Are ASW Aircraft Working?

[Rex Bellator]

I've set several squadrons on ASW as the Japanese, one Kate squadron at Buna even had a US submarine in the same hex as it for several turns. I've never yet seen an ASW aircraft attempt to attack a submarine.

I've tried different altitudes and all kinds of aircraft, but nothing has ever happened. Is there some way of increasing your chances of attacking, or is the ASW routine broke? Thanks.

[Rex Bellator]

Well, I've had another big session today, and had various ASW aircraft set up to keep those pesky subs at bay in the sub hot spots. I still have yet to see an attack on one.

I know they are there as they have been reported by other aircraft. Heck, in the above example one was practically parked at the end of my runway for days!

So can anyone adviseif they have seen attacks on subs by aircraft. Judging by the silence I guess not so far. Comments appreciated.

[Claudi]

In my first campaign scenario (#17), ive had several aircrafttypes on asw and naval patrol. The only confimed hit on a sub came from a B17 on naval patrol. So it happens, but very rarely.

[Capt Cliff]

Ditto for me. Had two B-25 unit's in Noumea find subs but not attack them! Both were set at max ASW!

[Will_L]

Had a Catalina sight and report hit on a sub near Noumea.

[1089]

If a Catalina sights a sub, it also attacks. If there is a hit, it may or may not report it, since it may not see whether it hit. But with every sighting there is an attack. I have seen a hit by the Japanese on a U.S. sub as well, but mostly just sighting reports.

kp

[Rex Bellator]

Well, a few more days playing this great game on and off, but still no sign of my ASW aircraft of any kind taking action against submarines

As I'm playing the Japanese, I checked the Aircraft Data on my various types of ASW capable aircraft (Mavis, Kates, I forgot the others names ) and looked at their payload. All it gives them is a torpedo. There are no depth charge options mentioned, so I wonder if this could be anything to do with it.

The sightings of enemy Subs seem to be coming from my Naval Search aircraft, so I'm not even sure that my ASW aircraft are leaving the ground. I'm very interested to hear that a few other players have very ocassionally seen planes attacking subs. Also I'm suprised that a Naval Search B-17 attacked a sub.

I hope that someone from Matrix also spots this thread and comments. In the meanwhile it seems that I'd be better off putting aircraft onto Naval Search.

[Crocky]

It does work Rex though not very often....I presume its only reported if the sub gets hit it probably dives and gets away but I have sunk 2 subs with Jakes ion anti sub patrols but then Im 250 days into a PBEM

[JohnK]

I'm through June, July, and August of a campaign as the US vs. the Japanese, and I've NEVER had any aircraft set to ASW patrol make an attack...Catalinas, Hudsons, etc.

It IS indicated when a search aircraft attacks a Japanese surface vessel, however...so I don't think it's not telling you when you attack.

I've tried every conceivable altitude setting as well.

I've yet to hit a Japanese sub with anything. Fortunately, the Japanese subs seem to barely ever attack anything either (I have historical off for them, btw.)

The ASW search aircraft WILL find the subs now; I've been sending the utterly useless subchasers after them when found. All that happens is 1-2 of the subchasers get torpedoed. I figure that uses up their ammo so they need to RTB . And no matter how many of these attacks they participate in or how long they are at sea, the sub chasers never get their night combat rating above 30...so they never even attack the Japanese subs.

[Erik Rutins]

Originally, every sighting report also had an attack report. However, the vast majority of these attacks are unsuccessful. The attacks were listed in the scrolling bottom left part of the screen. At times you had quite a lot of sighting-attack messages go by.

It was decided that to keep this from getting out of hand, only confirmed successful attacks would be reported. Otherwise, they would only be listed as sightings.

I can assure you that every ASW planes that spots a sub tries to attack it, but they are rarely successful. At the lower altitudes they get the most success. ASW in general is most successful when used as a team. My own SCs in several games have gotten over 55/40 experience and have hit spotted subs with their depth charges.

We had no problems reported on this during testing and I've personally seen it work. So, while it will be looked at I can't promise anything for the patch unless we find or decide that it is broken.

Regards,

- Erik

[Hartmann]

Just to report: after having had no success either in ever getting at a sub with an aircraft (even with extensive ASW duty), I have actually given up on that totally. I´m quite content with my destroyers sinking a sub every now and then, though.

Hartmann