Matrix Games Forums

In the legendary Bermuda Triangle, peculiar things happen. And the same can be said for US ships that venture into Truk. Now concluding my second campaign game with the final push - the invasion of Truk - I find some familiar patterns emerging. When the assault troops hit the beach, I've taken out the naval guns, sunk the ships in port, and cratered the runways into rubble, but there's one obstacle I have yet to overcome - the AI! For some reason, US convoys attempting to land troops suddenly list Truk as both their home base and destination, consequently ceasing unloading assault troops/supplies. The only temporary fix for the problem seems to be to reset Rabaul as their home base and Truk as the destination. When "Unload troops" is selected, they may actually do that for a turn or two, then abruptly stop again, their home port being listed, once again, as Truk. Any patches or bug fixes for this problem?

I doubt it.

This game is too "old" now for matrix to bother with any more patching re new errors and there are lots of old ones that still need a patch too!

Re your situation, I am unsure if the game designers ever considered places like Truk or Rabual would be captured, without the game having been otherwise won / lost. If I recall correctly, historically speaking, Truk was captured outside of the games time period & Rabual did not fall at all.

You suggust that Truk is the only place left to take. If so, should you have not won already per the games victory conditions?

Re you precise problem, are there still enemy troops there? Is it still shown as an enemy base? Perhaps at the end of the turn in which the "error" occurs, Truk will fall? How did the game end?

Historically speaking, both Rabaul and Truk were bypassed by the US on the march back to Japan. But in this game (as in other games I've played over the decades), I go more for total victory than a victory by points. At this time (7/8/43), I've racked up a score of 25,229 (US) vs 5,079 (Jap); which breaks down by category to 4,675 Jap plane-points destroyed while losing 3,480 US plane-points; 483 Jap ships sunk for 9,677 points versus 16 US ships for 132 points; a total of 1,987 Jap army-points destroyed while losing a total of 117 US army-points; and every base (37 total) except Truk in my hands (for an Allied score of 8,890 points versus a Jap score of 1,258 points). This being my second full campaign, as you can see, I still need to work on reducing my aircraft losses, but otherwise the results are satisfactory. But in answer to your specific questions, yep, there are definitely Jap troops there (36,286 combat and 113,130 support), so it is still an enemy base. I can't unload troops at the port, only as assault troops. At all other bases I've invaded, the home base of my TFs remained unchanged and never transformed to the objective as a home base, even after I captured it, unless I specifically changed the setting for each TF manually after the base was captured. And you can't designate an enemy base as your home base (not even the red-dot, undeveloped bases that, technically, belong to the Japs, even though they have no troops or facilities there) - believe me, I've tried!

The bizarre happenings at Truk continue. Having captured the base (depriving the Japs of ANY base in the game), Jap air units started showing up as reinforcements in Brisbane! Although they are visible on the hover display that appears if you place your pointer over Brisbane's air base, they are invisible if you try going in and examining them. And before the fall of Truk, DMS Long (an American ship) appeared in a Jap port as a Jap ship, but after it was sunk by US planes, was listed as a US ship lost to the Japs! What is this, a case of piracy? Did the Japs sail the Long to their port as a prize ship? Any second I expect a flashing "TILT" message to appear in the center of the screen!!

I think "capturing" that "last" enemy base is the problem here re your odd losses etc. The AI ( IMHO ) has become confused as to who owns what, as it was not programed for this. This seems linked to the landing problems etc. previously commented on.

Try another tack. Next campaign, bypass Rabaul and capture Truk. See if the problem is Truk itself OR the Last Base. I would guess the latter.

Either way, you appear to be way better than the AI at the level you are playing at. Move up a level or two & get a more "historic" ending. This should end your problems!!

Finally figured out how to get around the problem of Allied TFs considering Truk to be their base (and halting unloading of assault troops in the process!) The solution was really quite simple. You select the hex NOT THE BASE as the objective of Allied TFs. As long as their destination shows "20,2" instead of "Truk", they will happily unload continuously and then scurry back to their official base without any human intervention required. So, problem solved, another successful campaign, and here are the results:

Ground combat at Truk (11/16/1943)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 158741 troops, 1919 guns, 531 vehicles

Defending force 130399 troops, 1765 guns, 315 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Truk base !!!


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 46012
Guns lost 453
Vehicles lost 29

Allied ground losses:
Men lost 491

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Ground combat at Truk (11/17/1943)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 159629 troops, 1923 guns, 531 vehicles

Defending force 102409 troops, 1032 guns, 116 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 0)


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 72529
Guns lost 708
Vehicles lost 140

Allied ground losses:
Men lost 49

--------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at Truk (11/18/1943)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 160488 troops, 1922 guns, 531 vehicles

Defending force 46512 troops, 509 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 39 to 1 (fort level 0)


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 55814
Guns lost 600

Allied ground losses:
Men lost 3

Interesting answer to the problem that!!

Well done.

And it works dandy if you're playing the Japs trying to land at Townsville, too! I was surprised to find out that the same phenomenon occurred there, though it was tricky trying to select the hex rather than the base. I'm coming to the conclusion that an attempted assault landing on any of the hexes that have unlimited supplies results in the same problem, though I haven't tried it at Brisbane or Noumea, so would have to defer to someone a bit more successful in the campaign scenarios than me (that dratted rule that gives the Japs an automatic victory by 1/2/43 is such a pain! Give me just a couple more months and I'd have gotten all the US bases!!)