Victory is declared on turn 16 (Figure 1).
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| Figure 1 - Victory |
All secondary objectives were achieved and there will be $202 carried over to the next mission (Figure 2). Technically it will be $203 as half of the $2 spent repairing X/A Coy will be returned.
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| Figure 2 - Turn Overview |
Figure 3 is the cashflow report for this mission. It does not include the Philippino Army by oversight but as there's $87 left at the end of the mission (it doesn't carry over to the next) I must have spent $3 repairing minor damage on XPH/A Coy on turn 14: starting with $40, turn income 15@$2 equals $30 and turn 10 reward $20 totals $90.
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| Figure 3 - Cashflow |
Figure 4 is the usual summary report on experience gained, engagements entered, casualties incurred, repairs undertaken (and their cost) and damage inflicted (no enemy unit kills in this mission).
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| Figure 4 - Units' achievements |
It is curious to note that on average my core units inflicted two points and suffered half a point of damage per engagement. It is probably just a coincidence as it is skewed by the fighter and anti-air units data.
Also of note is the cost to repair one point of damage: Cav/C Sqdn ($9), USMC/B Coy ($8) and 1/D Coy ($6) vs the regular infantry ($3.5). This is just a rough and ready analysis, there's a lot going on inside the repair cost black box.
Even though this was a fundamentally static defense I still managed to take losses on my core units equivalent to a quarter of their nominal strength (12 units at 10 strength i.e. 120 strength vs 31 casualties). The largest contributors were 5th "Hickam" Sqdn, Cav/C Sqdn and Sgt McNeil (1/D Coy) who account for 18 of those casualties.
Figure 5 is just me flexing on the tutorial message soap box as these are actually from two "unofficial" runs of the mission.
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| Figure 5 - Tutorial message soap box |
Figure 6 is a peek behind the curtains of the mission as it lifts the Fog-of-War to display the Japanese force at the deployment phase including the datasheets for the various units.
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| Figure 6 - Fog-of-War lifted, deployment phase |
The U.S. force doesn't look too badly outnumbered as we're deploying ten infantry units to the Japanese eleven and we have parity in armor. We are outmatched in the air but the "Hickam" twins will do (have done) solid work versus the JP fighters and bomber(s).
The trouble lies in that the Japanese will receive a good number of reinforcements during the mission as per Figure 7. There's actually 17 rather than 16 Infantry units at the end of the scenario.
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| Figure 7 - JP Order of battle |
I did something novel during this play. As the game generates a save file at the activation of the player's turn I took the opportunity to lift the Fog-of-War with a console command and take screenshots of both the Strategic Map and the "normal" battlefield. Every single turn.
I wasn't (am not) worried about it influencing my decisions, not on this mission (spoilers, the naval missions to come may be a different matter particularly where submarines are concerned) but I think it will be best to generate a quick save at the end of each turn in future missions and use that. There's a reported bug (or rather a belief) that the console command grants the AI the same benefit. Reloading a save file from before activating said console command should negate that problem.
I was thus able to generate the unit tracks on Figure 8. They record the positions and movement of Japanese artillery and armor units during this mission (I didn't bother with mapping the Infantry). The NATO symbols indicate the turn and location of deployment, the path is approximated with the hash marks representing the following turns locations (multiple hash marks for multiple turns) and the (blue) boxes the area where the unit kept moving back and forth. As the screenshots were taken after the JP turn the deployment location may include movement during the deployment turn. It certainly does in at least one instance, the Chi-Ha attacking the Calumet Bunker B4 certainly wasn't deployed adjacent to the bunker on Turn 14.
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| Figure 8 - JP Armor and Artillery movements |
Even though I think I didn't let this knowledge influence my play I was very worried when I saw the JP artillery deployed on Turn 05 and became very intrigued with its apparent indecision. I think the designers tasked them so that they will punish an overconfident player that counterattacks too rashly or doesn't retreat fast enough. Or maybe the AI just can't handle blown bridges effectively enough. It very much helps that only two of the artillery units have organic transport (the Type 90 75mm that enter on Turn 10).
There was one instance where I did allow this peek behind the curtain sway my actions. I saw the second G3M Rikko strategic bomber materialise on Turn 10 and that definitely moved me to deploy 5th "Hickam" Sqdn. I'm not entirely convinced that was a wise choice and I hope I won't regret the expense.
One other expense I hope I won't regret is Cav/C Sqdn's cash-for-experience. I can't shake the feeling that "Fleet Command" could have gone differently if I hadn't boosted the experience of 1/B and 1/C Coys in the "Island Hopping" mission.
There's more images to post and no more budget for them in this post. Hope to meet you on the next one.
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Comments on this post are disabled. That's just for ease of management. They will be enabled in the last post for each mission.
