Monday, July 29, 2024

Order of Battle: World War II, Boot Camp (tutorial), Mission 1: Boot Camp Island, Part 17

 Scenario evaluation

So what could a blind player have learnt from this scenario?

There aren't uber units capable of singlehandedly wiping out the entire map (at least so far). Combat is a realistic grinding down of an enemy i.e. it takes multiple attacks to kill a full strength enemy either many-v-one in one/two turns or one-v-one over several turns. Synergy between the abilities of your units is the way to go.

Combat is an interaction of strength (health), efficiency, base combat values, entrenchment, experience and terrain. When running the game my computer knows exactly how these mesh together, but I haven't found out (yet).

Supply or more exactly the lack thereof negatively impacts efficiency. X/B Coy could only move one hex per turn and couldn't fight. Cav/A Coy was isolated but was still able to fight its way back into the lines. The US Recruits at the Red Base were annihilated without causing a single point of damage in return.

Naval transport is a thing and units freshly landed aren't immediately combat effective.

Approaching the tutorial as a prelude to the U.S. Pacific campaign in a iron-man mode doesn't do the tutorial justice. There's a lot of experimenting that could be done even in this first mission that is counterproductive to efficiently building a core to face the Japanese.

I developed a routine of hitting Loneville first and doubling back to hit Strawville and East Town and thus amassing enough RP for buying a 105mm artillery to help with the Red Base attack. That worked and clouded my vision to the use of Engineers or even Heavy Infantry.

Avery's blog introduced me to Engineers and I might have become too enamored with them, much like a child given an hammer and for whom everything becomes a nail.

In any case the designer(s) of this scenario make sure we have a number of different toys to play with: regular infantry, Marines, tank and reconnaissance. We are also given enough resources for  timely experimentation.

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As promised, comments ARE enabled in this final post. Please be civil and on topic.

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