I just finished a game. I got a minor Allied Victory, keeping Port Moresby.
Initially the Yorktown struck Tulagi, and laid waste to the Jap shipping there. It seemed like a turkey shoot, maybe it's FOW with overreporting?
Next day, the Lex found the Shoho force, and filled it to the gills with bombs. I didn't know a ship could take 15+ bombs and stay afloat, but there it was. Eventually it sank. It seemed that my hit rate was pretty high.
My 7-year-old son thoroughly enjoys the battle animation sounds and smoke and splashes, he was carefully watching the numbers of airplanes as the Wildcats were tangling with the Zeros on CAP.
Then the Lex found the Jap invasion fleet that had rounded the tip of New Guinea. Just laid waste to the ships... (But the invasion fleet kept going. Eventually it landed a small remnant force that was unable to take Moresby.)
The next day the Yorktown, which I had sent West to join the fray, was found and pummeled mercilessly. Her air group was able to inflict some small damage on the Shokaku and Zuikaku, but not enough to make them retire. The Y'town was left a smoking hulk, and finished off the next day. I can't remember how many bombs and torpedoes she took, but it was on a Yamato-scale, something like 20 bombs and 6 torpedoes.
The next day, I'm trying to sneak the Lex group out to avoid destruction, because the Jap carriers are obviously around and have a bite. No luck, the same fate awaited her, and she went down. Her air group managed to put some bombs on both the Shokaku and Zuikaku.
Final result: minor Allied Victory in a bloodbath.
Ships lost (the ones above the scroll are a miscellany of Jap transports). The bombing was unbelievable.
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR May 07, 42
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Deboyne Islands at 100,143
Weather in hex: Light rain
Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 26,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 60 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 13
B5N2 Kate x 35
D3A1 Val x 33
Allied Ships CV Yorktown, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
CA Portland, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Hammann
CA Astoria, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Chicago, Bomb hits 2
DD Perkins
DD Anderson
CA Chester, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Morris, Bomb hits 2, on fire
Aircraft Attacking:
12 x D3A1 Val diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb, 2 x 60 kg GP Bomb
11 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
21 x D3A1 Val diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb, 2 x 60 kg GP Bomb
22 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
CAP engaged:
VF-5 with F4F-3 Wildcat (0 airborne, 4 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 10000 and 21000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 30 minutes
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CV Yorktown
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CA Portland
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CA Astoria
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Morris Then, in the afternoon:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Deboyne Islands at 100,143
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 24,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 30 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 13
B5N2 Kate x 29
D3A1 Val x 17
Allied Ships CV Yorktown, Bomb hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Chicago, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
CA Portland, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Astoria, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Anderson, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Perkins
CA Chester, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk
DD Hammann
Aircraft Attacking:
17 x D3A1 Val diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb, 2 x 60 kg GP Bomb
14 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
15 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CV Yorktown
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring a London S class CA
So, the Yorktown took 15 bomb hits and a torpedo that day, sinking the next day.
The day the Yorktown sank, the Lexington was sunk directly, taking 8 bomb hits and 5 torpedoes:
Morning Air attack on TF, near Rockhampton at 97,146
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 22,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 45 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 17
B5N2 Kate x 21
D3A1 Val x 36
Allied Ships CV Lexington, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 5, and is sunk
CA Minneapolis, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1
CA New Orleans, Bomb hits 1
DD Dewey
DD Phelps, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Aylwin, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
Aircraft Attacking:
16 x D3A1 Val diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg AP Bomb, 2 x 60 kg GP Bomb
9 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
20 x D3A1 Val diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg GP Bomb, 2 x 60 kg GP Bomb
11 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
CAP engaged:
VF-2 with F4F-3 Wildcat (1 airborne, 2 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 10000 and 19000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 25 minutes
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CV Lexington
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Aylwin
How typical is this? Destroyers getting hammered from the air?
Destroyers are a hard target but if they are trying to protect a crippled carrier they will be easier to hit.
They tend to be quite hard to hit with Torps I have notived but Vals and SBD's do ok against them
I can't tell, for one thing, the results went by pretty quick while I was watching (and my son was pretty excited about the whole war thing) and the reports don't specify what kind of bomb hit. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those hits were 60kg, now that you mention it.
But man, the SBDs were putting 1000-pounders on target like nobody's business. I know that for a fact, all SBD strikes were carrying 1000 lb AP bombs.
Japanese Ships
xAK Tatumiya Maru, Bomb hits 1
xAK Sinsei Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Kagu Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAK Kamikaze Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Hagoromo Maru, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Kansai Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Noshiro Maru #2, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Canberra Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
Japanese ground losses:
870 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 15 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 39 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Aircraft Attacking:
12 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb AP Bomb
4 x F4F-3 Wildcat sweeping at 10000 feet
11 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb AP Bomb
CAP engaged:
Tainan Ku S-1 with A6M2 Zero (10 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
10 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 6000
Raid is overhead
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring xAK Kansai Maru
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring xAK Kamikaze Maru
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring xAK Sinsei Maru
Dont fgorget TF's that are unloading are now HORRIBLY VULNERABLE a TF in the middle of unloading must be protected or even the greenest rookie with buck fever cannot miss.
Uncovered TF's = Very very bad thing
