[REQ] Campaign improvements required and doable

[AntEater]

I did some of these myself, but I think they should be part of a larger mod such as RFB:

- Make Port Darwin an advance base. Exmouth Gulf was used, but in 1943 and 44, Darwin was the major supply point for Freemantle boats

- Activate Midway only after the Battle

- Change activation date of the Mios Woendi advance base to 10/44 instead of 10/43. Right now it is practically a base deep in enemy waters, before the Biak Invasion of Spring 1944. AFAIK Mios opened in October 44.

More difficult:

- Enable Corregidor as a base. It is in the files, but not active and I couldnt get it to work.

- Set starting point for Pearl Careers to Midway after a certain date. Either as a new Flottilla or as a replacement for Pearl.

- Same goes for Marianas in October 1944 for Pearl Boats

- Set Manus Island as starting base for Brisbane boats in 1944, same as above

- Set Subic Bay as starting point for Brisbane or Freemantle boats in Feb 1945.

- no more special operations to mainland japan except photo recon, and restrict these to harbors historically accessible to US Boats (no inland sea).

- no Specops for Asiatic and Brisbane boats until late 1942

- enable supply (modified soldier dropoff missions?) to Corregidor and Mindanao in early 1942 for Pac boats.

- no pilot rescue missions until early 1944 at all

Re the ship layers:

- totally remove convoys from 1941 and 1942
- in 1943 there should be some unescorted convoys
- drastically reduce single merchants for 43 and 44, and all traffic for 45.
- exchange fleet destroyers in normal convoys for Minesweepers, Minelayers, older destroyers and Subchasers

- can we somehow increase the frequency of armed merchants and make most japanese merchants armed right from the start of the war?

[Egan]

Lol, Give us time mate, we are working on it!

All of this is to be convered plus a lot of extra stuff and a couple of little suprises. To do this right. though, takes a bit of time. We're still working out exactly what needs to be done and how to best do it.

It's going to be a lot more challenging that it is at the moment, though - that much I promise.

- enable supply (modified soldier dropoff missions?) to Corregidor and Mindanao in early 1942 for Pac boats.

There are already supply objectives in there - are you meening something else?

[tater]

Good list. The 41 and 42 convoys... There should be a few with purely forntline military purpose APAs, AKs, etc.

The TROM data for the DDs shows a few escorted convoys early in the war ('42), but not terribly many.

The TROM data is a powerful resource for doing things right.

tater

[AntEater]

Lol, I am still a bit suprised what a secretive lot you subsim crowd are...
As a subsim N00b I expected a bit more of a collective work here...
As I said, I have done some of these things (the easier ones, in a very superficial way) and I can put them up somewhere if someone hosts it....

Re the Corregidor thing, I mean putting a dropoff point right on the island and even creating a "supply corregidor" text string.

[Egan]

Originally Posted by AntEater

Lol, I am still a bit suprised what a secretive lot you subsim crowd are...

Lol. I know it seems like that but some of us have learned from experience....

We're not really that bad. it's just easier to do all of this stuff somewhere quiet without filling the Subsim forums up with all sorts of nonsence.

[goose814]

Are you saying you were able to make it possible to use Darwin as a refueling and/or rearming base? If so, can you explain how you did it?

I've been reading the USS Cod's war patrol reports and she used Darwin many times for refueling, and once for rearming, to and from her patrols from Fremantle. It's bothered me that Darwin wasn't included as such in the game. Seems like a big oversight.

Gus

[tater]

Convoys did exist, but you need to understand the way it worked.

The IJN commandeered a bunch of merchant shipping. Shipping directly to the naval "front" was always escorted.

The civies and particularly IJ Army, could just pound sand. Pathological rivalry.

So Empire-->Palau-->PNG/Rabaul escorted.

Empire-->Truk-->Marshalls/Rabaul/PNG escorted.

Singapore run, etc, not escorted early on.

tater

[tater]

Really makes me want to start over with new layers.

DL my campaign layers, Anteater, and look at the one labeled "stop and go test" or somethig like that.

Works. I see that as a model for what I want/ Ships putting into port, stopping for a day or two, then heading out again...

[goose814]

Has anybody been able to make Darwin a refueling or rearming base? If so, how? Thanks.

Gus