ORIGINAL: jwilkerson
ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown
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Lastly, I am considering adding a new base to Malaya, in hex (23,47), so that there is not an unimpeded railway line from Kota Bharu to Johore Bahru. For those who have playtested CHS or my map - do you think that this is a good idea? Is it even necessary? The base would be an airfield of, say, value 0(1).
Andrew
I assume the primary reason for adding it - is to add delay to the Japanese going from Khota Baru to Singapore during the initial invasion. This would give a bit more time to pull back the troops from Alor Star. So it has a purpose. But it is a compromise of what I understand of the CHS concept - to be as accurate as we can be - personnally I'd do a lot of other things before I'd do this - but I don't "oppose it" per se .. if you add it ... maybe give it a level 3 fort so it has some speed bump capability. And be aware, adding it may cause as many problems as it solves as the AI may pull supply out of Singapore to send to this base.
I wonder how beneficial it is to be historically accurate with our work when the game system seems to defeat such effort.
The Japanese 25th Army landed at Kota Bharu on 8 Decemeber 1941. It took them nine weeks to move down to Singapore and accept Percival's surrender. At that juncture Yamashita's force was about as worn out physically as Percival's and near supply exhaustion. The big difference between the Japanese and British forces seems to have been morale and sense of purpose.
However that was, as everything in the game moves too fast then the best object of this project would seem to be to
slow down all game functions where possible.
At present there are five rail hexes to be negotiated from Kota Bharu to Johore Bahru along the eastern rail route. Has anyone experienced a Malaya campaign which required nine weeks or 63 game turns of Japanese combat and movement down the Malaya peninsula until Singapore falls? And keep in mind that was best case, a full month ahead of the Japanese war plan, against an ill-trained, disorganized British force with sinking morale.
Maybe the rail line from Kota Bharu to Johore Bahru should be downsized to a road at best. That could only help to
slow this game down. If nothing else it would encourage the Japanese player take the rail route down the western side of Malaya, which is what they did anyway.
That alone should tell us something of the eastern railway route during WWII, which was rough everywhere, basically just a single cut through thick jungle and mountainous terrain. The Japanese tore much of this railroad up to use on the Burma railway, the best use they could find for it, and that should to tell us something else.
If the Japanese player is encouraged to take the western route, this would add two extra hexes of transit south to Singapore, one of which is a lateral trail hex. That sounds both slower to me
and historical, and slower, at least, is
always a good thing with this game.
That little "speed bump" in 23,47 (which sounds like Kuala Lipis to me) isn't going to accomplish much. For sure it won't affect Japanese supply the way we would want, a concurrent consideration.
Accuracy sounds fine, but if that doesn't get us where we want to be in terms of game play vis-a-vis Gary's model then it only comes out as window dressing, and in this case window dressing that works against our purpose.
Below are two maps from the U.S. Military Academy World War II atlas. These afford a good strategic view of the situation.
