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Has the game been out long enough to form an opinion on play balance? Specifically for hth. Is the alternate scn 17 without the Midway carriers balanced?

I reckon they are unbalanced to the extent that I always lose

Aganst AI, I won some auto victory 1/1/43 as IJN without carrier superority by taking Luganville and Effate (Sp) with double supplies (Green level). Results on post "Auto Restart" in Bugs forum.

My concern is for PBEM play, not against the AI.

Based on a fair amount of vs. human experience, I'd recommend the following as being very competitive:

Shorter scenarios:

Four Weeks of Hell
Green Hell

Campaigns:

Clash of Titans with 120% commitment for the Japanese
Decision in the South Pacific with 120% commitment for the Japanese
South from Rabaul with normal settings

Most all the scenarios are "winnable" by either side, but the balance varies a bit and only experience gives you a good idea of what the "handicap" settings should be to even things out.

Regards,

- Erik

Thanks for the recommendations Erik

Originally posted by cap_and_gown
Has the game been out long enough to form an opinion on play balance? Specifically for hth. Is the alternate scn 17 without the Midway carriers balanced?

Depends.


Especially if one is playing with variable reinforcment schedules.

On the surface, SC17 (which would seem to be 'the' most popular of all the campaigns) seems like a IJN cakewalk....but not always!

First off, one must remember that since no Midway.....no loss of Yorktown (assuming she survives Coral Sea) so thats one more carrier the US has that they didn't for the campaign

2nd.....no continual torpedoing of the Saratoga before she can even get to the theater! Thats potentially two carriers present that were not for the developing situation.

Then at last, there is that variable reinforcement option.....a nice feature.

In my current campaign, i struck gold.......Though i lost the services of Yorktown more or less permanantly due to heavy damage, within a *two month* period of time, i had released to me every single pre-war CV the USN had giving me a formidable proto "Third Fleet" in the form of five loaded USN CV's (with heavily augmented fighter VF's) powerful enough to give any conceivable IJN carrier force a run for it's money.

Thanks in part too to the AI which loves to disperse it's forces i actually fought two carrier battles at a decided advantage and was able to pull a 2 CV and one CVL loss vs the loss of only one of my CV's and heavy damage to two more.

As of 9/1/42 the carrier ratio is more or less even with two readily available to me and maybe two, possibly three to the Japanese.....in effect, making them not overwhelmingly strong enough to dominate the seas around Lunga all but ensuring the success of my drive.

I sound confident now of course.....but at the time of the carrier battle Royal....i was less sanguine about the potential results.

So as for 'balance' it really depends, which is part of what makes UV so great.