Mayan Storyline War

[Kaiser Kirk]

It's a little misleading as people have different presentations.

I simply looked at the most recent turns "cruiser" sections,
but that misses that some folks have different categories.

For example, Wilno puts all cruiser architecture under that spot, and has
empty lines separating broad subtypes.

Parthia has a cruiser section that is mostly combatants,
but a substantial minewarfare and gunboat sections
- adding those would boost Parthia's total by 90 hulls and bring down the numbers.

Then there's the armored/battle cruisers and if they would be sent on 'cruiser' or 'battleline' missions.
For me at least, the 8 existing and 4 building ACs are meant more to act in cruiser roles
and not to engage most capital ships, some exceptions to that though.

[TacCovert4]

My numbers are tilted due to mine sweepers and such.

[Desertfox]

Ouch... I knew I was bad off... but those numbers are scary bad. I have half the tonnage of the Aztecs and they aint doing so well either.

[Jefgte]

      # hulls      tonnage      tonnage/hull
Byzantine      26      127520      4905

26 SC (191) for Byzantium + 14 AC (254)

[Kaiser Kirk]

Ouch... I knew I was bad off... but those numbers are scary bad. I have half the tonnage of the Aztecs and they aint doing so well either.

I think you're looking at the Aztec numbers, they have half your tonnage.
The Caicos was not kind to them.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Busy weekend, like I posted, worked my Friday.
Saturday was unexpectedly hectic, so just now getting to turn processing.
This afternoon and Monday I'll be doing the turns.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Sorry folks, real life has left less free time than expected the past several days.
I also had to go out of county today for work and didn't get back until 2115hrs,
The turn is 80% resolved and written, and I expect to wrap it up Weds night.

[The Rock Doctor]

Add more explosions and all will be forgiven.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Add more explosions and all will be forgiven.

Yeah, shame about your fleet...

[The Rock Doctor]

You say that but have you seen some of my dreadnoughts?

[Kaiser Kirk]

You say that but have you seen some of my dreadnoughts?

Wouldn't a Roman surprise attack be ...surprising?

....well it was for the poor Mayans...

[Kaiser Kirk]

on a more serious note, my weekly blathering about game mechanics.

Month 5, June 1923

Commentary :

Land Combat : Part of the design of land combat is to make it a longer process, so that there is an opportunity to move in reinforcements, and sea lanes of communication matter.

In the current war, the Mayan inability to shut the Aztec-Japanese SLOC has made the fight a contest. Had it been a contest for colonies, the naval balance would be even more critical.

In Mobile this design sees the Roman onslaught frustrated.
One of the features is that Each Land Unit focuses it's effort on one random enemy regiment.
Frequently that means the enemy Regiment survives but is damaged. With good rolls, sometimes it is just destroyed.  Other times, multiple land units focus on one regiment and eliminate it.
A story is then written about that.

The effects of air support are evenly spread, but can push the result from damage to destroy.  If there is a difference in Armor tech, the side with that advantage gets a bonus.

In this case, the Roman Legions overkilled several Mayan regiments severely.
With 25 Legions vs. 5 Legions, there were 25 "hits" against 20 potential targets...except the Mayans were 'Dug in' so there were 25 targets. The chance of perfectly matching one to one is vanishingly small. 

So the Mayan 18th target was 'killed' twice over, and nearly killed a third time. Next month it is removed from the combat. Only twice (vs average of 5) did the 'Dug in' take a hit, and that damage is simply lost.

As long as one Regiment of the Land unit survives, the 'Dug in' status continues to absorb 'hits', and the Artillery die or dice continue to fire.

One conceptual way to evaluate firepower and losses takes the square of the strength * firepower. The smaller force tends to take disproportionately more damage overall.  To an extent that's been happening. A "Legion" of 4 Regiments and Combat Support Rgmt (Artillery, Cavalry/Armor, etc) has 5 dice, and will often destroy an Enemy regiment per round. But as Regiments are lost, the formation looses dice, and tends to only wound Enemy regiments. That's certainly been the case with here, as the Japanese Land units took more and more damage, they did less and less damage, only wounding Mayan units.

If overall losses exceed 25% of the force at the beginning of the month, retreat is likely and a province is lost. More severe losses may mean more provinces.  For example, in Mobile, the Mayans take 55% losses, so they loose 2/3 provinces and will fight for the rest. They may surrender if they take similar losses....which seems likely.

All of these are meant to slow down combat and make it better reflective of most real campaigns...and also parceled into something that fits our turn basis better, while allowing naval movement.

Some folks seem to have missed the 'OOB frozen' bit in the run up to the war. This was to guard against 'out of game' knowledge leading to sudden reinforcements that would skew the evaluation of should they fight.  I believe I've done similar for each fight. Once a conflict seems likely, troop movements and things goes to being posted in news, and when they arrive becomes part of the conflict timeline. That also effects turns not posted by that time. We can't have a late fleet of subs popping into existence. Also, at the beginning I note several tech things, and I'm not going back each time to recheck.

Wars are done on a REGION basis, not Province, and so are usually done as one top down front. Focusing on one province...is beyond the resolution of the game. Not detailing WHERE in a REGION the troops are located is a 'make it simpler/less tracking' thing. Where I can see it making problems is a combined Land assault and Amphibious assault at opposite ends of a large REGION. Or scattered island groups. But that is something we'll address if it comes up...currently, officially all combat in a REGION will be lumped together.  Not to mention breaking it out as a province level adds work.

The current exception is where terrain serves as a reasonable barrier to movement, and then multiple fronts may be used. This is the case with the Central American war, where the Central Mountains have slowed and limited the Mayans. So you saw 2 fronts right next to each other.

[The Rock Doctor]

So things are not looking good for the allies or for Alabamaya.

Since we're now at the end of the half year, how are we sequencing the 2/23 turn report? Obviously nothing bought as part of that turn will be useful for a while, but shall we hold off until the war or the 2/23 turn is over before posting?

[Kaiser Kirk]

So that was month 5,
the end of month 6 will also be the end of HY1, 1923.

I am thinking that we'll run Month 6 this weekend.. or try.

At that point turns for HY1, 1923 will 'take effect'.

And "Pause" over Halloween weekend.  I may be cleaning up residual battles.
That will also give folks a chance to submit for HY2, 1923

There is no BP outside the Homeland.
All LP/AP/DP is built in the Homeland and has to be transported to the theater.
Of course, transporting LP/AP takes DP,

and if deploying troops into combat zone then you fall under the amphibious rules for units/6 mo
The transports moving then can be tracked and there is the potential for interception if

So Wilno's ok- its not a combatant, but if Maya wants to reinforce Mobile, Rome has to have a chance to intervene.

Shipping is a little different as we have defined production facilities, and they inherently
limit what can be built where.

[The Rock Doctor]

Ah, I'm off by a month then.

I suspect some shipbuilding is coming out of my plans very soon.