2.3 Observations

ADavidB · Post by **ADavidB** » Fri Jan 25, 2002 7:03 am

I've now had a chance to play 2.3, Campaign 41 for a couple of days ( and way too much time spent <g> ) and I'm in June 42 with the AI starting to get a bit bottled up.

Surprisingly, I was able to hold Moulemien quite easily. Now I've got a bunch of relatively strong Brit and Indian forces in it and lots of planes nearby bombing the Japanese ground forces on every turn. So the AI has 4 good divisions sitting there doing nothing - that's great from my p.o.v. .

The AI started out playing the Phillipines more aggressively, then did the usual idiot AI trick of leaving Clark Field empty after driving half of my forces to Bataan. ( I kept the best US forces in Manila. ) So I marched a group out, recaptured Clark then recaptured Lingayen. Now the AI has recalled Combined Fleet back to Takao to deal with Lingayen all over again, but the original forces that captured it are now in Java. I was able to keep the Phillipines in supply thanks to air support - my planes in Menando ( I'm guarding that jealously ) and the funny "share the wealth" bug that gives some of the supplies that the AI drops to its troops in Manila to my troops. So now my troops there are at full strength and even growing. ( I'm not attacking because that would waste supplies for no reason. )

I've been slowly pulling back in the Dutch East Indies and even caught a TF with the three "new" Japanese carriers between landbased bombers in Kendari, Ambon, Menando and Sorong. Bye-bye flat tops. The AI still likes to go in a turn before a landing with carriers to "soften up" things - it's great for saving my own carriers. <g>

One big difference is the AI's handling of it's tactical aircraft. In earlier versions the AI would keep Bettys and Nells all around the periphery of its conquered territories, which made raids and even travel a pain. But in this game the AI keeps on clumping the tac bombers in the far East to bomb the Phillipines, so I've regularly been able to go into places like Kavieng and sink dozens of ships in port with no air opposition. That's another trait of the AI that hasn't changed - it still leaves too much of the fleet in port on the periphery where it is easily attacked.

I've gotten used to the new APs fairly quickly. I for one, am not sad to see LSTs gone from the game - they were way too slow to be of any use.

Maybe it's me, but I seem to be getting BBs a lot faster than in earlier versions. I played the historical beginning and the AI sank 5 BBs in Pearl and flamed the rest, but it's now only June 42 and I have 6 old BBs back, either through replacements or quick repairs, and the first fast BB. So I'm already in a position to slug it out with the AI if I want, but I won't - I'll just let the Tac bombers and carriers soften the AI's fleet a while more first.

BTW - I actually got the Langley out of the Phillipines and eventually all the way back to San Fran. I only use AVs to ferry 4-strength air groups from San Fran to Pearl.

I also saw the funny "reaction" message when that Brit patrol boat got creamed trying to leave HK.

So, all-in-all, the new version is pretty interesting and certainly looks nice. There don't seem to be any show-stopper problems. I like the removal of the Korean/Manchurian forces. Doing something similar in China is probably a good idea too.

BTW 2 - the "Adelaide" bug is still there ( it goes out of supply for no reason ), but that doesn't matter because Adelaide may as well not be there either. Maybe the southern Australian cities ought to be replaced with northern bases too.

Hats off to Major Tom and the rest of the gang for this great revision!

Dave Baranyi

underdog · Post by **underdog** » Fri Jan 25, 2002 11:44 pm

You say you got the Langley out, but does it serve any purpose now that you have it? As an AV with a capacity of 0, I don't know how you could use it.

On the one hand you could say that it should have some kind of capacity because I presume it realistically could have been used to transport planes. But on the other hand if you gave it a capacity as an AV then it could be used as a transport which isn't correct and is contrary to what Major Tom is trying to accomplish by making the shortage of APs felt.

I guess it could have been named a CVE with no air groups so it could be used as an aircraft transport, but it doesn't really matter much anyway. I doubt it will escape Manila very often.

[ January 25, 2002: Message edited by: underdog ]</p>

mogami · Post by **mogami** » Sat Jan 26, 2002 12:26 am

Hi underdog, it's supposed to have a cap of 30 the 0 is a mistake. If you can use the editor you can fix it. Myself I have to wait for some kind generous saintly person to do the change and then e-mail me the fixed file *cough cough*

ADavidB · Post by **ADavidB** » Sat Jan 26, 2002 4:26 am

Originally posted by underdog:
You say you got the Langley out, but does it serve any purpose now that you have it? As an AV with a capacity of 0, I don't know how you could use it.

On the one hand you could say that it should have some kind of capacity because I presume it realistically could have been used to transport planes. But on the other hand if you gave it a capacity as an AV then it could be used as a transport which isn't correct and is contrary to what Major Tom is trying to accomplish by making the shortage of APs felt.

I guess it could have been named a CVE with no air groups so it could be used as an aircraft transport, but it doesn't really matter much anyway. I doubt it will escape Manila very often.

[ January 25, 2002: Message edited by: underdog ]

The damn thing is so slow that I just wanted to see if I could get it out. It took forever to finally get it safely across the Pacific. Now it's just sitting in San Fran - it's too slow to bother transporting planes with it. ( I did the fix to cap 30. )

Dave

sbond · Post by **sbond** » Tue Feb 12, 2002 4:42 am

Consider it a training ship <img src="smile.gif" border="0">