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For constraints, they are mostly historical. Everything else goes..

I'm wondering about the surprise calculation in the game.

Assume you have CW and Italian units in the west med in clear weather:

Italy:
Ftr and nav in the 2 box

Britain
1 CP some surface ships in the zero box
Small flotilla with a 2 movement cvp in the 2 box.

Assume both sides roll a 3.

Italy finds the British, and the British do not find the Italians(variable cvp searching).

If Italy selects ONLY the zero box in combat, it seems as if the allocation of surprise points is skipped.

How many surprise points should Italy have if it selects to only attack the ships in the zero box?

They should have 3. Italy gets 3 (sea box plus Nav) + 3 (CW roll) = 6. CW gets 0 (sea box) + 3 (Italian roll). Net is +3 for Italy.

Another way to look at it is difference in boxes + difference in dice. (3 - 0) + (3 - 3) = 3

Italy would also find the 0 box in Snow, Rain or Fine weather with even a roll of 4 as there is a -1 die roll modifier for the presence of 1-9 enemy Convoy Points. If the CW roll 3 or higher, only Italy selects which boxes to include and this then generates the surprise point totals.

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In the Guadalcanal scenario the Japanese have a requirement for a minimum of 5 convoy points at sea in the China Sea and South China Sea at the end of every turn. The number of convoy points less than those minimums translate to an equivalent number of victory points for the allied player. My question is, are there any other uses for convoys in that scenario? Specifically, the CW and US also have convoys. What use are they? And, is there any other use for Japanese convoys other than fulfilling their minimum requirements?

If you play with Limited Overseas Supply, you need convoys and TRS to make sure your units are in supply overseas...

In Guadalcanal, there aren't any other uses for convoys.

If you are playing with LOS supply - yes, they can be a conduit for supply like a TRS or Amphib.

Thanks. I didn't think so as I'm not playing with los supply. I did want to try playing with additional optional rules, like carrier planes, cruisers in flames, amphibious rules, scs transport and this scenario is perfect for that without having to learn them in playing another global war scenario.

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

In the Guadalcanal scenario the Japanese have a requirement for a minimum of 5 convoy points at sea in the China Sea and South China Sea at the end of every turn. The number of convoy points less than those minimums translate to an equivalent number of victory points for the allied player. My question is, are there any other uses for convoys in that scenario? Specifically, the CW and US also have convoys. What use are they? And, is there any other use for Japanese convoys other than fulfilling their minimum requirements?

I often like to use convoys in order to give me a chance to maintain supply in dangerous sea zones between turns. I'll put one convoy in a sea zone that will likely be contested next turn. Then I RTB everything else. If the allies go first then the CP is there to provide supply if it doesn't get found. If it does get found it's only 1BP lost. Other times I will sail a single CP into a contested sea zone and hope it doesn't get found. The chances aren't very good, but it's a low cost way to try and slip supply into a place where you don't dare send anything else.

You can also use a convoy as a means to make the enemy find you.

For example, you have a superior air force in a sea, and you want to clash with an enemy navy force. Since you fighters are land based, you have better stats in them, so you don't care so much for his use of surprise (in the dogfight).

Then you can use a convoy of yours to give a -1 to the enemy roll. Unless the enemy is able to cancel the combat via surprise, he will have more probabilities to fight a battle you want him to fight.

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

You can also use a convoy as a means to make the enemy find you.

For example, you have a superior air force in a sea, and you want to clash with an enemy navy force. Since you fighters are land based, you have better stats in them, so you don't care so much for his use of surprise (in the dogfight).

Then you can use a convoy of yours to give a -1 to the enemy roll. Unless the enemy is able to cancel the combat via surprise, he will have more probabilities to fight a battle you want him to fight.

That is a good point! The -1 from convoys will also not impact the opponents surprise points.

Yep!

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

You can also use a convoy as a means to make the enemy find you.

For example, you have a superior air force in a sea, and you want to clash with an enemy navy force. Since you fighters are land based, you have better stats in them, so you don't care so much for his use of surprise (in the dogfight).

Then you can use a convoy of yours to give a -1 to the enemy roll. Unless the enemy is able to cancel the combat via surprise, he will have more probabilities to fight a battle you want him to fight.

Although this sounds like a good idea, it really isn't.

Think about it. You want to have combat so most likely your opponent doesn't. If you don't find him on your search roll and he finds you, he can almost certainly pick the CP in the zero box and have enough surprise to either:
a) pick the CP, sink it and abort the sea zone scot-free; or
b) pick the CP and avoid combat and thus stay in the sea zone untouched to provide supply and/or defensive shore bombardment

So unless you want to fight from the zero box with all your units, you are better off having no other units in any other boxes, so that if your search misses and he finds, he better do so with 4 or more surprise, otherwise he has to fight.

I just downloaded and installed the latest public beta, 1.3.1.5 and thought I'd give the Guadalcanal scenario a go. I want to add some optional rules to my play, specifically, Carrier Planes, Cruisers in Flames, SCS transport and Amphibious rules. So I thought it'd be best to get familiar with them playing the Guadalcanal scenario before I give the global war scenario another try. In the Japanese setup up I got 4 CVL's each with a capacity of 1. But on the draw for the carrier planes I only got 1 CVP of that size (i.e., 1), the rest were size 2 or greater. So at start I'm left with 3 CVL's that don't have planes. Also, I have 2 CVPs at 3 and 1 CVP at 2 that don't have carriers. Is this the way the setup is suppose to work when playing with carrier planes?

It happens all the time in WIF, especially I remember this with the CW.

CVP are cheap (1BP) although they take a lot to get built. That's why it's pretty common to build them all or most at least, and have some as a reserve for possible losses or for when they can be loaded (in the future years) in class 1 CVs.

What I would suggest if you play Guadalcanal is to use the scrap optional rule. That way you can scrap a lot of the older CVP (which are for low numbered CV's) and increase the possibility of getting CVP's which do fit on your carriers. But it's the way Joseignacio already stated. Those bloody plane factories aren't building the right planes for the carriers... Or didn't the shipyards build the right ships for the carrier planes.

From a historical point of view, these things happened a lot...

I don't have a question, but a confession.

I must confess that in my first exposure playing with carrier planes I really didn't care much for that optional rule. I certainly see how it adds realism to the game, but it also complicates it significantly from my point of view. I'm kind of torn as I gain experience with this game to add this rule or not. I see that this optional rule, pilots and 2D10 CRT are in the recommended "standard" set of optional rules. I really like playing with the 1D10 CRT w/blitz, so I guess it would be consistent for me not to play with carrier planes and pilots.

So maybe I just add modestly to my (first) personal set. Synthetic oil plants I believe is a must when playing with oil rules. Probably Cruisers in Flames, Artillery, the Queens, Amphibious rules, SCS transport, Chinese Attack Weakness. And I think I'm going to skip Carrier Planes for now.

I am fond of carrier planes for the Global War campaign. Then you have more control of your carrier plane force.

For the Guadalcanal scenario I dislike to use the CVP option. More CVP planes should be available for this scenario so that the draw get less importance.

Of course, Mr. Orm is right. However, I can understand that you don't want to play with CVP's, since they make things more difficult. Pilots, however, is an optional rule which is quite good to use. It gives you the opportunity to decide after you build a plane to actually use it (and there are a lot of crappy planes being build which you might not want to use). Pilots saves you build points in those cases.

So I suggest that you leave the CVP's out but include the pilots.

Also: use HQ support. It is a really easy rule to have but it adds to the HQ's usefullness.

Now, if you use Amphibious rules, I suggest that you also use SCS transport, since it becomes really tough to make invasions.

Now, on the rules regarding planes: why not include Fighter-Bomber, Twin engined FTR, Large ATR, Bomber and no paradrop ATR and Tank Busters? All these rules don't add much difficulty to the game, but makes things, let we say, more interesting and historical. Most of the things these rules do is generated automatically by the program and I believe you are ready for those too.

Finally: I suggest that you do some reading in the rule books regarding the possibility to align minor countries to both sides. It's not that much, but it is quite important to know...