patrol??

[oldman45]

Just remember the pilots lie [;)] They may have only gotten 10 hits or 5 hits, SAP 1000lb bomb will go through the deck of most BB's that Japan built.

[Scott_USN]

I use to think a 1000lb bomb weighed a thousand pounds. [8|]

They actually weighed in at 60 pounds with 1000 pound explosive force... Hey learn something all the time.

[oldman45]

Then it has been a good day. Always important to learn something new [:)]

[Scott_USN]

I am still confused on them do they weigh 1000lb... Couldn't find much on them.

[AttuWatcher]

I doubt they were 1000lbs. Would be too heavy for the planes to carry except the full size bombers.

[keeferon01]

1000lb bomb

I actually thought they weighed over more like 470kg

[oldman45]

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen

ORIGINAL: oldman45

Don

Yes, I have auto sub turned on. Lets face it, I am a lazy player, thats why I don't do PBEM. [;)]

That's the reason the AI feels it can rebase your subs. There may be another one. Are you seeing a message in the ops file about subs diverting for replenishment before resuming patrol??

Yes I do, which makes me go look for them at that point. But those tend to be TF 100 leaving patrol area to replenish at Johnson Island. It is usually reasonably close by. The home port changes that are sending boats to perth from the java sea are not listed.