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Pacific Theater -- Saipan

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Nine days after the western allies breached the Axis Atlantic Wall, and just before the Soviets crushed Army Group Center, the US Marines lead an attack into the belly of Japan's inner defense line at the Island of Saipan.

The 24 day battle against an unyielding Japanese defense resulted in the allies establishing a key air defense base to protect the B-29 air strikes at Japan's industrial capability.

I've completed the first step in recreating the battle, and opening Command Ops 2 to Pacific Theater scenarios with this map. I'm in the process of recreating and refining the US and Japanese Estabs as a foundation for more Pacific Theater-based scenarios.

upload_2018-2-13_8-23-7.png

More to come:
 

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yeah cool !
Invasion of Saipan Scenario Briefing:
Japan’s inner defense was sacred, to be held at all costs. In June 1944, the Allies sought a base from which to strike Japan’s industrial capacity while reducing the Japanese defense forces. The effort to pierce Hidecki Tojo’s “inner defense line” started at daybreak 15 June 1944, with the second largest seaborne invasion in history, second only to the June 6 strike across the English Channel at Normandy, France.

Japan’s garrison was formidable, with the advantage of heavily protected stores, and a familiarity with the terrain that reached back to absorbing the land following the Kaiser’s defeat in 1918. Saipan’s geology included volcanic caves, and extensive dense vegetation cover cut by numerous valleys created by streams and small rivers. It lied at the center of a roughly 1500-mile circle radius, a range that well inside the maximum range of the United States’ newest strategic bomber, the B-29. Capture of the island not only would pierce strategic defenses but also add a strategic opportunity to strike all of Japan with systematic long range bomb attacks.

Entrusted with command of the land invasion force was US Marine Corps LtG Holland M. “Howlin’ Mad” Smith, revered as the father of the US Marine Corps’ modern amphibious attack tactics. Smith commanded three divisions in his Fifth Amphibious Corps, the US Marine Corps 2nd Marine Division, veterans of the first decisive land battle won by Allied Forces on Guadalcanal in the Pacific. Also included was the newer 4th Marine Division, veterans of action on Kwajalein / Roi Namur earlier in the year. As reserve, Smith had the 27th Army Division, an original National Guard unit from New York with combat experience on Makin Atoll in 1944 and Eniwetok a few months prior to to the Saipan campaign. The land force was supported by a massive mobile fire support base from the fast battleship fleet and the largest assembly of aircraft carriers in TF 58. The land invasion was not only designed to gain a lodgement within strategic bombing range of any place on Japan’s mainland, but also to entice the remaining units of the Combined Fleet, still formidable though seriously hurt since Midway, into a decisive sea battle.

Facing the combined US Army – Marine Corps task group was Japan’s 43rd Infantry Division, augmented with the 47th Independent Mixed Brigade, late of land battles in China under the command of LtG Yoshitsugo Saito. At the time of the invasion, he was acting head of Japan’s 31st Army, charged with defending Central Pacific defensive positions centered on the Marianas Islands with Saipan as the Marianas’ key defensive position. The Japanese had proven themselves dedicated vicious opponents of the Allies, carrying out General Hideki Tōjō’s defensive war of attrition against the assembled allied forces.

Following days of airstrikes and shore bombardment, Allied forces appeared on the horizon early in the morning 15 June, 1944, obviously intent on engaging Saito’s forces.
 
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I'm done with the initial tinkering.

Attached is the beta test release for Invasion for Saipan -- US V Amphibious Corps vs. Imperial Japanese Army 43d ID (Reinforced) -- a 20-some day battle for control of the keystone to the Japanese inner defense circle in 1944.

Comments are welcomed.
 

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Bie

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I'm done with the initial tinkering.

Attached is the beta test release for Invasion for Saipan -- US V Amphibious Corps vs. Imperial Japanese Army 43d ID (Reinforced) -- a 20-some day battle for control of the keystone to the Japanese inner defense circle in 1944.

Comments are welcomed.

Cool, I'll take a quick peek at it already. But really dig in after I'm done with my ARR.
 
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I'm done with the initial tinkering.

Attached is the beta test release for Invasion for Saipan -- US V Amphibious Corps vs. Imperial Japanese Army 43d ID (Reinforced) -- a 20-some day battle for control of the keystone to the Japanese inner defense circle in 1944.

Comments are welcomed.
More tinkering -- Added Favor Axis variant (slower accumulation of invasion forces), more realistic weather (30-percent chance of rain in June ranging to 70-percent chance in July) and a few Japanese airstrikes (from residual air forces on Tinian during the early days of the invasion).

Extract the files into the appropriate Scenarios folder (original download created Pacific Front directory under Scenarios).
 

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Grognerd

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Got this one downloaded but not installed yet. I think I need to read a little to refresh my memory on the battle and timelines. Luckily I got plenty of good books on the Pacific War. Might give feedback in a positive way as you probably want some for the beta version. Although I am not an expert with the game system yet and that may cloud good feedback.
 
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Got this one downloaded but not installed yet. I think I need to read a little to refresh my memory on the battle and timelines. Luckily I got plenty of good books on the Pacific War. Might give feedback in a positive way as you probably want some for the beta version. Although I am not an expert with the game system yet and that may cloud good feedback.
Any feedback is welcomed.

Two things.

I'd be particularly interested in your feedback, since you expressed an interested in developing a Guadalcanal scenario. Any insight you can share regarding perceptions of Japanese forces combat would be helpful. I'm still working on the comparative settings for Japanese vs Marine / Allied force health measures as a means to balance the scenario. While the invading forces in 1944 had a materiel advantage over the defenders, the defenders tended to be more aggressive toward defending their goals as in "fight to the last man" orders.

Reflecting that in the unit health settings is a challenge to keep the game even for at least the start.

The other is the Estabs for this effort will support your Guadalcanal efforts in terms of the Japanese and Marine force structure.

There could be some equipment differences between 1942 and 1944 (the Marines didn't have LCVs in 1942 for example), but in general the land forces and equipment should support the Guadalcanal scenario.
 

Bie

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I've been looking at the map and it has been really well done. Though I've noted some instances where there are some slivers of land poking through the sea. They are inconsequential to the gameplay, but they are noticeable when playing.

These are:
- The Western tip of the Naval support island. It's like a shard that goes to the South.
- Just East of Makpe Point. The coast spikes out to the North.
- Just South of Tangke Point. A tiny (couple of pixels wide) line going to the East.
- East of Maigo Luao island. In the sea there is an L shaped island.
- East of Dandan point. In the sea there is a sliver of land heading East.
- At Garapan, there is a sliver of land going from the beach to the West.

These are only really details, bu I thought I'd let you know. The rest of the map looks solid.

Also, how many days will the scenario last?
 

col.sanders

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Jim ,I've had a limited time to try this but it seems good so far,one odd thing i found that i have not seen or really heard before,is when i bombard a unit with the naval guns it comes up small arm fire sounds,i've checked it several times,never had this happen before.to be honest it kinda distracted me from looking at this harder as i tried to figure this out,I've played most of the scenarios in commander pack,and Bie Sword one and all homemade ones never had this one happen.
 
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I've been looking at the map and it has been really well done. Though I've noted some instances where there are some slivers of land poking through the sea. They are inconsequential to the gameplay, but they are noticeable when playing.

These are:
- The Western tip of the Naval support island. It's like a shard that goes to the South.
- Just East of Makpe Point. The coast spikes out to the North.
- Just South of Tangke Point. A tiny (couple of pixels wide) line going to the East.
- East of Maigo Luao island. In the sea there is an L shaped island.
- East of Dandan point. In the sea there is a sliver of land heading East.
- At Garapan, there is a sliver of land going from the beach to the West.

These are only really details, bu I thought I'd let you know. The rest of the map looks solid.

Also, how many days will the scenario last?
Bie,

Thanks

I'll look into the map issues. The anomalies may be a difference in system graphics resolution. I composed the map at a 1920 x 1080 resolution and the issues you mention weren't readily apparent. I'll do a look at the regions you specified at the highest resolution available and increase the sea overlap to eliminate the distractions.

The scenario is set up to cover the historical length of the battle 15 June - 9 July 1944. It's length addresses the nature Japanese defense, which was fighting to the last man. Of the nearly 30,000 Japanese troops on the island slightly more than 1.000 surrendered. Most of the remaining defenders, some 3,000 troops bolstered by civilians impressed into service were eliminated on the last day during a Banzai charge toward the Allied rear areas from Makpe Point. The level of fanaticism / determination and particularly that final charge are a challenge to model in the AI, but I didn't want to short change history by truncating the time available.

At the same time, the US Marines in particular are thought to be the toughest fighters in the US military. They have a reputation for fanaticism to perform their duty at all costs as well, but are more focused on preserving the team. The Japanese form, revolved around honoring the Emperor's status as a god and sacrificing their lives in service of that god. Using the unit health tools to reflect the relative differences is a particularly interesting challenge.

Thinking about it, forcing someone to play through 24-days of battle is excessive, and does stray away from history as the permutations mount.

So, another challenge will be refining the victory conditions to allow an end at a "point of no return" in the battle. For the Japanese it may be when their supply caches are captured. For the Allies it may be when they suffer the attrition that the Japanese high command wanted to inflict -- the original order was 10 Allied lives for every Japanese life, but I think something less than that would prove the point.

Thanks for the feedback.

Look for an updated map soon.
 
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Jim ,I've had a limited time to try this but it seems good so far,one odd thing i found that i have not seen or really heard before,is when i bombard a unit with the naval guns it comes up small arm fire sounds,i've checked it several times,never had this happen before.to be honest it kinda distracted me from looking at this harder as i tried to figure this out,I've played most of the scenarios in commander pack,and Bie Sword one and all homemade ones never had this one happen.
I don't normally play the game with the sound on (I usually have a classical music station playing in my computer room, and find the battle noises distracting from the ambient music ;-) ), so admittedly I hadn't noticed the issue.

As embarking on this scenario is an effort to learn more about the game system, I'll look into the sound issues as well.

My initial guess is building the custom Estab that included the new Marine, Japanese and Navy gun capabilities relates back to the sounds that are called when weapons are exercised. I'll look into the documentation regarding sound and see what I can do to correct the matter.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
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Attached is the first comprehensive update for the Invasion of Saipan scenario.

Extract the files directly into your CO2 core directory.

Updates include map changes based on comments from Bie, and a change in the sound generation based on comments from Col. Sanders.

I find no direct link to what sounds are aligned with what weapon use in the game documentation, but believe the anomaly identified by Col. Sanders resulted from the allocation of small arms exclusively to the Naval Bombardment Command placeholder unit. A change to heavy naval weapons appears to have corrected the small arms sounds played during sea bombardment.
 

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col.sanders

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Ok Jim I tried the new download I'm still getting the same problem,now I don't know if this helps,but I started the scenario as japan by mistake and noticed marine infantry units where the off shore naval units are normally located.Just trying to help.
 
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col.sanders,

I don't know what to tell you regarding the sounds.

The naval artillery Estabs information is duplicative of like-sized bombardment artillery already used in the game. I see no means other than to designate the naval artillery as "gun" (an Estabs attribute) the same as a heavy land weapon to influence the sound. There's information in the manual about changing the default sounds, but nothing that discusses how those sounds are assigned to a weapon.

I played using sound, and got mixed noise phenomena, I presume because at the same time the artillery was firing, so too were the Marine units that had just landed and were working their way inland.

Hopefully, if they read this, one of the developers can offer some insight into how the sounds are selected and assigned to unit activities in addition to their work on the new patch and the Bradley at Bay release.

I'll look into the intel settings for the Japanese side. I think what you observed is the result of the algorithm that limits intelligence in the game. I'll look into the scenario settings and adjust for the on map naval contingent.
 

Bie

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I had the same thing happen to me at one point in my Sword to caen scenario. Somehow I sorted ot out, but for the moment I can't remember specifically what I did. I'll look into it when I have some time.
 
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