Frustrating dilemma

[Drambuie]

Hi all,

Let me explain ... playing a slightly tweaked full campaign having boosted the AI allies with some extra stock of planes/squads/ships and some extra supplies etc and am at end feb as the Japanese. About to take Bataan, queing up to jump in and attack Singapore.

Now I may have been a little slow but I essentially progressed down the Malay Peninsula, taking bases etc. I found very little opposition - what appears to have hapened is the Ai - presumably boosted by changes to the way it works? - has pulled almost everything back to Singapore without making any serious stand anywhere.

Situation i now have is - and I loaded up the allies to check as I was curious - Singapore with level 5 forts, 700+guns, about 70000 men and 130000 supplies - more or less every unit that was in Malaya. Essentially that appears to me - having had enough trouble with Bataan - to be basically untakeable - I have around 120,000 Japanese lined up. What can I do about this? Anything? There is the additional - which i again didn't realise until reading on the forum - problem that any move into Singapore - even if you already have a force there -auto shock attacks for some bizarre reason.

Would really hate for my game to be stuffed because of this having invested a good month or two of solid play

Advice from you worthy fellows??

Thanks

[scott64]

Start over. [:-]

[Misconduct]

ORIGINAL: Drambuie

Hi all,

Let me explain ... playing a slightly tweaked full campaign having boosted the AI allies with some extra stock of planes/squads/ships and some extra supplies etc and am at end feb as the Japanese. About to take Bataan, queing up to jump in and attack Singapore.

Now I may have been a little slow but I essentially progressed down the Malay Peninsula, taking bases etc. I found very little opposition - what appears to have hapened is the Ai - presumably boosted by changes to the way it works? - has pulled almost everything back to Singapore without making any serious stand anywhere.

Situation i now have is - and I loaded up the allies to check as I was curious - Singapore with level 5 forts, 700+guns, about 70000 men and 130000 supplies - more or less every unit that was in Malaya. Essentially that appears to me - having had enough trouble with Bataan - to be basically untakeable - I have around 120,000 Japanese lined up. What can I do about this? Anything? There is the additional - which i again didn't realise until reading on the forum - problem that any move into Singapore - even if you already have a force there -auto shock attacks for some bizarre reason.

Would really hate for my game to be stuffed because of this having invested a good month or two of solid play

Advice from you worthy fellows??

Thanks

Basically I am taking Bataan and Singapore right now, what you have to do first is bomb it from the air for weeks, port/AF. Secondly you can only move 1/3rd of the total enemy AV into Singapore since you are crossing a river, anymore then 1/3rd you have to shock attack. My best advice is to gather as many japanese infantry units outside singapore, and send in roughly 25,000 at a time. What I am planning to do in my case, is take Bataan first, then move more bomber squadrons over to completely pound it even throwing ground attacks into the fray. More disruption you have, will cause units to not shock attack.

Don't bombard with BB's either, you will sustain loses you can't replace, only best thing to do is take bataan then move to take Singapore.

[LargeSlowTarget]

Blockade Singapore and bomb, bomb, bomb and then bomb it again - sooner or later the Allied forces will run out of supplies.

Edit: Oops, too slow...

[Misconduct]

ORIGINAL: LargeSlowTarget

Blockade Singapore and bomb, bomb, bomb and then bomb it again - sooner or later the Allied forces will run out of supplies.

Edit: Oops, too slow...

Its ok LST, you are a large slow delicious target =D

[erstad]

. Secondly you can only move 1/3rd of the total enemy AV into Singapore since you are crossing a river, anymore then 1/3rd you have to shock attack.

Um, isn't this backwards? You will shock attack while crossing the river unless you already have some fraction of the enemy AV in the hex from prior turns. (Might be one-third, don't recall off hand.)

Regarding the OP's question: There are some options if you want to just cheat your way past Singapore and continue the game. You can freely switch into head-to-head mode so you can run a turn where you reset all the Allied prep destinations and put all the Singapore defenders into strat mode (If you're not already in the hex, if you are I think the best you can do is move mode). If the goal is a realistic Singapore reduction this won't help, but it will speed things up if you just want to get to other parts of the campaign.

[Misconduct]

ORIGINAL: erstad

. Secondly you can only move 1/3rd of the total enemy AV into Singapore since you are crossing a river, anymore then 1/3rd you have to shock attack.

Um, isn't this backwards? You will shock attack while crossing the river unless you already have some fraction of the enemy AV in the hex from prior turns. (Might be one-third, don't recall off hand.)

Regarding the OP's question: There are some options if you want to just cheat your way past Singapore and continue the game. You can freely switch into head-to-head mode so you can run a turn where you reset all the Allied prep destinations and put all the Singapore defenders into strat mode (If you're not already in the hex, if you are I think the best you can do is move mode). If the goal is a realistic Singapore reduction this won't help, but it will speed things up if you just want to get to other parts of the campaign.

I am probably wrong, If I have I apologise, I was thinking if you allowed 1/3rd of the total enemy AV across, you wouldn't shock attack (across a river of course).

[Djordje]

ORIGINAL: Misconduct
Secondly you can only move 1/3rd of the total enemy AV into Singapore since you are crossing a river, anymore then 1/3rd you have to shock attack.

This is wrong, doing this will just cause horrific casualties on your side. What you need is to have at least 1/3 of enemy unmodified AV in the hex AFTER you have done the shock attack across the river. If you manage to do that your other units entering that hex from the same side in the following turn will not initiate shock attack as you already have strong bridgehead.

The way I do it is recombine 2 divisions that have all sub-units in Malaya, best place for that is Johore Baru. Together with Imperial Guards you will have 3 whole divisions worth around 1300 AV. Rest them completely (0 disruption, 2-3 fatigue), and make sure they have 100 preparation for Singapore (you should make sure to select Singapore as target for all small units in Malaya peninsula at start of the game). Move one division in combat mode and have other 2 follow it, stop all other units. Next day you can move all other smaller units in combat mode as well since those 3 divisions will be 1 day ahead and should make bridgehead for the rest. Make sure not to move armor units as they move faster, and are useless in Singapore anyway. Leave them behind, you don't really need them there and they can even get destroyed in combat since they are too small and fighting in bad terrain for tanks.

[moose1999]

ORIGINAL: Djordje

Make sure not to move armor units as they move faster, and are useless in Singapore anyway. Leave them behind, you don't really need them there and they can even get destroyed in combat since they are too small and fighting in bad terrain for tanks.

I was under the impression that due to the rather rudimentary land combat model, armor units do not perform differently in combat compared to infantry. They do not receive special terrain bonuses/penalties. Only diffence between armor and infantry is the movement rates.

Isn't this the case?

[Drambuie]

Thanks all for the replies - I'd prefer not to cheat really so will try the movement into the area and do it properly and give it a go!

Once the Bataan forces are freed up - anytime now hopefully as Bataan has stopped counter battery firing presumably because it is out of supplies - I can also move a lot more engineers over to hopefully reduce Singapore's forts. Could be a painful few weeks absorbing all their arty fire but good way to learn I guess.

Cheers

[Yakface]

ORIGINAL: briny_norman

ORIGINAL: Djordje

Make sure not to move armor units as they move faster, and are useless in Singapore anyway. Leave them behind, you don't really need them there and they can even get destroyed in combat since they are too small and fighting in bad terrain for tanks.

I was under the impression that due to the rather rudimentary land combat model, armor units do not perform differently in combat compared to infantry. They do not receive special terrain bonuses/penalties. Only diffence between armor and infantry is the movement rates.

Isn't this the case?

Depends what you are taking about. In AV terms 1 tank is worth one squad. However there is whole different routine for the infliction of casualties and every device works differently there.

[Djordje]

ORIGINAL: briny_norman

ORIGINAL: Djordje

Make sure not to move armor units as they move faster, and are useless in Singapore anyway. Leave them behind, you don't really need them there and they can even get destroyed in combat since they are too small and fighting in bad terrain for tanks.

I was under the impression that due to the rather rudimentary land combat model, armor units do not perform differently in combat compared to infantry. They do not receive special terrain bonuses/penalties. Only diffence between armor and infantry is the movement rates.

Isn't this the case?

From my game experience, armor performs well in open terrain, but in jungle, swamp, mountain or over river they tend to take very heavy casualties. Add to that small size of the most armor units and it is not uncommon to lose whole unit due to heavy fighting in bad terrain in just one day (happened to me few times). That's why I keep them away from Singapore, Manila, Clark Field, Bataan and other similar places.