WitP mod v903 Ngineer(Japan) vs. Feinder(Allies)

[Feinder]

May 4th, 1943

National Morale and Strategic Map

National Morale continues it's downward slide. At this point, I'm beneath the 76% mark for USA, and zip I can really do about it (you'll see that it continues to slide next couple of turns). I can try to keep him UNDER 110% though.

Not a lot of detail on the Strategic Map. Largely because the theater maps are quite detailed, and this is actually 3 turns ago, so I don't have the luxury of making detailed notes on the map.

[Feinder]

May 4th, 1943

Admin Stuff

Research, Production, Losses, and Economy

Research - Getting close on Advanced Fighters. Helps vs. LBA, and he's got plenty of that. So any plus will be welcom.

Production - Built 2x CVLs, due end-of-April 1944.

Losses - Lost an Indian Inf-Div. Sank an IJN sub. That's ok I guess.

Economy - He figured out that I'm sending troops into India via the off-shore boxes. I turned on the convoy at 10mpp, to see if he was on the line to intercept direct from Oz transports (all have already landed). But I forgot to turn off the convoy, and he's definately got somebody squatting on the line now. I'll turn it down to 1mpp next turn, so it'll show traffic, it'll give him the satisfaction of interdicting something, and will tell me where a ship or two of his are, for the cost of 1mpp.

[Feinder]

May 22nd, 1943

India

Oz/Kiwi forces move up on his Inf-Corps in the south. It's a veteran Inf-Corps. Ugh, that's gonna be rough. But, I would think that 3x Corps and a Division can handle him.

US and Canadian troops move towards the Center/Coast.

Coastal India. Ok. I'm a little annoyed here. You'll recall from the screen cap last turn, that my Inf-Div was NE of Vizagapatam. I was keeping off the coast, because all he do is blow me to h_ll with his fleet. Instead, he just walked into Vizagapatam, with his Inf-Corps. I would have thought my ZOC would have stopped him? Evidently not. So my Inf-Div (was) NE of the Viza, I had to retreat NW into the wilderness or be cut off (could only go 1-hex). And now he has a second port. And no, the militia scrips did not fire. No troops spawned at/near Viza (or in subsequent turns). That whole situation ends up being VERY annoying.

Artillery fire at Chittagong, and he attrits a step. My flanking Inf-Div is pulled back for replacements, even tho that leaves my flank at Chittagong exposed at this point. Nothing to do for it tho.

And RAF and RCAF fighter ran some intercepts as his LBA and CVA hit my Indian HQ in the sought (remember to target high-value units). Anyway, the took more losses than they inflicted, but my HQ didn't suffer any damage. They're taking what replacements that they can.

[Feinder]

May 22nd, 1943

China

He wasn't keen on my attack in Center in China; and counter-attacked himself. Results generally inconclusive. Also some Tac-Bmbrs attacking in Communist China, but nothing significant to report.

[Feinder]

May 22nd, 1943

Solomons

Some "recon in force" over the Solomons and New Britian. The fleet assembles in the Center, and assault troops board AVLs. FWIW, AVs are all but worthless, because if you're using an AV, you're either too close (and will be clobbered by LBA), or too far, and will be burning supplies at a problematic rate (and at some point, you're going to come under LBA visibility, and the game will be up).

[Feinder]

May 22nd, 1943

SoPac

Crap. I forgot to get a screen cap; I must have wanted to block this from my memory.

Things did not go as planned.

The part where when start your turn parked next to sub is unhealthy... So he torped my Destroyer with his Sub, then backed off. Then hit my DD with his Mari-Bmbr twice (second hit did 5(!) damage, holy crap). Anyway. USN-DD went down. That was bad enough but...

My remaining 3x DDs pursued his sub, did manage to hit it for 3x damage and drove it off, I could have sworn I saw it moving off north... Or so I thought.

Anyway, coast was "clear" (not), moved thru a USMC-Div in Transport, only to find his sub, and my transport (with USMC-Div) completely wiped out. That REALLY sucked. I've got to take responsibility for the loss of that USMC-Div.

But over-all, it was a fairly crappy turn. I suppose it could have been worse.

Also posting the Strategic Map and National Morale chart (continues to drop, no surprise there).

[Feinder]

May 22nd, 1943

Admin Stuff

Research, Production, Losses, and Economy

Research - The good thing is, I got notified that US Fighters went to 3. The bad thing is, I had just move out my CVs to support the fleet. But given that Fighters(3) will certainly be helpful vs. LBA, I really need to send my USN CVs back to port, to refit. I need that Fighter(3). Going to cost me 3 turns tho (1 turn into port, 1 turn for upgrade, 1 turn to redploy).

Production - Build final 2x USMC-Div and a squadron of USAAC Fighters.

Losses - The USN-DD, USMC-Div, and the transport with it. Nothing in return. Ugh.

Economy - Having turned off the India convoy (except for 1mpp), I regained 9 points back.

Oh, and I almost forgot that I had a USN CA and CL "escorting" the last US Inf-Div to Oz. They popped into 2x BCs, and several Cruisers and Destroyers. He's not got a LOT of stuff camping the off-map hexes. My CA/CL damaged a DD of his, and then immediately retreat back to the off-map hexes. My UK DD got stopped before able to get to the off-map hex tho, it doesn't bode well.

Feed-back : I do kind think that camping the off-map hexes is kinda gamey. Also, you should be able to follow the edge of the map without molestation (the world is round, and you could just move farther away, except that the map is flat and a defined space). My suggestion would be to put a no-pass zone at row-5 for Japan, all the way down the west map edge. If he wants to blockade India and it's ports it one thing. But squatting on the portal hexes, that seems wrong. 5 hexes away is far enough that that you're not just spotting into the portal (IJN has 3-spotting). Just a suggestion.

[Feinder]

Well. I have 06-09-43 to post, but it's late, and I'm tired. I've also sent the turn back to him, he usually gets it back late the next night. But I'll post June-9 tomorrow morning. Gnite.

[Feinder]

June 9th, 1943

India

He's got (most) of his Eastern Fleet, sans CV/CVLs now camping the transfer hexes. Royal Navy DD was trapped among them, and paid the price. RIP crew of HMS Bulldog. I had also started to send USN Subs to India, via the off-map hexes. The intent being that, it's a shorter/safer trip via India, than to drive the long way round. My first sub has popped up, and managed to damage a heavy cruiser (-3sp). But, now it's going to be in the middle of them. Also, I think I have 2 more subs in-bound already, so they'll show up in the middle of the brawl over the next turn or two. IJN exclusion zone at Column-5 highly requested...

Meanwhile, Oz and Kiwi ground forces attack the IJA Inf-Corps in the south, and are thrown back with heavy losses. It looks like I'll need to wear down his town/port/supply in order to dislodge him. But he's also going to have the advantage of me NOT being able to stop his port, and his ability to pummel my ground units via bombardment.

He also continues to pour units onto the coast at India. 5x Inf-Corps, Mech-Div, Inf-Div, SNLF-Div and HQ all identified at this point. The 3x USA Inf-Div and 1x Canadian Inf-Corp are sorely needed; I hope they're enough. I pushed an Indian Inf-Div forward in Center to keep him honest (as in, I don't want him to be able to just put hitters on the East and West, and a weak Center, make him keep something in Center as well). I am curious tho, as he is NOT triggering partisan/supply disruptions anywhere, as it appears that everywhere would thus be fully garrisoned. So I presume he's got a substantial ground army.

Attacks at Chittagong were fairly disruptive (I had to pull 4x SP replacements), but they continued to hold.

I'm also trying to keep a "temperature" on the relatively (far) less costly ground units, than air or naval. An Inf-Div is about 90mpp. A fighter is about 200mpp. A DD is about 150mpp. Is it possible to make that "cost" vary by country? As in, for the Allied powers (non-US) their income/turn is about 50-90 MPP. Pretty much everything is expensive, even if you don't have to spend MPPs on replacements (and LBA and Naval units are that much more expensive).

[Feinder]

June 9th, 1943

India

He pushed me back in at the Western Mines. I'll need to move back up on (his) right, to keep 2x Units adjacent to the mines to keep them from producing.

In the North, Nationalist Chinese forces begin to arrive at the Nat-Chi/Comm-Chi juncture. Comm-Chi units pull replacements.

[Feinder]

June 9th, 1943

Solomons

USAAC fighters took upgrades to Fighters(3). Meanwhile, several recon missions along the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. I lost a RAAF Mari-Bmbr (too 4x SP loss on the second mission), that hurt. But it did provide good intel Milne Bay and Woodlark Island; which I have then subsequently invaded.

A large invasion force has lined up just outside of Japanese search range from Port Moresby. Air-cover is provided by Royal Navy CV and CVL, and a squadron of Australian Fighters. The plan is to pound the crap out of the place with BBs, then dump USMC-Divs to capture the place. Easy-Peasy, right?

One thing I'm seeing is that, the Allies will pretty much have to invade EVERYTHING. When Japan conquers something (DEI, New Guinea), the whole country surrenders, and every base flips to Japan. Whereas, when the Allies recapture, you have have to re-cap every base (that's a LOT of time/MPPs needed). There's very little ability to by-pass something. LBA or ground units can relocated to a base in one turn, and (the LBA) is now suddenly a threat to your supply-train, and/or provides intel on movements. Furthermore, with so many ports available, if you don't capture bases/ports, it provides a host of locations to safely shelter naval assets that (garnering the additional defensive/supply/readiness benefits), while conducting port-attack-port. For example, if you skip two bases, enemy parks a CV an BB in the ports of those two bases (garnering all the defensive benefits). The CV and BB sortie out to do their damage, and return at the end of each turn, no worse for wear. I'm just calling it out. I don't if one can (or even wants to) do something about it. But it certainly does make the job of liberating The Pacific by the Allies far more expensive (MPPs), time-consuming, and costly. At this point, a third of my US Ground forces are tied-up, just trying to keep India from collapsing, and are thus NOT available for invading islands in The Pacific.

[Feinder]

June 9th, 1943

SoPac

So... SoPac is actually interesting. You can see that he's shifted most of his fleet units from The Solomons, east towards Tarawa. Evidently all because he encountered the 4x Destroyers (sinking one), and the intercepted USMC-Div. So he either thinks I'm going for Tarawa now, or is simply looking for more targets (either or both are possible).

But at least I know that he's got most of his fleet in SoPac, and NOT in the Solomons. It also could be an opportunity to engage it.

Not really a lot of action in SoPac, just my observations, and I moved a CV/BC south to Suva to take Fighter(3) refits. My other 3x USN-CVs are also taking Fighter(3) refits at Esprito Santo and Noumea.

[Feinder]

June 9th, 1943

National Morale and Strategic Map

National Morale keeps going down. For the love of keeping this mod playable, please remove the "damage-over-time" National Morale scripts. It's dropping US National Morale by about 1% each month (in the limited observations that we have, obviously, we'll continue to track it). I'm already well under the 76% threshold, and in my humble opinion, I've traded almost punch for punch over-all (including the early war freebie losses even). I would think that attrition would favor the Allies.

[Feinder]

June 9th, 1943

Admin Stuff

Research, Production, Losses, and Economy

Research - No new funding in Research. USA Fighters(3) completed, and thus taking refits this turn. I'm also looking forward to USA Inf-Warfare almost complete, will bring me to Level-2, "soon". Also China nears completion for AntiAir(1). I also noted that somewhere along the line, Japan increased to AAA(1) and ASW(1).

Production - Rebuilt the RAAF Mari-Bmbrs, laid-down two USN CVLs to arrive in June-44.

Losses - As mentioned before, RN destroyer, and RAAF Mari-Bmbr.

Economy - Well, production for USA(819), Japan(367), and everybody else doing what they can to contribute = net no change. I'll take that as a good thing.

And, AAR all caught up! I'm waiting on a turn now...

[Elessar2]

Coastal India. Ok. I'm a little annoyed here. You'll recall from the screen cap last turn, that my Inf-Div was NE of Vizagapatam. I was keeping off the coast, because all he do is blow me to h_ll with his fleet. Instead, he just walked into Vizagapatam, with his Inf-Corps. I would have thought my ZOC would have stopped him? Evidently not. So my Inf-Div (was) NE of the Viza, I had to retreat NW into the wilderness or be cut off (could only go 1-hex). And now he has a second port. And no, the militia scrips did not fire. No troops spawned at/near Viza (or in subsequent turns). That whole situation ends up being VERY annoying.

I'll be fixing the militia scripts. This mod was made before the recent patch which allowed differentiation between land and sea unit ZoC's-in this version you need 2 ground units of sufficient power to add a movement point, because the first slot is used by ships. This was already mentioned a couple of pages back and is on my list of changes, not to worry.

FWIW, AVs are all but worthless, because if you're using an AV, you're either too close (and will be clobbered by LBA), or too far, and will be burning supplies at a problematic rate (and at some point, you're going to come under LBA visibility, and the game will be up).

I may borrow an idea from Lothos, who also dispensed with slow amphibs. It mainly helped with streamlining scripts too (AI doesn't differentiate between the two types, making invasions a chaotic affair), but you raise some good points.

Feed-back : I do kind think that camping the off-map hexes is kinda gamey. Also, you should be able to follow the edge of the map without molestation (the world is round, and you could just move farther away, except that the map is flat and a defined space). My suggestion would be to put a no-pass zone at row-5 for Japan, all the way down the west map edge. If he wants to blockade India and it's ports it one thing. But squatting on the portal hexes, that seems wrong. 5 hexes away is far enough that that you're not just spotting into the portal (IJN has 3-spotting). Just a suggestion.

And a good one. For now I'd PM him and house-rule it. Note that storms will attrition his fleet over time if it stays at sea too long.

A DD is about 150mpp. Is it possible to make that "cost" vary by country?

Could be done, but recall you criticized having different plane ranges awhile back. You may not know that the other side has differently-priced units, which may affect your strategy ("How could he afford all that?!"). An argument could be made that DD's are too expensive tho, for everyone.

Not much I can do about port resupply. If I were HC, I'd have at least 3 different port types, providing varying levels of both supply and max repair:

Minor port: Supply max 5, repair max 5

Regular port: Supply max 8, repair max 8

Major port: Supply max 10 (or 12, changed a few patches back IIRC), repair max 10 (+ Elites)

At this point, a third of my US Ground forces are tied-up, just trying to keep India from collapsing, and are thus NOT available for invading islands in The Pacific.

Have you hit your American ground unit build limits?

Note there is ample opportunity for island-hopping/blockading.

NM scripts will be remedied as discussed earlier.

[Feinder]

"... comment on different ranges/attributes of units a while back."

Yep. I would say to, just make sure that the differences in the starting values is "well published". Your include file on the explanation of the different production techs is a great example. The simple fact that it's included as a separate file, grabs the attention and, "Hm. What is this for? Ok. He's talking about tech, which allows you to build more stuff... Got it. That's clever..." If you have some sort of file that talks about the differences in the starting values of units. Not have to explain the difference due to tech difference, because that's inferred. But in cases where the initial value(s) of a unit differs between Allied vs. Japan, that's helpful.

I see your point about varying the MPP cost per unit (by country), can be a similarly confusing. I mentioned varying the cost, because I did see where the cost of tech can vary by country (ex cost of industry is more for USA). I presume that the varying cost was intentional, because esp with the US, growing the economy by 10% vs. growing the Indian economy by 10% provides a significant difference. That being said, I'll call it out that, I don't really have a good "solution" other than to "document it". Publishing the info saying that "Base MPP cost of a Chinese Inf-Div = 50mpp, Indian Inf-Div = 55mpp, USA Inf-Div = 80mpp..." You COULD do it that way, but that does seem like a pain-in-the-ass, a lot of work to vary the costs, and the put it into even more documentation that would potentially drown the player/reader to not even bother reading it, because they just want to play. I'm really just thinking-as-I-type here... I dunno, I don't really like either solution.

It might just be a case of, "let's parking lot that one for now..."

I think the food for thought is:
1. I do think there could be some mpp-cost adjustments between Ground (relatively cheap) vs. Air and Naval (more expensive). But that's got to a be a baby-steps thing.
2. Is there a way to make it more economical for the non-US Allies to either invest in Tech, and/or buy units? This is really the thing to ruminate on in my opinion.

[Feinder]

June 27th, 1943

India

India continues to be a hot mess.

My assault forces on southern tip of the continent were summarily defanged. Bombardments by his surface fleet, hard hits by LBA and Carriers, followed up by a counter-attack by his Inf-Corps, wiped out one Inf-Corps, and mauled the other. I've pulled back my remaining Inf-Corps and Inf-Divs from the coast. I just can't do anything about his shore bombardments for now. I do have a USN-SS making it's way towards the coast. And two more to follow from the US (arriving in about 4-6 turns).

He attacked on the East (south) and West (north) side of the Coastal Incursion; West receiving additional air support that has also been moved onto mainland India. I had to force-march my US and Canadian troops to cut off his progress into the interior. I'll hope that he's not able to capitalize on the disruption of the march, and damage the formations as they take up position. I had to pull back my Indian Inf-Div, as he's now got a Cav-Div in place; and after the debacle/loss of Viza-whatever, I didn't want his Cavalry Unit to get behind me and capture the town. He also hit my AAA unit on the East side of the pocket, and beat it up pretty hard as well.

On the plus side, the RAF/RCAF fighters are doing their job. Traded about 1:1 in SPPs intercepted. He also parked a CVL in the port at Viza-whatever; so I had the opportunity to whack it in port with my Indian Inf-Corps. 4x SP damage. That'll be an expensive repair for him at least.

[Feinder]

June 27th, 1943

China

Nothing much in China. I can live with that. Some LBA on strikes against Nat-Chi and Comm-Chi joiner. Both of us trading some skirmishes in the Center. Nothing interesting. I suppose that know that he's got (one each) of Fighter, Med-Bmbr, and Tac-Bmbr in China, means they're NOT being employed elsewhere. I'll take it.

[Feinder]

June 27th, 1943

Solomons.

Busy. I think he had gotten an Intel-Rpt of a CL on the perimeter of my Task Force. He went straight for my CL with a pair subs, and traded (3 + 3) SPs from two subs, vs. maybe 3x SP from my CL. But that was it, nothing else to molest the giant TF behind it. With no small degree of satisfaction (esp after the events in India), my screen was able to dispatch both subs. Sunk. Not "driven off". Sunk is good.

Bombardment and Invasion of Port Moresby thus commenced. I was getting a little frustrated, because my Bombardment by 10x BB/BC, did whopping zero SP-loss to the AAA unit there(*). Further attacks by AVL and Bombers, and then attacks on the ground have reduced the AAA unit to 4sp. I've also completely destroyed the town (0-supply) and the port; including units adjacent to the town and port, so they should not rebuild (keeping his supply at zero). I've also got an HQ loaded onto AVL that, if needed I can bombard/invade if needed. I'm cautiously optimistic that PM will fall next turn.

I was also able to skate-up some CLs to sink a DD off of Milne Bay. You can see he's got a BB and some Cruisers lurking about (including one in the NW past Cape Horn). I did not strike them however, because he's still got a very strong fighter presence, and I didn't want to get my CAGs mauled going after him).

I've got 2x CVs (including one USN with Fighters(3) ), a CVL, and bunch of fighters that should be sufficient to provide air support for the ships around Port Moresby. He usual tactic would be to hit those CLs on the perimeter with sub/LBA, reduce them to 4x SP, then hit with his BB/Cruisers. I've got a fair amount of intercepts available (since my CVs are still "fresh"), so we'll see how effective his 2x subs are. I'm figuring I'll lose a CL, another damaged. We'll see. If he can't damage the ZOC of the CLs tho, he won't move up his surface units (risking exposing them to counter-strike).

(*) - So. I dbl-checked the attack values most Naval units. Vs "Hard" (most ground formations), it's "1". Vs. "AAA" it's "0". I presume this was the culprit. I would submit to update the attack value of Naval units vs. AAA to be whatever is already in the register for the given unit type for other ground units. I see that BB/BC/DN are "1" vs. ground units. And Cruisers are "0". I would recommend to increase BB/BC/DN vs. AAA to a "1" then. Fortunately, PM is NOT a single-hex island (and I'm able to get troops down to kill the AAA). If it was a single-hex island, it would have take a LOT of bombs to take it out.

[Feinder]

June 27th, 1943

Elsewhere. SoPac. National Morale.

USN CVs are refitting. One was ready (Fighters-3), so I zoomed it over to provide CAP for the PM invasion along with the RN CV/CVL. He's got a partial fleet with CVs and CVL near Canton Island. He seems to be staying north-ish, and I'm thinking that the attention at Port Moresby will will draw him back west.

National Morale - It's interesting that the Oz and UK NatMorale went up. I thought Oz got pummeled pretty hard. No idea why it went up. But I'll take it.

Strat Map attached, with theater assets indicated. I give my accuracy estimates of Japanese strengths to be about 90%.