Welcome back.
This is my playthrough of Slitherine's/The Artistocrats
"Order of Battle: World War II" "Boot Camp" tutorial
campaign on the highest, "Fleet Admiral" difficulty setting.
After successfully completing the first scenario we're
returned to the Campaign screen, told we gained five Specialisation Points and asked if
we want to review the
Specialisations panel.
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| Figure 1 - Campaign screen and briefing |
In any case I'm not playing blind and I've long since
settled on picking "Specialised training" for
the Infantry experience bonus: the third mission is a Navy-Air Force exercise
so it makes sense to defer Naval experience bonuses. That leaves Infantry or
Tank experience bonuses to choose from: if you consider it carefully the
"Field Medics" is a terrible option, for its price you can have any
two experience bonuses (which will improve your unit's fighting abilities) and
all it does is give you some
in game money when you take losses (is it reasonable to expect
enough money to recoup those losses?!) and a unique unit whose abilities are
unclear.
On a per unit basis Tanks cost more money and Command
Points than Infantry so one will always (usually, probably) be able to field
more Infantry units than Tank units when given the same budget. I've shown the
M3 Stuart being easily negated by inexpensive Anti-Tank units and being
vulnerable in "close" terrain so it is an easy choice to pick the "Specialised Training"
option first. I will pick the "Tank School" option later in the
campaign (before the fourth, final mission).
On to the mission briefing and what our blind player
should take from it: there will be two different islands to disembark into,
there will be enemy ships guarding those islands and there will be enemy
paratroopers that can take
un-garrisoned VPs behind our front lines.
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| Figure 2 - Turn Overview and objectives |
After the mission briefing our blind player is presented
with the "Turn Overview" pop-up and some pretty vanilla primary and
secondary objectives, followed by his/her first "Deployment phase"
(and a pop-up for new units available introducing the '41 US Engineers).
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| Figure 3 - New unit type available |
There's:
a) two Infantry units, one core (1/B Coy) and one
auxiliary (X/A Coy);
b) one auxiliary Engineer (X/Eng/A Coy);
c) one auxiliary M3 Stuart (X/Cav/A Coy);
d) one core M1 75mm (mountain) artillery without organic
transport (FA/B Bty);
e) two DD Gleaves destroyers, one core (DD 423 Gleaves)
and one auxiliary (DesRon X DD 1, i.e. DD 1 of Destroyer Squadron X); and
f) one core CA New Orleans heavy cruiser (CA 32 New
Orleans);
g) $276, $120 over what s/he had at the end of the
previous scenario, and six each Land and Naval Command Points.
At this point there are some easy decisions to make:
a) the core destroyer can be upgraded to the '41 model
for just $5, trading a very slight decrease of anti-(small)-ship capabilities
for a dramatic increase of anti-air firepower;
b) buying additional ships at 0 XP is a waste of
resources and we'll have enough trouble bringing the two core ones to 2'000 XP
during this mission;
c) same for buying additional tanks;
d) the M1 75mm artillery doesn't have the range to be
useful other than in very limited circumstances so it will have to be upgraded.
The M3 75mm GMC (Gun Motor Carriage) can fire after
moving, has a 4-hex range and can be turned to direct fire mode where it works
as an Anti-Tank but it costs 5 L/CP to deploy and converting between Anti-Tank
and Artillery consumes an entire turn and precludes firing in that turn.
Dual-role units are tricky to use and probably will spend an entire mission on
either role.
I already purchased and used a 105mm M2A1 Howitzer in the
previous mission so it's a known quantity with its 5-hex range and 3 L/CP (4
with the organic Studebaker truck). It costs $88 to upgrade the M1 to the M2A1
i.e. we get a $22 discount. It also takes up two of the six CP allotment.
At this point I'm left with $153 in the bank, 4 L/CP
unused, 3 supply from the "Supply Base" and 4 supply each from the
destroyers on the coast. It is possible to rely on the supply from the
destroyers but it limits their movement so I won't deploy FA/A Coy from
reserves (it would draw 4 supply). I also won't deploy 1/A Coy at this point
and instead will purchase and deploy an Engineer (Eng/A Coy) for $30 and 2
L/CP.
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| Figure 4 - Deployment |
About two weeks after playing this mission I had an
epiphany: it is possible to disband a core unit during the deployment phase.
One receives a small amount of $ but more importantly it frees full CP. I
wasn't aware it then goes into the "killed/destroyed" roster and can
thus be revived ("reformed" in the game's parlance). What I was aware
is that reviving a unit will bring it back with at least the 2'000 XP from the
appropriate XP bonus
specialisation. After spending those two weeks organizing and editing
upwards of a thousand screenshots I'm going to use them to illustrate this mission
but I'm going to play it again in substantially the same manner and advance to
the third mission from that second run. Probably not iron-man-like, call it a
mulligan.
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| Figure 5 - Cash for XP |
The image documents my experiment with disbanding and
reforming units.
Disbanding the M1 75mm nets $14 and leaves it in the
"killed/destroyed" roster from which it can only be reformed as is
for its full $70 price. Not a good idea considering it is worth $22 when
upgrading to either the M3 75mm GMC or the 105mm M2A1 Howitzer.
Disbanding the Infantry brings in $7 and reviving it
costs $35 so you pay $28 for the 2'000 XP which is IMO an excellent tradeoff.
On to the Strategic Map and new terrain types. Our heavy
cruiser is "deep drafted" and can't enter "Shallow Water"
while the destroyers are "shallow drafted" and have no such
restrictions. IIUC/IIRC "Cliffs" cost one extra "Movement
Point" to enter/cross. There's also Towns (excellent Cover) and Ports
(minimal disruption when landing).
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| Figure 6 - Map and terrain |
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| Figure 7 - More terrain |
On the map itself constricted terrain (mountains, hills
and jungle) is depicted in a reddish tone, rivers are highlighted in blue and
beaches in pale yellow. Large yellow circles with red borders denote Primary
Victory Points and white ones indicate Secondary VPs. The small white circles
with numbers inscribed indicate supply values other than the standard ten
points accorded by villages.
Taking the Drill Sergeant's advice of not getting ahead of ourselves I will only note the two closest beaches on the South of Eastern Island and the channeling of movement along the shores of the same due to constricted terrain.
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