mcaryf1 Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 I have been playing around with ideas to make the Allied and Axis options with respect to Malta in a 1942 scenario more interesting. I have not had much success as the Axis in destroying the Malta garrison as my BB's seem to spend all their effort in attacking resources and I cannot land paratroops whilst there is still a unit there. I guess that a Tac Bomber might be most successful but not if the entrenchment is too high. Ideally I would like to persuade a human Allied player that they need to mount something like the Pedestal convoy. I have a theory outlined below on which I would welcome comments but I would also like to know if any of you have tried to make Malta more interesting. My theory is to replace the Malta garrison with a weak but expensive HQ unit so the Allied player runs a risk that it will be destroyed unless a convoy is organised both to replace and recover the HQ but it is uneconomic to just reinforce it. As Keith Park a New Zealander commanded the air force units on Malta, I have created him as an NZ HQ unit. I have made him particularly expensive to reinforce (purchase 450 equal to a BB) to reflect that reinforcements would need to be fought through. I am currently experimenting with him being strength 2 to give a real risk of destruction and I have placed the old Malta garrison in a Transport at Gib with some ships to comprise the beginnings of an escort and to prevent it being picked off there by a sub. I have reduced the UK transport range so that the unit cannot get through to Malta in one turn. I have also moved Axis land units away from nearby ports so they cannot conquer Malta with an amphibious assault in the first Axis turn of the scenario. I find that a weakened Tac bomber based in Italy can typically reduce the Park HQ by 1 strength point and hence make it hard for the Allied player to just ignore Malta as the Axis can reinforce the TAC Bomber and try on the second turn. I would welcome any comments on this or other experiences with Malta. Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xwormwood Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 If I want to get Malta i usually use a HQ, a strategic bomber, 2 Tac Bombers, maybe a fighter too, all placed at Sicilly. The only backside is that those plane might be needed on other front lines too, so that one has to decide what is more important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcaryf1 Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 I would be grateful if someone could tell me how blockade works. In the editor I have added 4 blockade symbols around Malta and tried putting both Axis subs and surface ships on those tiles but nothing happens. In contrast if I put Allied warships outside Brest I get a report Allies blockade Brest and the supply of the port is reduced. What am I doing wrong here? Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winti Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 I would be grateful if someone could tell me how blockade works. In the editor I have added 4 blockade symbols around Malta and tried putting both Axis subs and surface ships on those tiles but nothing happens. In contrast if I put Allied warships outside Brest I get a report Allies blockade Brest and the supply of the port is reduced. What am I doing wrong here? Regards Mike You have to create a respective supply script event for those positions. What I'm not sure now by quickly checking the script for 39 word at war what is the unit_id you need to use to allow for any unit to raid: -help text say 22 but within the script 20 is in use for those spots. I suspect it is a bug in current script and should be 22 for any unit now as more unit types we have... (also it explains why only sub can raid now UK Caribbean Oil) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcaryf1 Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 Hi Winti I am very grateful that you have pointed me in the direction of looking at Supply Event Scripts which I had not previously considered in any detail. It really is a great feature of this game and has helped to impress me more and more with the ability to make this a pretty good simulation of WW2. For a long time I have been looking for a game that models the entire globe for WW2 so I could try out my theory for IJN strategy that they should have gone into the Indian Ocean rather than attempt to take Midway. The theory is that they would then interdict Allied supplies to the Middle East causing Rommel to win in Africa. This in turn lets him move to take the Russian oil wells in Baku and block the Lend Lease through Persia. This could have led to the defeat of the SU and probably a stalemate in WW2. Fear of this is what caused the Allies to mount their operation (Ironclad) to capture Madagascar. When I first started to play SC GC I thought that the supply route to the Middle East was abstracted with Cairo acting as their supply source. I still loved the game but was disappointed that I could not create supply convoy warfare in the Indian Ocean. I now realise that I can create ocean tiles that could result in the Allies Middle Eastern supply sources being degraded. I can also make the Allies actual concern about a threat from Madagascar a reality by giving the Diego Suarez tile the same power. I have one further query about this - can supply effects be cumulative? Thus if I have the Japanese in Diego Suarez and occupying a significant ocean tile e.g. near Aden, might both of these Supply Events trigger to cause an even larger loss to Allied Middle Eastern supply sources? I can see further potential for these Supply Events with an ability for the Axis to blockade Malta so as to reduce readiness of the garrison and for the Allies to implement MacArthur's Operation Cartwheel which left isolated Japanese garrisons impotent to cause any mischief as they had no supplies. My only slight niggle about this is that I wish I had known about it earlier but perhaps it is in the documentation somewhere and I have not spotted it. In my current test game against the Allied AI I have reached 1945 but I owned Midway since late 1942 and had not known to locate a bomber there, mind you I have made Midway one tile so I might have to think again about that!! Perhaps mere ownership of Midway should have the same impact after all if a player put a corps on the real Midway it would be standing room only! I have also been losing Axis BB strength points by bombarding Malta as I thought this might stop the Malta supply events on my North African ports. Hmmmm... I wonder if you can make events dependent on supply levels at specific locations? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill101 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Hi Mike If you were to have more than one SUPPLY script set that targets a particular resource, then the effect will be cumulative and could be rather nasty! As to Malta, it is the Allies' occupation of the island that enables them to interdict Axis supply in the Med, and the only solution is Operation Herkules: the invasion of Malta! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcaryf1 Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 Hi Bill As I was not sure about multiple scripts I have started experimenting with two convoy areas one to the East and one to the West of Malta representing convoys from Alexandria and Gibraltar respectively. The Alexandria one reduces the supply in the port area on Malta and the Gibraltar one the land area. Thus the Axis will have to interdict both to keep supply on Malta minimal. I have made the Gibraltar convoy area 5 hexes and the Alexandria one 4 hexes. The Allied player will need to keep all hexes free of Axis warships in order for supplies to get through. I have retired my earlier idea of starting with an HQ unit (Keith Park) on Malta as HQ units do not suffer from supply shortages in the same way as ordinary units. In reality the Allies had to mount the Pedestal Convoy from Gib with 3 CV's, battleships, cruisers and destroyers in order to get urgently needed supplies through in 1942. I think that having to clear Axis warships from 5 hexes will require a force of this magnitude (my BB's can hit twice so that gives them a better chance of succeeding). You are right that in the game it will require Operation Hercules to rid the Axis of the supply impact. In reality of course the Axis did succeed in suppressing Malta's impact on their supplies for a while with just an air bombardment. I am rather pleased that potentially the impact of Ultra intelligence may be important to the fate of Malta as it will help the Allies considerably if they can be sure which convoy hexes are being interdicted. However, I need to check out whether my supply reduction on Malta actually makes it sensible for the Axis to try to capture it. One other thing, I have given the Italians some additional subs to help with their interdiction efforts - at the commencement of WW2 the Italians actually possessed the largest sub fleet of any nation having over 100 of them. I have also created two areas in the Indian Ocean where the IJN or Germans can reduce supplies for the Allies in the Middle East by interdiction. One area of 4 hexes near Aden has a more devastating impact as it represents a convoy choke point, however, the Allies can respond there with land based air if they wish. My next project will be to consider how to represent the Allied Lend lease route via Persia which of course shipped rather more aid than went via the Arctic. This is of course related to my Middle East supply interdiction concept as it is all in the same area of ocean. My thought is that I would like to create a factory city owned by a Soviet minor (Nanjing?) on an island near North America with the ability to produce low cost tanks and motorised infantry. It is then the task of the player to get them either to Murmansk (difficult passing Norway) or to Persia (very long route). I am not sure what Nanjing is used for in the standard game - can anybody tell me? Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill101 Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Hi Mike Do you mean Nanning in China? With that, if the Japanese capture it then SUPPLY scripts will trigger hurting China's income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcaryf1 Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 Hi Bill I do mean Nanjing - it appears as a neutral country when I look in the editor list but it has no cities. Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 From memory Nanjing was not used so it is more or less a free country slot to be modded as desired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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