the dreaded 125:1

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Mon Oct 16, 2000 2:53 am

Someone help me! For 20 turns I've been on both Guadal and Santa Cruz Is with 5 large units on each.. both has a unit or two with experience around 70. Navy has been in the same hex as well, so no supplies are getting in at all for the Japanese, and I bombard every turn with BB's... bomb from the air.. and supply is very good, all readiness is 99. The best odds I can get is 20:1, and usually only 6:1 or less. How do I root them out?

Blackjack · Post by **Blackjack** » Mon Oct 16, 2000 3:06 am

Although 20 turns are a long time for the "canal" it`s not unheard of for Heavy Jungle Hexs. Although you probably know this, it seems to me that's really a _Good Thing_ since you hold the base and your LCU and Air Units are building experience fast by attacking.

However 20 turns or 5 months seems odd for a Coral Island hex like Santa Cruz, unless they put a large or elite unit there.

You should start seeing 125.1 soon....
unless there is a you know what in the AI land combat routines

[This message has been edited by Blackjack (edited October 15, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Blackjack (edited October 15, 2000).]

Peter O'Brien · Post by **Peter O'Brien** » Mon Oct 16, 2000 7:37 am

kludingt,
in the old version of PACWAR, the experience of the first land unit in the listing was used for all combats at that base - so if the first unit listed had a low experience
it would affect everyone else. I don't know if Matrix has changed this routine.
Have you assigned a good land leader to the base ? You may have to cut back on the air
attacks or risk losing him, though.
Try to have a couple of surface combat fleets isolating each target base - that way you can rotate them, sending one back to base to reform every few turns to keep the fleets PPs up.
Check the readyness levels of the Japanese units during the combat phase - if they're
not low, <25 or so, then you may like to
station a sub or two on the convoy routes to the bases - if a convoy is attacked then they're sneaking supplies in

Also do you create bombardment or surface combat fleets ? Bombardment fleets will not initiate naval combat, so they may not be effective at stopping enemy convoys getting through.

Rich Dionne · Post by **Rich Dionne** » Mon Oct 16, 2000 9:18 pm

About the only thing you can do Kludingt, unless you want to put more LCU combat strength on the island, is to keep hammering away. You have probably already beat the readiness level of the Japanese units down, but if they have a good leader at the base, he can up their readiness at the time of combat by 50%. More LCU's would decide the issue more quickly.

Peter, you bring up an interesting topic. I think the belief that only the top unit in a land combat determines all the units experience is incorrect. Although I have not seen the inner workings of the code, I have experimented with this quite a bit.

This issue most often surfaces as the dreaded 2 squad attack. This one drives me crazy! After researching this problem I have come to the following conclusions:

1) Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't matter which LCU is at the top of the list, the individual LCU experiences are taken into account separately to determine how many units attack or defend.

2) The 2 squad attack notification does not mean this is how many squads actually attacked, it is how many squads are left after the massacre, er, combat.

3) Combat does not exactly follow the rules as indicated in the rule book, there is some additional mysticism going on here. But the bottom line is this, "either" low leader rating and/or low LCU rating can cause 75%, 25%, 5%, or even 0% of the total available combat strength to attack/defend in any given combat.

I am pretty sure that this coding has not been revised in the latest version.

Regards,

Rich

Peter O'Brien · Post by **Peter O'Brien** » Mon Oct 16, 2000 11:26 pm

Rich,
thanks for the explanation - I'll just have to try and get my head around the new concept

Kludingt,
if the bases are stalling your advance,
the self-sustaining prison camp concept
may be worth considering :
- leave a well supplied, entrenched garrison
- move in 2-4 engineers to build up the
airbase
- move in air units as the capacity increases
(preferably Marine air as they will also
attack any Japanese ships that visit)
- when airfield is at max. capacity, embark
engineers and move on
- the air units will attack the Japanese
LCUs at the base, building experience
while keeping the enemy units at low
readyness
- when the next wave of LCUs arrive from
the US, let them capture the base

If the AI is handling the Japanese, it'll
probably try to reinforce/retake the base,
so with preparation you can spring a nice little ambush

[This message has been edited by Peter O'Brien (edited October 16, 2000).]

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Tue Oct 17, 2000 1:04 am

Hey everyone thanks for the advice. It is kinda nice to get the experience levels up on all those LCU's, which will help a lot when charging up the island chains in 44 and 45. I can see it will be tough to take an atoll if the 125:1 has to be achived in one turn with only a few rounds of combat.

Any additional tips on amphibious assault? Obviously bomb it to heck with LBA and bombard the crap out of it for a turn or two, then hit it with *very good* LCU's with lots of supply. Have a great leader, make sure the target is close to the HQ, and the HQ's target is same as the invasion site.

Anything else?

andrewmv · Post by **andrewmv** » Tue Oct 17, 2000 1:45 am

>>Someone help me! For 20 turns I've been on both Guadal and Santa Cruz Is with 5 large units on each.. both has a unit or two with experience around 70. Navy has been in the same hex as well, so no supplies are getting in at all for the Japanese, and I bombard every turn with BB's... bomb from the air.. and supply is very good, all readiness is 99. The best odds I can get is 20:1, and usually only 6:1 or less. How do I root them out?<<

Short answer, don't. If there is no land route that the Japanese can use to supply the base, just garrison the base with something smallish (the Marine Bns are great for this) and move on. That way the Japanese unit does not rebuild in Tokyo and you can use it for target practice to increase your air units experience. Plus if the unit is small enough you can put a raw LCU on it and play "hunt the Japanese" for a few turns to bump up its experience with relatively little risk.

Peter O'Brien · Post by **Peter O'Brien** » Tue Oct 17, 2000 2:47 am

Kludingt,
you've got it pretty right, mate.
Try to assign leaders with good land ratings to both the HQ and the invasion TF.
I like to try and recapture Tarawa and Makin
(which ever has the best airfield or weakest defense at the time being first) as well as
Nauru, build up the airfields and use them as a shield during the push up the Solomons.
You may find the AI Japanese will not garrison some of the atolls until later in the war - your choice if you want to go for them early

mjmooney · Post by **mjmooney** » Tue Oct 17, 2000 3:16 am

Macarthur's comments about Okainawa was that once the airstrips were taked the Americans should have just put themselves in a defensive stance and not made useless attacks---that is my view about island attacks -I know it keeps troops tied down but once you have them starving just let the whither-thats how I do it. I still have about 5 assault divs (exp 90's) in 1945 which is all I really need .