Disaster at the gates of Rabaul

[Besmerello]

Hi Folks, let me give you a brief background on my playthrough first. I am playing my second campaign against Japanese AI, this time I am trying to be more agressive and experimenting new strategies as well.

On December the 20th (41) I have made my decision to conduct a surprise CV attack for Rabaul and neighbor islands. On January the 6th I have given my order to attack as planned.

CV Enterprise and CV Lexington (around 170 aircraft total) and escort ships

1st wing of attack ; Naval attack for West of Rabaul (according to Reckon and Naval Search flights , there were many ships docked around Lae, no fighters )

2nd wing of attack ; Airfield attack at Rabaul (There were only 4 fighters & 6 bombers according to my reckon results, Fog of War ON)

Everything was okay until I have seen 20 Zeros and handful of Oscars defending Rabaul , appereantly Japanese AI had 2 CVE's just north of Rabaul which my Naval Seach coudln't find - and more fighter force at the Rabaul than my estimation.

Results:
Japanese Air Losses
15 Kate , 11 Oscar , 11 Sally , 10 Betty , 10 Zero

Allied Air Losses
26 SBD-3 Dauntless , 18 SBD-2 Dauntless, 13 Vindicator, 9 F2A3 Buffalo, 7 Wildcat

Japanese Naval Losses
2 CA, 3 DD , 5 XAk , 2 APD - All of them sunk

Ground Losses
763 casualites for Japanese, mostly non combat

I do think that I have lost many planes that was very valuable at the start and my question to you, how do I cope with this many aircraft losses? Good thing that my ships are okay and they are going back to Sydney now (will probably head back PH later) Will I be able to reinforce carier cabable aircraft soon or do I have to wait 5-6 months to reinforce my airwings and make these CV's operational again?

Thank you!

[Platoonist]

You can afford the planes more than the Japanese can afford the loss of two heavy cruisers and change. Especially, since a good number of those planes were the wretched Vindicators and Buffaloes. I think you did well overall.

[RangerJoe]

You can afford the planes more than the Japanese can afford the loss of two heavy cruisers and change. Especially, since a good number of those planes were the wretched Vindicators and Buffaloes. I think you did well overall.

That is true but early on, US Naval air frames are precious since there are so few and the US Naval Infantry air units need them as well. I personally have gotten good use of my Vindicators and Buffaloes.

I think that it is better nibbling around the edges. Even adding more fighters to the carriers, even US Marine Buffaloes, and go close to a Japanese air base to get spotted but far enough (16 hexes) to stay out of Betty torpedo range. Training the fighter pilots by shooting down enemy bombers.

[Sardaukar]

You did well, depending of course if you suffered damage to your CVs.

As word of caution, CV Lexington and CV Saratoga do not fit into Sydney repair shipyard, so it'll be long way back to Pearl if used in SW Pacific and they get heavily damaged.

Enterprise and it's sister ships are OK in that sense.

[Yaab]

Disaster? It is a sound victory! "...numerous cruisers and destroyers".

[Ambassador]

Like my esteemed predecessors said, do not underestimate the value of your strike. Bagging two heavy cruisers and three destroyers, this early in the campaign, is a fine result.

Now, as said above, and as I said in another thread a couple of minutes ago, you don’t have many planes for your carriers, so now you’ll have to retreat to PH, wait to fill the squadrons. And train, train, train your pilots.

The TBD Devastators are indeed crappy planes, compared to the TBF Avenger, and even if losing them doesn’t appear as a great loss, you still lose a bunch of pilots. During the first six months of the game, I often leave the TBD squadrons in Pearl or the West Coast, where they can train a score of pilots, waiting for the TBF to come online. During that time, I put an additional fighter squadron onboard for the two or three times I use the carriers, otherwise I train the pilots (and check the leaders).

On another note, it’ll have taught you a valuable lesson on the unreliability of the battlefield information. Always plan for the worst, and consider yourself lucky if the best happens. This time, you would have faced disaster if the IJN had two full CV instead of two CVE… and that early in the game, a disaster’s severity is counted on the number of CV sent to the bottom of the ocean.