Intelligence Question

[rogue]

I have been wondering, how do you use intel sources to plan for a major battle? Generally I play the small scenerios since I have been too timid to play the grand campaign. But even using the PBY, coastwatchers, and InOPs reports, I have not yet figured how to track Japanese TFs. I generally try not to put too much stock into what is seen on the map given that what is spotted is generally inaccurate unless you get a specific message. This means that most of my battles are meeting engagements and they take me by surprise. For example in the Guadalcanal mission my two TFs of the Saratoga, Enterprise, Hornet, and Wasp attacked the Zuikaku, Shokaku and the CVL. Both the Shokaku and CVL went down and the Zuikaku is so severly damaged that it is out of the game. I lost the Saratoga in exchange for 3 Japanese ships so I feel that fair. But this battle caught me off guard. I didn't see this coming and I was just glad that I came out on top. Any words of advice?

[Gem35]

other than troop strength and messages of LCU X is planning an attack on base Y, It is very difficult to to use the sigint screen to plan attacks.
If fog of war is on, the composition of enemy task forces is usualy wrong or very vague, one thing to note is thier speed, surface combat vessels will have faster speeds reported than transports. more in the teens than say a speed of 8-10.
detection levels is key here.

[Zebedee]

There's a wonderful little program called WitP Utility by Bodhi. (link found on this page: http://witp.kodapa.com/index.php?title=Useful_Links ).
 
Use that to keep track of intelligence. It really helps a lot - especially useful in figuring out whether that TF is CVs and where it might be headed to...

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: rogue

I have been wondering, how do you use intel sources to plan for a major battle? Generally I play the small scenerios since I have been too timid to play the grand campaign. But even using the PBY, coastwatchers, and InOPs reports, I have not yet figured how to track Japanese TFs. I generally try not to put too much stock into what is seen on the map given that what is spotted is generally inaccurate unless you get a specific message. This means that most of my battles are meeting engagements and they take me by surprise. For example in the Guadalcanal mission my two TFs of the Saratoga, Enterprise, Hornet, and Wasp attacked the Zuikaku, Shokaku and the CVL. Both the Shokaku and CVL went down and the Zuikaku is so severly damaged that it is out of the game. I lost the Saratoga in exchange for 3 Japanese ships so I feel that fair. But this battle caught me off guard. I didn't see this coming and I was just glad that I came out on top. Any words of advice?

DL goes up rapidly for a TF within search range if you have a *lot* of squadrons searching. This is especially so for CVTFs as their air strikes also increase their DL. (The KB is particularly easy to track when it is operating multiple carriers, since each squadron it launches adds one to its DL.) Once the DL maxes out, it'll take a week or three to disappear, so you'll have a series of sightings to work with. If you plot sightings, you'll discover that you can figure out which TF they belong to and predict their future movement with some accuracy. The track reports also provide clues to work with, and if you throw out a couple of submarine scouting lines, you may also get some ASW activity to help you identify where the carriers are.

This is one of the most operationally realistic (not necessarily objectively realistic) aspects of the game. I find WiTPutility a very useful tool.