Surface ships vs Carriers. Any chance at all?

[AW1Steve]

ORIGINAL: niceguy2005

ORIGINAL: herwin

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

That depends on so many factors - quality of ship, experience of crew, ability of the captain, and seemingly a zillion other factors.  But I would hazard two good American CAs against a medioce Jap BB (Kongo, for instance) and feel like I had a decent chance of doing well.  I'd rather not send American CLs against a good Jap CA, but if I needed to I'd probably want four. 

Two CAs were about the equal of a BB ignoring armour. A CL was the equal of a CA, except that 6" guns were better for killing DDs than cruisers.

Not sure if we're talking real life or the game here. However, I did a lot of test engagements pitting Baltimore class CLs against various IJN CAs. The CLs kicked their butts about every time. The trick is to have an aggressive captain. The 6" guns have to get in close to have much chance at penetration. If they do their high rate of fire will pummel any CA/CL.

I did a similiar test with the Omaha class and they did considerably worse. I think radar is also important.

Baltimores are CA's. The CL's of the period were clevelands.

[Lecivius]

Just to follow up on this, is there any reason why major combatants would not use their main guns once the escorts are destroyed?  I just ran the PoW, Repulse, 4 CL's & 6 DD's into an invasion force (Stock 1.806 Scenario 15 PBEM).  The PoW & Repulse blew 3 PC's and a MS out of the water...then just sailed along as the lesser ships shelled (and never sank) a dozen AP's.

Frustrating to say the least ( especially since KB then blew the Big E  & the Lady Lex to Mars in the same turn)

<edit> I
I checked, both ships still had main gun ammo after the engagements.

[Canoerebel]

That happens frequently.&nbsp; You can interpret it this way - the three PCS and MSW offered themselves as sacrifices to allow the ships under their care to flee.&nbsp; By putting up&nbsp;a vigorous defense and drawing the attention of your ships, they bought time for the merchants to get far enough away that only your faster DDs could really get close enough to&nbsp;land some shots.