Matrix Games Forums

OK, I've rolled the Japanese up into Shortland, Rabaul, and Lae. They're starving and I have no real interest in going in after them. In fact, I'm pretty much done other than trying to lure their carriers out into open battle to polish them off. So I have a few observations/questions and impressions:

1. Assuming any sort of equal forces, are all carrier battles a mutual suicide pact? I can beat up their CVs and they can beat up mine but in the end both fleets always seem to suffer tragic losses that effectively put the CV's out of commission.

2. Amphibious assaults suck. It takes forever in the pre-LST days and even when I get them it is still a long haul to unload. The US put 11,000 marines ashore on day 1 at Lunga when it was still amateur hour. I tremble at the thought of how long that would take me.

3. Ground combat is a raft of frustrations. From slow move time to byzantine outcomes and statistics. I hate doing this. In that sense I guess they captured the feel of the plodding ground efforts in this part of the world and why you tried to avoid heavily defended locations.

4. As part of #1 CAP's are wildly ineffective for both sides and so tons of bombers always get through. I can send unescorted bombers (B25's) into Rabaul and of 8 7 will get through on a regular basis.

5. Good news that CAP's suck since flak is a $%^&#. Was flak really so good that almost every plane that attacked a TF got damaged or destroyed? Same thing with airbase attacks. Flak alone destroyed the experienced IJN Betty's

6. BB's and CA's have very little if any value. I though in the narrow waters there's be more surface combat play but since almost anywhere the surface combat units go is within LBA range for both sides they just become very expensive sitting ducks.

7. I apologize to the P39's. Those crappy fighters did more to help me win the game than any other units. Those forces flying out of PM and Rossel decimated IJN transport trying to keep Buna, Gili Gili and Lae supplies. The reason the IJN ran out of AK and AP units so fast was the effectiveness of those units at 100 feet.

8. Fighter sweeps seem under effective. Even at 100 feel the sweeps don't seem to chew up the number of planes on the ground one would think.

9. The AI doesn't seem to develop an effective anti-sub effort and what I did wasn't very useful either. I put a lot of SC's and PC's into dangerous waters to chase the SS's and they subs won.

10. I need to be a lot more patient overall. I get in a big hurry and this is a much slower game.

11. Supply is the point of the game but it is a huge task to properly micromanage the effort. I finally developed a simple strategy of sending massive amphibious forces. One a troop convoy the other a supply convoy. My goals was to put enough supply on the beach that I would stay ahead of the game and then only had to run in small AK's convoys under computer control.

12. Finally, does Australia not have trucks or rail lines? I hate having to keep Cooktown resupplied with ships and that my forces walk from Brisbane.

13. Finally, the Aussies contribute a lot of men and material to the fight but thanks to their very limited AP situation and how thing the USA stretches it is hard to use all of their forces.

1. Assuming any sort of equal forces, are all carrier battles a mutual suicide pact? I can beat up their CVs and they can beat up mine but in the end both fleets always seem to suffer tragic losses that effectively put the CV's out of commission.

Not really, they´re always a dice throw. Imagine having a thunderstorm on your CV goup and your planes don´t launch and his does...ouch! There are lots of other variables that can effect carrier battles greatly also.

2. Amphibious assaults suck. It takes forever in the pre-LST days and even when I get them it is still a long haul to unload. The US put 11,000 marines ashore on day 1 at Lunga when it was still amateur hour. I tremble at the thought of how long that would take me.

Yes, Amphibious assaults suck. Imagine trying to unload in a minefield of 4,000 mines with coastal defense guns blazing away. About the 11,000 at Lunga...remember they basically got just the bodies and a little bit of supply off. All the heavy equiptment and artillery never got off loaded. In UV the men unload pretty quickly really its the supplies that take a long time to off load.

5. Good news that CAP's suck since flak is a $%^&#. Was flak really so good that almost every plane that attacked a TF got damaged or destroyed? Same thing with airbase attacks. Flak alone destroyed the experienced IJN Betty's

Carrier air losses in these battles were very heavy. Especially for the torpedo planes. Look at battle of Coral Sea. Even though the Japanese won this battle their two carrier air wings were annialated.

Edit- Santa Cruz as well.

6. BB's and CA's have very little if any value. I though in the narrow waters there's be more surface combat play but since almost anywhere the surface combat units go is within LBA range for both sides they just become very expensive sitting ducks.

Japanese cruisers are indespensable for the Japanese. Their battleships not so much so. For the Allies their Battleships are good for destroying those Coastal Defense guns before an invasion hits the landing beaches and preliminary bombardments.

7. I apologize to the P39's. Those crappy fighters did more to help me win the game than any other units. Those forces flying out of PM and Rossel decimated IJN transport trying to keep Buna, Gili Gili and Lae supplies. The reason the IJN ran out of AK and AP units so fast was the effectiveness of those units at 100 feet.

Barge killers. A human player won´t be sailing AP/AK into range of P39´s on bases. Hmmm...or shouldn´t be. [:D]

8. Fighter sweeps seem under effective. Even at 100 feel the sweeps don't seem to chew up the number of planes on the ground one would think.

I have no idea what a good number is based on any historical evidence is...but in UV pilot quality effects this a lot it seems.

9. The AI doesn't seem to develop an effective anti-sub effort and what I did wasn't very useful either. I put a lot of SC's and PC's into dangerous waters to chase the SS's and they subs won.

The AI doesn´t do anything very well. [:D]

10. I need to be a lot more patient overall. I get in a big hurry and this is a much slower game.

Hurry up and $%&/ up they say. [:D]

11. Supply is the point of the game but it is a huge task to properly micromanage the effort. I finally developed a simple strategy of sending massive amphibious forces. One a troop convoy the other a supply convoy. My goals was to put enough supply on the beach that I would stay ahead of the game and then only had to run in small AK's convoys under computer control.

Absolutely. Supply is what wins and loses the game.

12. Finally, does Australia not have trucks or rail lines? I hate having to keep Cooktown resupplied with ships and that my forces walk from Brisbane.

As I know you don´t have to supply any Austrailan bases by ships. The supplies will automatically move there by the roads. If you dropped a large amount of troops at one it may show them being low on supply a while but the supplys should even out.

13. Finally, the Aussies contribute a lot of men and material to the fight but thanks to their very limited AP situation and how thing the USA stretches it is hard to use all of their forces.

Yes.

I suggest you play against a human ILCK. It really is a completely different game than playing against the A.I.

ORIGINAL: Ike99

I suggest you play against a human ILCK. It really is a completely different game than playing against the A.I.

I'm gonna go for another game vs the AI first. I'm still getting a lot of the mechanics of the game right.

Be sure to play both sides against the AI before going H2H. It'll be to your advantage to understand the strengths and weaknesses to both sides.

ORIGINAL: Ike99

12. Finally, does Australia not have trucks or rail lines? I hate having to keep Cooktown resupplied with ships and that my forces walk from Brisbane.

As I know you don´t have to supply any Austrailan bases by ships. The supplies will automatically move there by the roads. If you dropped a large amount of troops at one it may show them being low on supply a while but the supplys should even out.

The northern most bases do require support. If you like to run supplies via air to PM, you need to keep those northern bases supplied via ocean or air. That's what ILCK means by trucks and rail.