AAR Miracle of Port Moresby

[Chiteng]

Playing the Historical Scenario(15?) as Japanese

While waiting for ANY CV to arrive I FastTran to Buna:
South Sea Detatchment
Three 1600 Baseforce
I put three Zero groups on Buna as soon as the field is
operational. All on 100% Cap.

My taskforce: Two CV and 3CVL in one 25 ship TG at Buna.
I had the CV Fighters at 60% CAP

The AI approached with 4 CV in two TG of 2 CV each.

Even tho I had not moved and in theory should have launched
first the AI was able to Launch first.

I dont know who was in command but he was an idiot
the AI sent EACH CV strike alone.
So the upshot was that each strike ran into about 105 Zeros
and got chopped.

However he did get thru and damaged the Chitose and sank
two transports.

My counter strike was about 80 planes and ran into 72 CAP
I thought I was dead. But the Kate got thru and sank the
Saratoga outright, and damaged the Enterprise.

The next turn, I decided to go for broke
I pursued the damaged Enterprise, I figued that losing
a CVL was worth sinking the Enterprise,
However:

Just south of Gili Gili I found the now retreating USA.
His strikes were 'barely' held off by my now 50% Cap
(Roughly 60 Zero)
He had weakened himself so bad in the first strike that
he could not get thru the CAP. But he did AGAIN get first strike.
My counter strike (morning) sank the Enterprise, and surprise
I got an afternoon strike off and if found and sank the Wasp
and Hornet.

Minor damage to Zuiho(12%)

Is this an immpossible result?

No ships sunk on my side
4 CV and 3 Ca sunk on the USA side.

Revenge for Midway indeed!

This would prolong the war at least 6 months(my opinion)
and REALLY irritate King.

[Black Cat]

...it would have been by definition an impossible result. ( Since it never happened )

BTW; any chance you had the transport TF`s in the same Hex as the CV TF`s ????

[Rex Bellator]

What were Port Moresby's LBA doing during all of this? I can guess but....

[Chiteng]

PM airfield was being pounded by Rabual and no operations
possible.

Yes the TR were in the same hex w the CV

[Black Cat]

Yes the TR were in the same hex w the CV [/B][/QUOTE]

Tisk, Tisk, that was very, very Naughty of you Chiteng

You know the AI cannot do a real good job of locating the high value CV targets if you mix in AP`s & AK`s in the same Hex...

[Chiteng]

How can I provide Maximum protection to the Tr if I dont
put the CV in the hex?

I didnt know about the AI problem

[motaman]

Originally posted by Chiteng
How can I provide Maximum protection to the Tr if I dont
put the CV in the hex?

Long Range CAP?

[NorthStar]

Originally posted by motaman



Long Range CAP?

1) Long Range CAP is -- almost by definition -- attenuated by range, so it can never be MAXIMUM protection.

2) If you set CV fighters to LRC, you leave the CVs themself unprotected. This is fine if you can position the CVs outside of enemy air range, but if you can't . . .

I do the same thing as Chiteng. Why split your resources so that only partial CAP can intercept any given strike? Didn't know about the AI thing, but I guess its just an added bonus.

[Jupo]

Originally posted by Chiteng
Playing the Historical Scenario(15?) as Japanese

Just south of Gili Gili I found the now retreating USA.
His strikes were 'barely' held off by my now 50% Cap
(Roughly 60 Zero)
He had weakened himself so bad in the first strike that
he could not get thru the CAP. But he did AGAIN get first strike.
My counter strike (morning) sank the Enterprise, and surprise
I got an afternoon strike off and if found and sank the Wasp
and Hornet.

Americans get alway the "first attack"... In those Carrier battles, it's always shown first american attack, then Japanes attack. But the point is that it's happening almost same time, but American attack result is show first.

And second thing is that when I play American side, Only thing what I hate most is when B5N Kate go past my CAP and is aiming torpedos against my CV's... Those things are good and deadly.

In WISP (War in the south pasific / SSI / 1985 ) same scenario as in UV last and longest scenario. Japanes must eliminate fast as possible Americans 4 CV's with minium cost... and Americans must keep CV's alive until more support is comming from Pearl Harbour.

edit: some typos, plenty of those still left

[Raverdave]

Originally posted by Jupo


Americans get alway the "first attack"... In those Carrier battles, it's always shown first american attack, then Japanes attack. But the point is that it's happening almost same time, but American attack result is show first.

Well I have yet to see the USN "always" getting the first attack in, in my experiance it seems to work both ways......I think that it is tied to the level of search planes that are out looking...is this right?

And second thing is that when I play American side, Only thing what I hate most is when B5N Kate go past my CAP and is aiming torpedos against my CV's... Those things are good and deadly.

But what you have to consider is the following....what hight was your CAP and at what hight was the attack coming in from? If you CAP is at say 10,000ft and the trop bombers are at say 1000ft, then yes there is a chance they could get through....I would hazard a guess that if it was the other way round then they would almost be certain to get past, ie the CAP drawn down low and the attacking force comes in high. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

In WISP (War in the south pasific / SSI / 1985 ) same scenario as in UV last and longest scenario. Japanes must eliminate fast as possible Americans 4 CV's with minium cost... and Americans must keep CV's alive until more support is comming from Pearl Harbour.

Yup....never seems to work out for me though in my PBEM games

[Jupo]

I try to keep CAP planes higher altitude than attacking planes... diving is much faster than climbing

Anyway even if only 3 x B5N get past of CAP I always fear that worst will happend

Maybe altitude should be something about 7000-8000... not too low to climb up to 12000 feet and still it's possible to engage 1000-5000 quite fast. Well I'm just quessing.. Well we could calculate it from attacking/defending planes attributes and insert some sort of random factors in the formula and try to trust our calculations