One more PT Boat Question

[DE679]

Hello, playing Stock 15 all patched up. It is late June 1942, and I am wanting to stop the tri-weekly nuke bombardment of Port Moresby by IJN Battlewagons. The HR is 16 PT's per port. What is the best way to deploy these PT Boats. A single TF of 16? Two TF of 8 PT's? Three TF of 4, on down the line to 16 single TF. Do the PT's make the BB lose Op point's to lessen the severity / turn around the bombardment, or doe's it matter?

Thanks.

[USSAmerica]

Assuming you don't get in a lucky torp shot on one of his BB's, the biggest value of the PT's against bombardment TF's is delaying them.  Each engagement takes up some time and ops points.  To me, this means that if all your PT TF's were to actually pass their checks and die rolls and manage to engage the bombardment TF, then something like 4 x4 boat TF's would be better than one big TF.  All theoretical on my part, as I've no first hand experience with this.

[AirGriff]

Yep, smaller multiple TF's would slow them down enough to maybe keep them from scurrying out of bomber range after they bombard.  Plus, they might expend more ammo in multiple engagements.  I wouldn't make them less than 4 or 6 ship TF's, though.  You want at least some punch. 
 
The house rules in my pbem limit PT's to 6 ship PT TF's  and no more than 30 PT's in a hex, plus no mixing PT's in with other non-PT TF's unless they are being repositioned.  I really don't use them that aggressively.  Mainly I put them in defense of bases and, when geography permits, as barge busters and transport hunters.  I have further agreed not to intentionally send them after SC TF's--that SC thing is a big give on my part, but I admit the PT's seem a bit overly effective than IRL, especially when they get radar I've heard.