'Other' Pers Cas Caused By

[Tommy.w]

Just played 'Malta 1940' and it was an exciting battle, managed to defeat the Axis invasion with a marginal victory. There were some very tense moments. Especially where I was trying to anticipate the axis moves and position my limited forces in its way. Alas you can't be strong everywhere and I ended up getting some troops cut off, surrounded and ultimately destroyed (sorry pixel troopers!).

When I look at the AAR the majority of the personnel casualties inflicted on the enemy forces were 'Other' under Pers Cas Caused (2000 out of a total 3000). - I'm not sure what to make of this. What does 'other' include (didn't see anything in the manual) and it's such a large number.

Lastly in the briefing it says, 'keep a hold of the airfields, so you can cut him up if he tries to fly in troops'. - Did that mean if I had troop at the airport it would delay/prevent reinforcements by being in an invisible capture point? Or is it implying killing them when they 'land'? And do they suffer a penalty if they have just arrived?

 

[john connor]

Sounds weird. I've no idea, I'm afraid. Can you post the AAR screen please?

 

[jimcarravallah]

Lastly in the briefing it says, 'keep a hold of the airfields, so you can cut him up if he tries to fly in troops'. - Did that mean if I had troop at the airport it would delay/prevent reinforcements by being in an invisible capture point? Or is it implying killing them when they 'land'? And do they suffer a penalty if they have just arrived?

The game mechanics for airborne reinforcements require them to be reorganized once landed. Being in a position to engage them while they reorganize provides the defending force added combat benefits possibly leading to destruction or surrender before they can effectively support the force they were intended to reinforce.

Also, when encountereing an enemy-occupied entry point on the map, reinforcements are forced to reroute to a new entry point or delay their arrival. Particularly in the case of airborne arrivals, there are both fewer options to change entry locations and a guaranteed delay if all are occupied.

 

[Tommy.w]

Alas I only saved on Day 2 and didn't save when the battle concluded. However, you can start to see I already have 300 'other' kills..

 

[john connor]

Thanks. You got the AAR by surrendering on day 2? Anyway, I have no idea why you would have ended up with 2000 'other' kills, let's see if anyone else (the Dev, for example) who might know better can respond. I doubt it, since all v busy with coding the new update and notthing else by way of bugs has been looked at for a while now whilst that's been goin on. But, in future - and so that a dev can look at the issue if they have time - i guess they would need a recording or series of recordings from the game in order to run it and work out what all those other kills are.

 

[Tommy.w]

Yes the only way i could figure out how to get you an AAR was by surrendering on day two, without playing the remaining 4 or 5 days, which i simply didn't have time to do. But that early surrender did start to show the trend of increasing 'other' kills compared to other types.

Oh please don't let my question get in the way of coding - I know how excited/desperate the community is waiting for whatever is next!

Next time i will make sure I remember to save at the end of the game so we can scrutinise any anomalies.

Thanks for helping

 

[Tommy.w]

Just putting this here for later.
Its regarding the 'Other kills' that the allies suffered.
Also in the post battle view why cant I see what E&S B squadron had? - the sighting is current and the reliability is excellent.- Curious because they were a stone in my shoe..

 

[Tommy.w]

Its a brilliant scenario BTW

 

[jimcarravallah]

When I look at the AAR the majority of the personnel casualties inflicted on the enemy forces were 'Other' under Pers Cas Caused (2000 out of a total 3000). - I'm not sure what to make of this. What does 'other' include (didn't see anything in the manual) and it's such a large number.

I took a look at this, and believe the "other" category of losses are those that can't be accounted for as surrendered or KIA such as individuals who didn't return to the formation by the end of the game after a unit was routed, troops were lost during a movement or troops considered lost due to other than combat issues such as on sick leave to the such.

In this scenario, 2,000 of that type seems excessive except the Allies had a difficult task since they were badly outnumbered by the Axis invasion force.

It might be interesting to compare the numbers with those of the early Ride of the Valkyries scenarios, when the allies were similiary overwhelmed by Axis numbers.

 

[Tommy.w]

Thanks Jim, that makes sense to me regarding what constitutes an 'other' casualty.

My only consternation is that it always appears to be the AI taking high 'other' casualties.

So in the Malta scenario I was the allies - inflicting massive 'other' casualties on the axis.
The other scenario I was playing the axis and again inflicted high 'other' kills.

It could be that's just the way those particular battles went in my game, im not experienced enough to tell yet what's reasonable or situations that exacerbate these losses. So I think I will keep an open mind and just keep an eye on it.

I don't suppose you know why during the AAR I cant see the details of some units? - like B squadron in the picture.

On a side note I have been watching an AAR on Discord in a group called Hex! - loads of strategy games in it, including CO2. Good fun.

 

[jimcarravallah]

My only consternation is that it always appears to be the AI taking high 'other' casualties.

So in the Malta scenario I was the allies - inflicting massive 'other' casualties on the axis.
The other scenario I was playing the axis and again inflicted high 'other' kills.

In structuring forces the developer can apply universal decrements or inceases in things like command efficiency and unit health. These can reflect general attributes for a side's forces -- for example make German SS units more efficient than late in the war Volks (conscripts) divisions differentiate force attributes between German and Italian divisions.

If the developer in Malta 1940 reflected that the Italian units were more poorly trained and less seasoned in combat than the allied force, it could drive seeing more losses to non-combat matters than a better trained and more combat seasoned unit experiences.

There might also be an anamoly in the artificial intelligence routine controlling units making it less standard for the command structure to react to losses by using command units to help line forces recover from a rout situation more quickly.

The numbers still seem a bit drastic, but a combination of poorer force health and command capability on the part of Italians coupled with an AI that doesn't react as quickly to issues which stress units could lead to some of the differences in numbers you note.

 

[Tommy.w]

Jim I think you are correct.
Just played as the allies in the same mission against the better trained axis force.
The axis lost the battle but the 'other' casualties seemed to reflect what you said i.e;
A well trained force will take fewer 'other' casualties (even if it loses).

Thanks for taking the time to talk me through this and explain things.