A Lemon rises in the East: SqzMyLemon (J) vs. JocMeister (A)

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obvert
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by obvert »

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

It's my understanding that the respawned units don't respawn at 1/3 the total....they respawn at 1/3 what they died with. I could be entirely wrong...

It's 1/3 of total TOE, so around the 275 AV Joseph mentioned. Pretty nasty, but on th either hand, that's just more points to harvest. [:)]
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
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EHansen
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by EHansen »

Using the beta, they will only re-spawn squads and support, no weapons. And it will be 1/3 of the TOE and even less experience.
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by obvert »

ORIGINAL: EHansen

Using the beta, they will only re-spawn squads and support, no weapons. And it will be 1/3 of the TOE and even less experience.

Ahhh, no guns. Good to know. That's why the giant stack (18k AV) that just hit my troops had only about 1,000 guns I guess. I thought I'd heard that somewhere.

Experience is unfortunately about 40. Still high enough that after a several months at 100 prep, even without fighting, they can get to 55exp.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
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Lokasenna
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by Lokasenna »

Oh well. Your own units should be what - 80-, 90-plus from killing all those Chinese before they became zombies? That's how I'm thinking of it from now on - killing Zombie Chinese.
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EHansen
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by EHansen »

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: EHansen

Using the beta, they will only re-spawn squads and support, no weapons. And it will be 1/3 of the TOE and even less experience.

Ahhh, no guns. Good to know. That's why the giant stack (18k AV) that just hit my troops had only about 1,000 guns I guess. I thought I'd heard that somewhere.

Experience is unfortunately about 40. Still high enough that after a several months at 100 prep, even without fighting, they can get to 55exp.

The manual states they can only train to 45 without combat.
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obvert
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by obvert »

ORIGINAL: EHansen
ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: EHansen

Using the beta, they will only re-spawn squads and support, no weapons. And it will be 1/3 of the TOE and even less experience.

Ahhh, no guns. Good to know. That's why the giant stack (18k AV) that just hit my troops had only about 1,000 guns I guess. I thought I'd heard that somewhere.

Experience is unfortunately about 40. Still high enough that after a several months at 100 prep, even without fighting, they can get to 55exp.

The manual states they can only train to 45 without combat.

Correct. I forget it is a different level for each nationality.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
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SqzMyLemon
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by SqzMyLemon »

I wish all I had to do was fight in China, it's easy compared to trying to defend the rest of the Empire.

Looking over my defences last night I'm short everywhere and whole areas are completely undefended. It isn't until mid/late 43 that I get an influx of decent combat LCU reinforcements. Scenario 1 just doesn't have the numbers. Within the next 30 days I can reinforce the Kuriles with the remaining elements of a division bought out from Korea and a number of aviation support units assigned to Northern HQ as reinforcements. I'm sending three divisions to cover Northern Sumatra, the Andaman Islands and the Malay coast. The 48th division is already at Sabang. Timor has the 4th Division, the 56th Division is in reserve at Makassar but needs to be redeployed. The 5th Division is at Manus, but will be moved to Truk. The 38th Division is located at Saipan. The 110th Division is already in the Kuriles. The 70th Division is at Manila, but is being redeployed as one of the reinforcing divisions for the IO. Elements of 2nd Division are spread out in the Solomons and New Guinea. Other than that, most of my smaller units are having to meet garrison requirements throughout the Pacific, primarily the Philippines. Where the heck do I find the troops to defend anything else? Naval Guard units and the SNLF's just won't cut it. Over the next few months I'll be buying out what elements I can afford from divisions in the Home Islands for deployment to the Pacific. Even with the focus on not deploying too far forward I just don't have any troops. I found this to be the case last PBEM as well. I have to offer what resistance I can for the first 6 months of 1943 and hope to not allow a deep penetration until I have the troops available to man the MLR.

I'm not sure how I want to defend against Milne Bay. It's going to be pretty hard to suppress the base by air alone and I'm not sure how much of the surface force to use. The risk of submarine attack will be substantial in 12 days once Jan. 1/43 arrives.

I've got a few ideas in mind and if I can get the forces together I may try a few countermoves in Jocke's rear once he begins moving forward if given an opportunity.

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Don't mistake lack of talent for genius - Peter Steele (Type O Negative)
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by SqzMyLemon »

For Chungking, I'm going to move in about 2500 AV initially with all the artillery and do a recon bombardment to see what I'm dealing with. I'll reinforce as units arrive. When I invest the base I'm not going to close every hex side, in fact I'm going to leave the east hex side open to allow the Chinese an escape route. I've learned the lesson of how hard it is to defeat an entirely isolated enemy formation, I won't make that mistake again. If I can eventually force a retreat I'll be able to defeat this force far easier in clear terrain. I'm going to have to rely on the defenders being crippled from lack of supply and that my prep will boost my AV enough to counter the numbers.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton

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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by witpqs »

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

For Chungking, I'm going to move in about 2500 AV initially with all the artillery and do a recon bombardment to see what I'm dealing with. I'll reinforce as units arrive. When I invest the base I'm not going to close every hex side, in fact I'm going to leave the east hex side open to allow the Chinese an escape route. I've learned the lesson of how hard it is to defeat an entirely isolated enemy formation, I won't make that mistake again. If I can eventually force a retreat I'll be able to defeat this force far easier in clear terrain. I'm going to have to rely on the defenders being crippled from lack of supply and that my prep will boost my AV enough to counter the numbers.
For that to work they have to have a base within what the game engine considers close enough range for a retreat path. I know that the hex calculations are the same as for supply, but I do not know what is the maximum value allowed for a retreat path.
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by SqzMyLemon »

ORIGINAL: witpqs

For that to work they have to have a base within what the game engine considers close enough range for a retreat path. I know that the hex calculations are the same as for supply, but I do not know what is the maximum value allowed for a retreat path.

Good to know witpqs. I can easily leave the west hex side open instead which might encourage a retreat towards Tuyun (SP?) or Paoshan which would achieve the same purpose. I hope to have Kunming in possession before Chungking is dealt with.
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton

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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by Lokasenna »

If you forced them to retreat, you would otherwise destroy them if you cut all the hex sides. Why would you want to force a retreat instead of forcing a surrender? Once you take Chungking, they don't respawn anywhere. Just kill them. Lots of VPs left on the table if they retreat.

When you recon bombard, I recommend NOT having the infantry forces bombard. They will suffer more from counterbattery than your ART units, in my experience. And your ART units hit much harder. Also, you'll burn up a lot more supply by having the INF units bombard, even if it's just in the form of the units pulling in more organic supply as their Supply Required amount increases from seeing combat.

Unfortunately, until you drop the forts down to at least 3, you won't see much in the way of results, in my experience. So bombardment won't do much except make the Chinese eat their supply, which they're already doing. Once you have forts low enough, it's possible to keep the airfield damaged to prevent fort building while still causing disablements and casualties from the air. In my AI game, which I'm sure I did inefficiently, I had hundreds of Helens flying every day. It gradually increased until I had 400+. I don't know if that's replicable against a human, or advisable. It ate supply at a scary rate.
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SqzMyLemon
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by SqzMyLemon »

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

If you forced them to retreat, you would otherwise destroy them if you cut all the hex sides. Why would you want to force a retreat instead of forcing a surrender? Once you take Chungking, they don't respawn anywhere. Just kill them. Lots of VPs left on the table if they retreat.

You do have a point, but I'm trying to avoid what happened to me reducing other completely isolated pockets. It took forever costing me time which is never a luxury. The Chinese will take horrendous casualties during a retreat and I can steer them into open terrain where I can still contain them. Bombing will be that much more effective as well. It will be the same outcome, just involve a little more effort on my part. I'll explore any option that seems likely to speed up the process as the situation develops. I can always simply occupy the open hex to block the retreat rather than close it completely which has the same effect. I just know from experience that reducing large stacks take longer and require higher odds to destroy if all the hex sides are closed than not.
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Lokasenna
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by Lokasenna »

I guess maybe I'm missing something? In order to cause them to retreat, at least from combat, you will need to get high enough odds to capture the base, no? So that's the same hurdle to meet as it is for just destroying them from surrender, because you have to get high enough odds to capture the base for that to occur...
mind_messing
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by mind_messing »

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

I guess maybe I'm missing something? In order to cause them to retreat, at least from combat, you will need to get high enough odds to capture the base, no? So that's the same hurdle to meet as it is for just destroying them from surrender, because you have to get high enough odds to capture the base for that to occur...


Basically, troops that have no valid retreat path fight to the death (or surrender, depending on the state of their morale). Units with a retreat path can retreat (duh). The odds for retreat are significantly higher than those for surrendering, and units that are forced to retreat always take a load of casualties.

At least, that's how I understand it.
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by witpqs »

Very often troops that cannot retreat will fight on for longer than the point at which they would have retreated if they could have.
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by SqzMyLemon »

Go back and look at some of the odds I had to achieve to get units to start surrendering when I was reducing a number of isolated pockets that had been out of supply. One in particular had over 15 attacks, some achieving well over 20:1 odds and the units didn't surrender for months. It wasn't until even higher odds were achieved that the units began to surrender. I don't want to repeat that at Chungking. Once the forts are reduced to the point where I can achieve a 2:1 or higher there's a good chance I may be able to get the Chinese to retreat causing huge losses. I might as well get the retreat routine to do a lot of the hard work for me. I can destroy the Chinese units far easier in open terrain using both air and ground forces, rather than pound away at an isolated pocket that will probably fight to the last man as witpqs suggests would happen. I want the base first, then I'll destroy the remaining troops.

I'm basing this decision on previous experience in this game. Isolated units are a bear to destory and take months when the AV is so much higher than the attacker regardless of supply. I want the retreats to reduce large numbers of Chinese troops quickly rather than have my forces continue to have to grind it out long after the base would normally have been captured. Once they retreat out of Chungking it will be far easier to destroy them. That's the plan anyway. [8D]
Luck is the residue of design - John Milton

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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by Lokasenna »

Thanks. Now that you mention it, I've noticed the same thing.
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Mike McCreery
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by Mike McCreery »

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

Go back and look at some of the odds I had to achieve to get units to start surrendering when I was reducing a number of isolated pockets that had been out of supply. One in particular had over 15 attacks, some achieving well over 20:1 odds and the units didn't surrender for months. It wasn't until even higher odds were achieved that the units began to surrender. I don't want to repeat that at Chungking. Once the forts are reduced to the point where I can achieve a 2:1 or higher there's a good chance I may be able to get the Chinese to retreat causing huge losses. I might as well get the retreat routine to do a lot of the hard work for me. I can destroy the Chinese units far easier in open terrain using both air and ground forces, rather than pound away at an isolated pocket that will probably fight to the last man as witpqs suggests would happen. I want the base first, then I'll destroy the remaining troops.

I'm basing this decision on previous experience in this game. Isolated units are a bear to destory and take months when the AV is so much higher than the attacker regardless of supply. I want the retreats to reduce large numbers of Chinese troops quickly rather than have my forces continue to have to grind it out long after the base would normally have been captured. Once they retreat out of Chungking it will be far easier to destroy them quickly. That's the plan anyway. [8D]

Sun Tsu noticed it as well ;]

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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by witpqs »

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

Go back and look at some of the odds I had to achieve to get units to start surrendering when I was reducing a number of isolated pockets that had been out of supply. One in particular had over 15 attacks, some achieving well over 20:1 odds and the units didn't surrender for months. It wasn't until even higher odds were achieved that the units began to surrender. I don't want to repeat that at Chungking. Once the forts are reduced to the point where I can achieve a 2:1 or higher there's a good chance I may be able to get the Chinese to retreat causing huge losses. I might as well get the retreat routine to do a lot of the hard work for me. I can destroy the Chinese units far easier in open terrain using both air and ground forces, rather than pound away at an isolated pocket that will probably fight to the last man as witpqs suggests would happen. I want the base first, then I'll destroy the remaining troops.

I'm basing this decision on previous experience in this game. Isolated units are a bear to destory and take months when the AV is so much higher than the attacker regardless of supply. I want the retreats to reduce large numbers of Chinese troops quickly rather than have my forces continue to have to grind it out long after the base would normally have been captured. Once they retreat out of Chungking it will be far easier to destroy them quickly. That's the plan anyway. [8D]

Sun Tsu noticed it as well ;]

"Build your enemy golden bridges." Or something to that effect!
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Mike McCreery
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RE: Dec. 18/42 Update

Post by Mike McCreery »

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

Go back and look at some of the odds I had to achieve to get units to start surrendering when I was reducing a number of isolated pockets that had been out of supply. One in particular had over 15 attacks, some achieving well over 20:1 odds and the units didn't surrender for months. It wasn't until even higher odds were achieved that the units began to surrender. I don't want to repeat that at Chungking. Once the forts are reduced to the point where I can achieve a 2:1 or higher there's a good chance I may be able to get the Chinese to retreat causing huge losses. I might as well get the retreat routine to do a lot of the hard work for me. I can destroy the Chinese units far easier in open terrain using both air and ground forces, rather than pound away at an isolated pocket that will probably fight to the last man as witpqs suggests would happen. I want the base first, then I'll destroy the remaining troops.

I'm basing this decision on previous experience in this game. Isolated units are a bear to destory and take months when the AV is so much higher than the attacker regardless of supply. I want the retreats to reduce large numbers of Chinese troops quickly rather than have my forces continue to have to grind it out long after the base would normally have been captured. Once they retreat out of Chungking it will be far easier to destroy them quickly. That's the plan anyway. [8D]

Sun Tsu noticed it as well ;]

"Build your enemy golden bridges." Or something to that effect!

I just looked it up in a book I have on Sun Tsu and it said "If you besiege an army you must leave an outlet" Somewhere else in the book it explains that a surrounded man will fight like a tiger - paraphrase
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