This battle took me two days and a ton of patience to get it through but not because I got to replay it from gameplay reasons but simply because of number of game crashes I had in this one. Ended up on a 2D map and based on this experience I think I am going to continue with extra lowered settings. Proper concentration on gameplay experience of this scenario was completely overshadowed by this inconvenience.
Nevertheless although it was a big scenario it was separated in several sections giving different experience how one progresses. Landing and establishing a foothold on the island, naval threat. Going around mountain range from the south made progress on a narrow path and on the north forces had chance to unleash themselves in several directions.
All primary and secondary objectives were met. There were two situations that were bad for immersion though. Japanese fleet coming from the north stopped at one point and was idle for some time. That was just short of reaching ships I needed to protect and it gave me precious time to switch bombers from south to north and repair those on the north. After doing damage on their BBs they turned away.
Second situation that broke immersion happened on the north of island. After making a hook around mountain range and proceeding down the map towards last objective very vulnerable gap was created between mountain range and the coast connecting all my supply sources with advancing troops. There were enemy units on the border with the gap but they were in defensive position and it simply didn't felt good they didn't even try to close the gap.
In contrast to this paratroopers were excellent addition to tension although I intercepted them with fighters so they landed damaged already. Group contesting them was AA and medical jeep from Pearl Harbour and captured AT from Guadalcanal because they were only available in reserve.
Tanks cannot go in the mountains, they cannot even fight the unit sitting in terrain they cannot go to. So the question arises do they project Zone of Control over areas they cannot go to? If tank is at the edge of his supply line and idling adjacent to mountain it will expand supply lines to that mountain, that is for sure.
What I really liked with Kamikaze planes was the fact they are not some special unit but ordinary units are using this tactics. This was very immersive.
Leyte comments
Moderators: The Artistocrats, Order of Battle Moderators
Re: Leyte comments
Since names for the places (at least those ones that are supply sources) are shown on the map it stands out when this is not the case. Click on the image below:
Also there are numerous airfields not having a name. Maybe generic airfield would be good to use? In contrast to this, Bayug Hangar that constitutes secondary victory conditions is located on Buri airfield. It was slightly confusing if intended at all.
There is also secondary objective asking to capture 4 secondary victory points. There are 6 secondary victory points on the map but the wording of objective is not suggesting any 4 out of 6 available. To make things worse objective details have 5 locations marked as possible targets and to add on this one of those marked locations is not secondary victory point at all but capture point next to it. Although game counted secondary VP as valid in overview counter. Click on the image below:
As addition to the screenshot above take a note on Objective Award and a tooltip at the upper right of UI. Resource Points and Requisition Points are used interchangeably. This was brought to my attention earlier by reading cooperative AAR played between Lukas and Dave. At first I thought they represent different things.
Clicking on Do not lose any Supply Ships marks ships in question but not in usual "Objectives Award" interface but with Turn Overview open. Click on the image below:
One of capture points was not a supply source but I think this should be the norm with flagged settlements? Click on the image below:
Also there are numerous airfields not having a name. Maybe generic airfield would be good to use? In contrast to this, Bayug Hangar that constitutes secondary victory conditions is located on Buri airfield. It was slightly confusing if intended at all.
There is also secondary objective asking to capture 4 secondary victory points. There are 6 secondary victory points on the map but the wording of objective is not suggesting any 4 out of 6 available. To make things worse objective details have 5 locations marked as possible targets and to add on this one of those marked locations is not secondary victory point at all but capture point next to it. Although game counted secondary VP as valid in overview counter. Click on the image below:
As addition to the screenshot above take a note on Objective Award and a tooltip at the upper right of UI. Resource Points and Requisition Points are used interchangeably. This was brought to my attention earlier by reading cooperative AAR played between Lukas and Dave. At first I thought they represent different things.
Clicking on Do not lose any Supply Ships marks ships in question but not in usual "Objectives Award" interface but with Turn Overview open. Click on the image below:
One of capture points was not a supply source but I think this should be the norm with flagged settlements? Click on the image below:
Re: Leyte comments
Forgot to mention, Patrol Boats cost 20RP. I bought 10 of those spending 200RP on them. To destroy those one needs minimum of two shots and depending on circumstances sometimes even more. My estimate is that those Patrol boats accumulated for approximately 30 shots fired in their direction. This was my staling strategy. If I bought 2 or 3 DDs or one and a half CA for this same or similar amount of RPs would I be able to accumulate 30 shots?
This is a lesson learned from Panzer General in Poland scenario with Polish anti-tanks. If price of a unit is set arbitrary and does not reflect its value in the game spawning cheap units with relatively good defense stats becomes viable defensive strategy.
Not related to said above I also remember that in two occasions during Leyte scenario when attempting to save a game I was not allowed to do so. Name chosen for the save got its .saz extension right next to its name and I was unable to chose Yes but option No did work though. I did take the screenshot of mentioned case but it is not among screenshots taken as well as some others are not. In one case I have PNG image but not JPEG one. But this scenario was very problematic regarding stability so those two things could be related.
This is a lesson learned from Panzer General in Poland scenario with Polish anti-tanks. If price of a unit is set arbitrary and does not reflect its value in the game spawning cheap units with relatively good defense stats becomes viable defensive strategy.
Not related to said above I also remember that in two occasions during Leyte scenario when attempting to save a game I was not allowed to do so. Name chosen for the save got its .saz extension right next to its name and I was unable to chose Yes but option No did work though. I did take the screenshot of mentioned case but it is not among screenshots taken as well as some others are not. In one case I have PNG image but not JPEG one. But this scenario was very problematic regarding stability so those two things could be related.
Re: Leyte comments
So Bayug = Buri for this scenario? I'm about to start it and I was wondering where it was.