DBB-C vs. AI
Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
Be happy to. What are some viable candidates?
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
AI won't garrison Subic Bay as it doesn't know to do so. Just be sure NOT to target that base for invasion.
Pax
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
ORIGINAL: bushpsu
You mean there is a Johnny Ringo waiting out there?
Tombstone is an under appreciated film.
Good luck with the learning curve and playing the AI.
I like your approach of restricting oil/fuel to just TKs/AOs and those small fuel bunkers in some larger xAKs. I am using that HR in a PBEM game.
The Commander's job is to orchestrate and direct the three major dimensions of combat - space, time and force. Shattered Sword, the Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
Pax & Jorge - We can see what happens during the invasion of the Phillipines re: Subic Bay. There are units that start there, including the 4th Marines. If the AI completely neglects this base I will "Banzai" attack out of it.
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
There is one house rule I forgot to add earlier.
I set bases on the India - Burma border to stock supplies. In India, it is Cox's Bazaar, Imphal, Kohima and Ledo, and in Burma it is Kalemyo and Warazup. The idea is to limit the flow of supplies between the two countries through the jungle hexes. You can also up the required supplies in the Indian hexes to further limit the supply flow. This is done to limit the full-scale Allied advance from India to Burma via the jungle.
I set bases on the India - Burma border to stock supplies. In India, it is Cox's Bazaar, Imphal, Kohima and Ledo, and in Burma it is Kalemyo and Warazup. The idea is to limit the flow of supplies between the two countries through the jungle hexes. You can also up the required supplies in the Indian hexes to further limit the supply flow. This is done to limit the full-scale Allied advance from India to Burma via the jungle.
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
Yaab - I like that one. Will add to my ever-burgeoning list!
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
[/quote]ORIGINAL: bushpsu
No unescorted off-map shipping. Must have 2 x escorts for each TF.
Interesting. I was going to adopt this house-rule in my games, but wouldn't the xAKs assigned to off map movement from East Coast to i.e Cape Town enjoy the abstracted escorts from USN operating in the Atlantic Ocean?
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
ORIGINAL: Yaab
ORIGINAL: bushpsu
No unescorted off-map shipping. Must have 2 x escorts for each TF.
Interesting. I was going to adopt this house-rule in my games, but wouldn't the xAKs assigned to off map movement from East Coast to i.e Cape Town enjoy the abstracted escorts from USN operating in the Atlantic Ocean?
Yes. The whole thing is very abstracted as well. You can flank these convoys (or warship TFs) for a thousand miles across the ocean to arrive much faster than they ever could in reality. The fuel is also abstracted as coming from other stores, so why not escorts? The escorts in game are those assigned to the Pacific. If you had the ones actually in the Atlantic during the war you'd have to mindlessly click the all of those into place and have hundreds sitting in East Cost and UK and Canada and Cape Town doing nothing.
Let the abstraction of the game work as designed. It's fine.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
Both sides need watching.ORIGINAL: bushpsu
Pax & Jorge - We can see what happens during the invasion of the Phillipines re: Subic Bay. There are units that start there, including the 4th Marines. If the AI completely neglects this base I will "Banzai" attack out of it.
When you are taking BACK the PI, the AI won't know to garrison those bases as there is no script. So, no landing in Subic Bay as it won't be garrisoned.
Initially, the AI will likely attack Subic Bay, but it will likely be weak attacks as it won't be scripted.
Pax
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
I am seeing air recon of Subic Bay and Clark has now fallen. Will see if the AI moves on to Subic or directly to Bataan.
I know the game has abstracted much of the off map activity. I have added my house rules because I do play against the AI and I feel it helps balance things out a bit. I also have the TFs travel at normal speed.
I know the game has abstracted much of the off map activity. I have added my house rules because I do play against the AI and I feel it helps balance things out a bit. I also have the TFs travel at normal speed.
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
Any progress?
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
Finally have an update on my campaign. I find that I spend all my time planning and playing so the aspect of writing an AAR (since there is no downtime vs. the AI) seems distracting.
Anyway, it is now June 9, 1942 with the score 14,596-10,153 in favor of the Evil Empire as the first phase of the campaign is over. That means I will be moving from 4-day to 3-day turns. I have played a VERY conservative style, to allow the AI to meet many of its initial goals. This can be a little boring from my side, but that is where the 4-day turns really are a blessing. I have not done a Sir Robin strategy, since I have not pulled troops from the fire to be used later. Rather, I have let them die on the vine as the AI marched through their common killing areas.
All the expected areas are taken ; the Phillipines (and yes, the AI did attack Subic Bay-although I also attacked out of that site), just a unit left in Mindanao; Malaya, with a few units of 0 AV in Georgetown and one Indian bde above Mersing; Sumatra; DEI except for Cheribon where there a goodly number of units but with a total AV around 10; Celebes; Borneo.
Biggest disappointment so far was losing Port Moresby. That is a first for me, but now gives me something else to ruminate on. Also, a week ago the AI took Bora Bora. That is one of the deepest penetrations I have ever had to deal with. Again, fun to now counter it though. However, since I am using a HR for no xAP amph invasions I am pretty sparse with assault shipping as I do not want to risk the APs that will evolve into APAs – for my money THE most important ship in the fleet – much more valuable than the LST. So I will need to recon, recon, recon and hopefully be able to use enough APDs and the William Ward Burrows AP to land enough troops to reclaim Bora Bora.
Aside from amphs, I have been really hindered by lack of fuel – in forward areas. I just can’t seem to get enough forward. Again, a self-imposed HR is working “well” here – no fuel transported except in Tankers and AOs. Now realizing how much I utilized straight AKs to haul black gold.
Burma is pretty much gone also except for units fleeing to Myktina to hopefully be airlifted out to India. China has been my biggest surprise. I normally try to fall back and make a solid MLR but this time thought I would have take more forward stands as “Chiang” would not want to give up industrial sites for free. However, the AI has been VERY uncoordinated in eliminating these advanced pockets so I think I will start pulling them back myself. In my “pixel-world” reality I have also decided that our State Department has talked Chiang into allowing several of his central reserve corps to march to India to be supplied and rebuilt for his war with Mao. In exchange, Vinegar Joe will also get his Chinese divisions to do the same and only those divisions will be used in Burma.
India/Burma will be a big front for me as I will send literally half of my US army infantry forces there along with air units to match the commitment. All US army construction regiments are also earmarked for this region along with other support (armor, art, etc). In addition, marine Raiders, Paras and the entire 1st MAW will head there. Just the transportation times alone (since I ship everything) will slow the operational pace. But once started I will have a lot more options and power than historically – this is, after all, a game, so I want to have some fun.
More to follow, eventually…
Anyway, it is now June 9, 1942 with the score 14,596-10,153 in favor of the Evil Empire as the first phase of the campaign is over. That means I will be moving from 4-day to 3-day turns. I have played a VERY conservative style, to allow the AI to meet many of its initial goals. This can be a little boring from my side, but that is where the 4-day turns really are a blessing. I have not done a Sir Robin strategy, since I have not pulled troops from the fire to be used later. Rather, I have let them die on the vine as the AI marched through their common killing areas.
All the expected areas are taken ; the Phillipines (and yes, the AI did attack Subic Bay-although I also attacked out of that site), just a unit left in Mindanao; Malaya, with a few units of 0 AV in Georgetown and one Indian bde above Mersing; Sumatra; DEI except for Cheribon where there a goodly number of units but with a total AV around 10; Celebes; Borneo.
Biggest disappointment so far was losing Port Moresby. That is a first for me, but now gives me something else to ruminate on. Also, a week ago the AI took Bora Bora. That is one of the deepest penetrations I have ever had to deal with. Again, fun to now counter it though. However, since I am using a HR for no xAP amph invasions I am pretty sparse with assault shipping as I do not want to risk the APs that will evolve into APAs – for my money THE most important ship in the fleet – much more valuable than the LST. So I will need to recon, recon, recon and hopefully be able to use enough APDs and the William Ward Burrows AP to land enough troops to reclaim Bora Bora.
Aside from amphs, I have been really hindered by lack of fuel – in forward areas. I just can’t seem to get enough forward. Again, a self-imposed HR is working “well” here – no fuel transported except in Tankers and AOs. Now realizing how much I utilized straight AKs to haul black gold.
Burma is pretty much gone also except for units fleeing to Myktina to hopefully be airlifted out to India. China has been my biggest surprise. I normally try to fall back and make a solid MLR but this time thought I would have take more forward stands as “Chiang” would not want to give up industrial sites for free. However, the AI has been VERY uncoordinated in eliminating these advanced pockets so I think I will start pulling them back myself. In my “pixel-world” reality I have also decided that our State Department has talked Chiang into allowing several of his central reserve corps to march to India to be supplied and rebuilt for his war with Mao. In exchange, Vinegar Joe will also get his Chinese divisions to do the same and only those divisions will be used in Burma.
India/Burma will be a big front for me as I will send literally half of my US army infantry forces there along with air units to match the commitment. All US army construction regiments are also earmarked for this region along with other support (armor, art, etc). In addition, marine Raiders, Paras and the entire 1st MAW will head there. Just the transportation times alone (since I ship everything) will slow the operational pace. But once started I will have a lot more options and power than historically – this is, after all, a game, so I want to have some fun.
More to follow, eventually…
RE: DBB-C vs. AI
Great stuff.
You may want house-rule yourself yet again.
If you plan on using US units in China, you may try supplying them with US-produced supply only. Basically, the game lets you operate US units in China using Chinese supply or Commonwealth supply produced in India and flown to China. In RL, all this supply would have to originate in USA and somehow be transported to China. See the problem? You would have to haul supply by ships from US to India, and then fly them to China from Ledo. Of course, the game lets you walk US units from Ledo to China, but how do you send replacement arty, big AA guns, tanks to China then? Their load cost is too big to move them by air transport to China. This mean, that in RL the only US LCU units that could operate in China would be some light infnatry with 75mm pack guns as its biggest field arty and 40mm Bofors as its biggest AA. Maybe you can fly some Stuart tanks (the should fit into air transport), but no trucks. This means that US units in China cannot use strat move on roads in China and have to move on foot only etc.
All this can be amended if you open the Rangoon-Paoshan road --- tanks, AA, mot support, radars can be dumped in Rangoon and walk all the way to China.
I think that by playing this way, you get more mileage from AI.
You may want house-rule yourself yet again.
If you plan on using US units in China, you may try supplying them with US-produced supply only. Basically, the game lets you operate US units in China using Chinese supply or Commonwealth supply produced in India and flown to China. In RL, all this supply would have to originate in USA and somehow be transported to China. See the problem? You would have to haul supply by ships from US to India, and then fly them to China from Ledo. Of course, the game lets you walk US units from Ledo to China, but how do you send replacement arty, big AA guns, tanks to China then? Their load cost is too big to move them by air transport to China. This mean, that in RL the only US LCU units that could operate in China would be some light infnatry with 75mm pack guns as its biggest field arty and 40mm Bofors as its biggest AA. Maybe you can fly some Stuart tanks (the should fit into air transport), but no trucks. This means that US units in China cannot use strat move on roads in China and have to move on foot only etc.
All this can be amended if you open the Rangoon-Paoshan road --- tanks, AA, mot support, radars can be dumped in Rangoon and walk all the way to China.
I think that by playing this way, you get more mileage from AI.