Scorched Earth

[VTFL]

I am a relatively new payer to WITPAE. Would it have been more realistic to provide a scorched earth feature to the game? For example, as an Allied commander I would have preferred to have destroyed the refineries and/or oil supplies at Palembang and Balikpapan than to allow them to fall into Japanese hands. But I see no means to do that.

What am I missing?

[Macquarrie1999]

IIRC the more engineers you have when it falls the more damaged the infrastructure will be.

[dr.hal]

IIRC the more engineers you have when it falls the more damaged the infrastructure will be.

This is correct. The concept of "Scorched Earth" is not an easy thing to carry out. One needs to have knowledge of how to effectively destroy things. To reflect this difficulty, the game allows for destruction of infrastructure (such as oil wells, ports, airfields, etc.) by engineers in good standing (not disrupted). This can be by engineering units or engineers imbedded in a field unit. So if you want to make sure that Palembang gets destroyed before the Japs take it over you need to pack it with units that have engineers. This will help in two ways as these folks will build forts for you to aid in defense and upon retreat, will leave a trail of destruction if there are enough of them. Remember that this is an abstraction of reality. This is how the game simulates a side trying to leave nothing behind to the enemy.

[VTFL]

Thanks! Having played about 12 months of PBEM WITPAE games, I am constantly learning new things about this great game. I know there's a lot not addressed by the manual. I have no doubt you are correct about this. It makes perfect sense. But does it appear in the manual?

[dr.hal]

Thanks! Having played about 12 months of PBEM WITPAE games, I am constantly learning new things about this great game. I know there's a lot not addressed by the manual. I have no doubt you are correct about this. It makes perfect sense. But does it appear in the manual?

Sadly the manual is very much out of date. I know that Alfred was in the process of putting together an updated version which was/is a HUGE task, given all the changes and additions that have been made over the last decade, but this work has since ceased due to a myriad of reasons that I won't go into. The chances of the manual being updated are now just about dead. There are some good "cheat sheets" out there on various aspects of play, but that's about as good as it gets. However concepts like the one you are interested in are not fully explored in the existing manual. "Older" players are willing to address such issues for you, or a good search of the forum can be of assistance. Sadly another year has passed and the manual gets older and older, as do we all. Happy New Year!!! Hal

[Yaab]

Thanks! Having played about 12 months of PBEM WITPAE games, I am constantly learning new things about this great game. I know there's a lot not addressed by the manual. I have no doubt you are correct about this. It makes perfect sense. But does it appear in the manual?

Manual, p.236

13.6 CAPTURING INDUSTRY
When the enemy captures specialty (i.e., non-Heavy Industry) Industry hexes, a check is made
to see if any damage occurs to the facilities before capture. If defending engineers were present
in the hex, the chance and severity of damage is increased with the number of engineers that
were present.

[VTFL]

Thanks. I missed that.

[btd64]

Thanks! Having played about 12 months of PBEM WITPAE games, I am constantly learning new things about this great game. I know there's a lot not addressed by the manual. I have no doubt you are correct about this. It makes perfect sense. But does it appear in the manual?

Manual, p.236

13.6 CAPTURING INDUSTRY
When the enemy captures specialty (i.e., non-Heavy Industry) Industry hexes, a check is made
to see if any damage occurs to the facilities before capture. If defending engineers were present
in the hex, the chance and severity of damage is increased with the number of engineers that
were present.

I was gonna say.......
And there is a more updated manual with the 1127 update. But install to a fresh build of the base game....GP

[Chris21wen]

There is a more up-to-date version of the manual, Revision 7-31-2022. If you look it, on pape 212 it says...

13.6 Capturing Industry
When the enemy captures specialty (i.e., non-Heavy Industry) Industry hexes, a check is made to see if any damage occurs to the facilities before capture. If
defending engineers were present in the hex, the chance and severity of damage is increased with the number of engineers that were present. This damage
impacts Resources, Oil, and other factory types. Otherwise:
● Captured Manpower Centers are divided by 10. For example, if you capture a 30 point enemy Manpower Center, it will be worth 3 to you.
● Captured Japanese Naval or Merchant Shipyards by the Allies convert to Repair Shipyards.
● Captured Aircraft Factories convert to Vehicle Factories.
● Captured Heavy Industry is halved each time it is captured. For example, a 50 point Heavy Industry that is captured is reduced to 25; if it is
captured again, it is reduced by half again to 12 (fractions are rounded down).