GET THE CAMPAIGN! (LOOK IN USA)


Campaign: Soldier of Fortune v1.0
Equipment: Pacific Upgrade v2.3
Prestige: 100%

"Go down this road until you get blown up, then come back and report"
-(Patton to an aide-de-camp).

Here's what happened when I played through without reloading. Except for the first scenario, I've not played this campaign before.

SCENARIO RESULT CORE UNITS LOST PROTOTYPE UNITS

China Station V*
Chengchow V
Phillipines Fiasco TV
Bataan Bloodbath Loss Enough to lose.

*I'd played this scenario a couple of times previously and knew what to expect.

CHINA STATION

Core:

2 M2A4 TK [0, 0]
1 M3 GMC ATK [0]
1 Scout Car RCN [0]
2 155mm M3 ART (Truck) [0, 0]
1 75mm M-51 AD (Truck) [0]
2 Engineer INF (Truck) [0, 0]
2 Regular INF (Truck) [0, 0]
1 P-36 Fighter [0]

Purchases/Upgrades:

Initially purchased an Engineer, a 75mm AD and a P-36 Fighter. After capturing Betong, I purchased a 155mm ART.

Deployment/Task Groups:

Sent an Engineer, Cavalry, and 2 KMT Regulars south. Remainder of units headed north, then west.

Core Units Lost / Prototypes Awarded:

None

Result:

Got a Victory (missed BV by a turn). However, I recall getting a Tactical Victory the first time I played this, so that's the difference advanced knowledge makes. It still seems like a pretty tough scenario to get through quickly.

Comments:

To be honest, I've played this scenario a couple of times before, but never went any farther. Well, that gives me a starting advantage that will quickly be lost. I found it difficult to imagine the U.S. and China taking away Japanese held cities in 1938. Bill is a history student, so maybe China did have some early successes against Japan? It's just a game, so it really doesn't matter.

That Nell bomber is sure a pain. It's easy to lose core units in this scenario if you're not careful, especially trying to hurry. Didn't get a BV even though I knew the scenario ahead of time, because I wanted to keep from losing any core units. Destroyed some of the Japanese airpower by sandwiching them between my fighters and running my AD up to shoot at them.

CHENGCHOW

Core:

3 M2A4 TK [0, 0, 0]
1 M3 GMC ATK [0]
2 Scout Car RCN [0, 0]
2 155mm M3 ART (Truck) [0, 0]
1 75mm M-51 AD (Truck) [1]
4 Engineer INF (Truck) [0, 0, 0, 0]
1 Regular INF (Truck) [0]
1 Bridging Equip [0]
1 P-36 Fighter [0]
1 P-40 Fighter [0]
1 B-18 Bomber [0]

Purchases/Upgrades:

Upgraded 1 Regular infantry to Engineer. Purchased 1 M2A4 TK, 1 Scout Car, 1 Engineer, 1 Bridging Equip, 1 P-40 FTR and 1 B-18 Bomber.

Deployment/Task Groups:

Except for 1 scout car, I deployed all core forces from the eastern supply hex (13, 24). Plan to bypass Imperial troops stationed in bend in river, avoiding the necessity of crossing two bridges. Except for a scout car, all core units stayed together as a group through scenario. Crossed river at (24,15) using bridging equipment, took the two victory hexes on east edge of map, then shot north. Kept auxiliary units on other side of river, which helped me destroy cavalry, a couple of artilleries and an air defense. They also helped draw recon unit away from core units.

Core Units Lost / Prototypes Awarded:

None

Result:

Victory (Again - 1 turn shy of BV).

Comments:

A lot less Imperial aircraft this scenario. Overall, it was very comfortable for my core units, no close calls, even though I didn't move fast enough for the BV. I guess I have a little Monty in me and don't like to risk too much. That may come from playing a couple of Steve Brown's campaigns, too.

After finishing this scenario, the program kept crashing. I emailed Bill and he quickly responded that I needed an additional *.map file in my scenario directory (Ling2.map), due to Lasse changing the name. I think this is the same map file as Lingayn2.map at Builder's Paradise. This may be fixed by now, but I wanted to note it in case others had trouble.

I also noticed that the B-24 Liberator and B-17 Fortress are listed under "new equipment available", but are not available for purchase. These must just be for use as auxiliaries?

PHILLIPINES FIASCO

Core:

3 M2A4 TK [1, 1, 1]
3 M3 Grant TK [0, 0, 0]
1 M3 GMC ATK [1]
2 Scout Car RCN [0, 0]
3 155mm M3 ART (1 Truck & 1 M3A1) [0, 0, 0]
2 T30 HMC ART [0, 0]
2 75mm M-51 AD (Truck) [0, 2]
4 Engineer INF (1 Truck & 3 M3A1) [0, 0, 1, 1]
1 Regular INF (Truck) [0]
1 Bridging Equip [0]
1 P-36 Hawk Fighter [1]
1 P-40 Tomahawk Fighter [0]
1 P-39D Airacobra Fighter [0]
1 B-18 Bola Bomber [0]

Temporary garrison forces purchased during scenario and later disbanded:

3 Regular infantry (Truck) [0]

Purchases/Upgrades:

Purchased 1 M3 Grant Tank, 2 T30 HMC Artilleries, another 75mm AD and a P-39D Airacobra Fighter. Upgraded 3 Engineers and 1 155mm artillery to use halftracks (M3A1). Maybe I'm overdoing it on AD, but looking at the map I think it'll take 2 task groups, and I don't know how heavy the enemy aircraft will be. Based on the majority of the map being covered in woods, this looks like an infantry/artillery scenario. I know Bill uses paratroops, but I don't feel comfortable sending off paratroops and precious fighters into totally unknown situations, although I may make limited use of paratroops later on.

Into the scenario I purchased additional units to defend my rear areas: 2 M3 Grant TK, a 155mm artillery w/truck. This is starting to load me up heavily on tanks, but I can always get rid of them after the scenario is over.

Later, I purchased three regular infantry for garrison duty on victory hexes, and disbanded them after the scenario.

Deployment/Task Groups:

It's a traffic jam at first - I set one air defense up in a forward position to defend my trucks as they came up, got enough infantry and artillery up to take Aguilar (13, 36). After crossing, I split my forces fairly evenly, sending one group north and the other east.

I planned to use the subs as a defensive screen against enemy shipping, slowly started to inch them east. Spotted some enemy transports to the west, ran back and got a few of them, but looks like a couple got ashore (I don't think it's a hidden supply hex since the enemy troops have 2 levels of experience and a leader in one). Placed a couple of Grants and a 155mm artillery to defend HQ1D (2, 24) from an infantry (w/leader) and a tankette.

Core gets spread pretty thin while taking the southeastern corner of the map. Enemy consists of isolated/scattered infantry/artillery/AD - little armor. Between air defense and fighters, much of the enemy airpower is destroyed or in hiding by the time I headed for the southeast corner, so both my air defenses went with the northern group coming up the coast.

After this, I ended up with two groups - one heading north on the coast and another on the road.

Core Units Lost / Prototypes Awarded:

One of my scout cars got a leader (influence). No units lost, no close calls even. Very few Imperial mobile units or armor, so I pretty much get to choose who will fight and where, with the exception of enemy aircraft attacks.

Result:

Tactical victory with two or three turns before losing.

Comments:

The three scenarios so far have a real race element to them. It's not so much that there are any really tough nuts to crack, but a series of little nuts to crack, but you've got to crack them quickly. There's very few mobile enemy units, so most of them are just sitting there waiting for you to attack. That makes it easy to avoid losing core units, since you don't get surprised, but it can be a real time killer.

What takes up so much time is that you move your infantry and artillery into position but can't attack until the next turn. Also, having to move around so much on the map (the southeast corner of the map in this case ate up some time). So, I obviously haven't solved this problem yet, and maybe I won't solve it during the campaign.

Bill states that he uses paratroops frequently, which obviously can be effective both in opening doors for your core to pass, as well as avoiding the core having to flit about all over the map. I'm reluctant to use paratroops in scenarios where I'll just be flying aircraft into unknown situations, looking for an appropriate place to use paratroops. I don't think I can use them in conjunction with core attacks, because the paratroops take up a lot of time, too (fly to the drop zone, land the next turn, then move the following turn). Probably I'll have to start trying this, or else continue to get tactical victories or lose scenarios.

One thing I'd like to improve on is taking towns on the run, using something other than infantry. One of the gems of my core this scenario was the M3 GMC anti-tank, which helped me out a number of times in taking out infantry in woods/towns (but these units are fragile). I may experiment with a few more of these to see if I can run up and take a town without waiting a turn every time.

Additional air attacks of course would also help soften up the position before attacking.

BATAAN BLOODBATH

Core:

3 M2A4 TK [1, 2, 2]
2 M3 Grant TK [0, 0]
3 M3 GMC ATK [0, 0, 1]
2 M8 RCN [0, 1*] (Influence)
5 T30 HMC ART [0, 0, 1, 1, 1]
1 75mm ART (airborne) [0]
2 75mm M-51 AD (Truck) [0, 2]
4 Engineer INF (1 Truck & 3 M3A1) [1, 1, 2, 2]
2 Ranger INF (1 Truck & 1 without) [0, 1]
1 Paratroop INF (without transport) [0]
1 P-40 Tomahawk Fighter [1]
2 P-39D Airacobra Fighter [0, 1]
1 B-18 Bola Bomber [1]
1 B-26B Marauder [0]

Purchases/Upgrades:

Got rid of one of the Grant tanks and the bridging equipment. Upgraded 2 recons to M8, the regular infantry to ranger w/halftrack, the Hawk fighter to Airacobra, and all the 155mm artillery to T30s. I don't want to lose units in these woods due to lack of artillery support. Purchased 2 M3 GMC anti-tanks, a 75mm airborne artillery, a Ranger and a Paratrooper without transport, and a Marauder bomber. There are three air transports available, so I'm gonna take a shot at dropping a couple troops and the 75mm artillery to take one of the objectives.

Deployment/Task Groups:

Deployed Engineers, anti-tanks, artillery and recon on land in two task groups. Deployed remainder in ship transports. Later realized this was a mistake, since I captured a supply hex on the east side on my first turn.

Core Units Lost / Leaders / Prototypes Awarded:

I lost enough core units early on that I couldn't get to the victory hexes in the north, but I didn't keep track of how many losses I had (it gets depressing).

Result:

Loss. Went bad from the start - couple enemy destroyers and a cruiser on the west side knocked out one of my artillery, aircraft damaged the other artillery pretty badly. Didn't deploy an air defense on the west side, planned to bring it up later. Heavy enemy attacks destroyed a lot of units on the west side - also a number of enemy transports pulling up along here. Started my Marauder on the east side of the map, so it wasn't available for anti-shipping until turn 3, but it did well. Enemy aircraft knocked my fighters down quickly, then the bombers weren't much good anymore.

Anyway, play this scenario defensively, send your aircraft and subs to immediately attack enemy shipping on the west side, and hopefully you'll live through it. I didn't.

Comments:

If you know what to expect, I think you can get through the scenario. If I'd known it would be so defensive, I'd have had my 155mm guns supported by air defense, and knocked out that cruiser quickly. I probably could get at least a tactical victory, but probably with some losses next time.

Well, I didn't get to see the rest of the campaign, but maybe I'll try again from the start someday, or else I'll give up and start to reload again after a loss.