Olympic 45

[larryfulkerson]

So um....I finished my AAR on Desert Storm 91 and have some time on my hands and thought I'd investigate the scenario Olympic 45
and see if it still is playable w/ TOAW version 3.4

As you can see most of the objectives of this scenario are in the bottom half of this picture. So the next post will show a zoom in of this
picture.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a zoom-in of the first picture and you can see how the mountains are in the middle, and by that I mean that the terrain tends to
favor the defense the more you get toward the inland areas of the island. And I'm going to need a place where I can use the services
of all the ships I have together to overwhelm any shore defensive guns. And then use that cleared out area to shoot at other shore
gun positions while out of their range.

All that argues for going in where there's a natural bay on the west side of the island. But I'm open to discussion. Anybody have an
alternate opinion? Let's hear it.

Anyway, I don't know yet how many forces the Americans have, whether or not there's enough to stage another invasion on the east
side of the island. As a diversion. I'll let you know what I find as I investigate further.

[larryfulkerson]

This is one of the more terse scenarios in that there's only, like, 31 turns and at the start of the game the Allied side only has 137 units.
So this scenario seems playable in terms of time investment. You working people, and you know who you are, can't devote megatime
to a large scenario......well this one isn't such a monster.

I'm also playing WITP-AE, once as the Jap side, and I'm wondering what the Olympic 45 scenario as played by TOAW plays like from the
Japanese side. I pushed some units around and watched the computer play itself for a couple of turns and the Japs were winning
destroying the invading American units on the beaches. It was disheartening if you're on the Allied side. So I thought I'd try the
American side first since it seems harder for Elmer to get it right.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a typical American Infantry Regiment. It's got 80 Rifle squads, a proficiency of 69% and it's not quite topped off in supply. I like to
invade w/ units that are topped off in supply. I'm thinking this guy needs to go in the second wave. The proficiency of 69% is one
percent lower than 70 which is "normal" as far as I know, for American units. This unit says it's a veteran so I'm hoping to get some
higher proficiency as the battle progresses.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the equipment that the Americans have to fight w/. I'm seeing enough Rifle Squads for about 7 Divisions. And strategic
bombers are in the OOB. Cool......I can use those to isolate the battlefield maybe. And there's some of the latest fighters
available. This should be interesting.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the American air power. This shows their mission, their condition, and their location. As I capture Japanese bases I intend to
transfer there if possible.

[larryfulkerson]

I've found at least two islands that need supply points. These two islands in the middle bottom and two smaller islands on the east
side that hold the American invasion forces. So I'm going to add a supply point to at least those four places and then use the changed
version for my playtesting.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay.....I'm back from adding supply points. Um.....I was wondering about the Japanese aircraft and I found one typical squadron
for the Japs and investigated. Those Jap bombers are sorta deadly for American ships so it's going to be important that there be a
dedicated CAP until all the Jap bombers are gone. I'm really impressed w/ the proficiency of the Jap pilots and at least one of their
planes. This fight is going to be bloody I think.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the number of units in the OOB and a typical Japanese unit. I'm impressed w/ the proficiency of the Jap unit and I notice that it
starts the scenario at double strength. This is a unit that isn't to be pushed around. I guess. But the 36 squads being normal for the
squad is heartening because that means once it's been beaten down it'll never be "strong" for the rest of the game.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a list of the Japanese equipment. I think it's significant that there's only 30 Command squads total. And they never get anymore.
So when those 30 are dead all the Jap equipment will be in reorg. Hopefully. And then it'd be a pushover. I realize that it would be very
unlikely to be able to get all 30 simultaneously but the principle is that the fewer Command squads they have the worse their situation
would be. The more equipment would tend to go into reorg. The more the Americans have a better ride. All of the above.

And the Japs have a handfull of DD's and very very few tanks. Which would mean that it might be a good thing to use tanks against
the Japs, at least in the southern part of the country where the terrain is more favorable.

[larryfulkerson]

From the American point of view, if we label the invasion site as the beaches from Zephyr to Pontiac inclusive and then look for bridges
that can be dropped to isolate the battlefield we find 5 that need dropping. More would be better. But I think those 5 would prevent the
Japs from railing in more troops and tanks and guns, etc. I'm pretty sure the Japs have 772 engineer squads, some of whom know how
to repair a bridge, so it might behove me to monitor my bridge droppings to make sure they stay dropped. Plus, B-29's as used in
TOAW make dandy INT mission candidates.

EDIT: I just took another look at the list of Jap equipment and discovered that the Japs don't make anymore engineers after turn 15.
So all I need do after I drop the bridges is kill all the engineer units and they WILL stay dropped.

[larryfulkerson]

So a closer look at the beaches themselves and the opposition there might be we find a bunch of coastal defensive guns coated along
the length of the beaches and they each have a range of 5. And they are probably deadly to ships, or whatever else is floating in the
water, like a unit that didn't quite make it to shore, so the idea is to get rid of as many coastal defensive guns as quickly as possible so
it seems like, to me, that maybe I should use the invasion units to take out the guns as they come ashore, which would imply that I need
one combat unit per hex attacking at ignore losses to make sure it gets ashore, and then following up that first wave w/ units that
haven't attacked yet to take up the defense of the hex for the inevitable Jap counter attack. It sounds like it might work.

[larryfulkerson]

OK. I've started moving units but I don't want to designate any attacks by the invaders yet......I want to work over the Jap Air Force for
a round or two and then work over the beaches for a round the THEN attack and invade. I'm going to try the double-swinging-gate ploy
to see if I can't get off the beaches and then if the going gets too hot and no progress is being made then I'll need a diversion type of
invasion on the opposite side of the island to draw some Jap units over there.

But first the workover I need to give the Jap air force. I'm going to use the P-51's at Okinawa as escorts for the B-29 raids I need to do
at the Jap air bases. I'm thinking two escorting squadrons for each bomber for each base I attack. Something like that.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the kind of thing I have planned: one squadron plus two squadrons of fighters for each base I attack. I'm using the B-29's and
B-24's and B-17's and THEN the smaller bombers as long as I have enough fighters to go around. I'd rather not bomb the coastal
guns w/ my smaller bombers until after I've delt w/ the Jap air force.

EDIT: Yes, I'm aware that one of the attacks isn't an airfield attack and I found it and fixed it.

[larryfulkerson]

I was moving units and then I came to one of the Marine Air units on a carrier and it looks like Olympic 45 suffers from what the
first version of FITE had wrong with it, namely the combining of fighters and low-altitude bombers. If you want to use it strictly for
combat support I guess it will do that but you almost can't use it as fighters lest the Avengers get shot down. And you can't use it at
ranges longer than about 131 hexes because of the shorter range of the Corsair. And the reason they do that is to get both types of
equipment into the same unit to save carrier space. A carrier can carry only three units and space is at a premium sometimes.

I'm wondering if I should go in and change it. Nah. It's Marine Air doctrine that they do mostly Combat Support. And the Corsair can
be seen as a dedicated escort.

[larryfulkerson]

And here's one of the Air Combat Groups: It's built around 5 unnamed carriers w/ a built-in escort of unnamed vessels and I guess it's
this way to save on the number of units in play. Or maybe it's using the escort AA capability to protect the carrier. Or both.

[larryfulkerson]

And I found another problem. I have to drive my BB into toward shore to 4 hexes standoff just so my CA can fire. I sometimes don't
want to expose my BB that way and I would rather have the higher unit count by separating the two ship types. But for now I'll just
play w/ it the way it is. Mostly because I don't know how to use the Evil Editor to add units yet.

[larryfulkerson]

Ok. Here's the missions for the aircraft and I've moved all the units and checked everything......I think I'm ready to begin. It is now
17:15 local 16Dec2013 ( Monday ).

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of the first attack. It's significant what happens in the first attack because it can give you some idea how fierce the
Air-to-Air is apt to be for a while. I wish maybe that I had devoted a combat round to just hit the Jap air bases first. When you don't
the rest of your bombing missions run into interference like this.

[larryfulkerson]

This is about the 10th attack and as you can see none of my ordinance is hitting the ground. The Jap air power is too strong. D'oh.