Convoys in Betty Range

[Smeulders]

A bit of a newbie question, but how do you protect convoys that are in range of enemy LBA ? At the moment I'm playing the Guadalcanal scenario and I'm trying to bring in reinforcements to Port Moresby, but my convoys keep getting blown out of the water by unescorted Betty raids, despite 2 P-39 squadrons flying 100% LRCAP over the ships. I thought about beefing the convoys up with destroyers so I'd get more AA, but that would prohibit them docking in port, lengthening the unloading and so just attract more bombing raids.

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

A bit of a newbie question, but how do you protect convoys that are in range of enemy LBA ? At the moment I'm playing the Guadalcanal scenario and I'm trying to bring in reinforcements to Port Moresby, but my convoys keep getting blown out of the water by unescorted Betty raids, despite 2 P-39 squadrons flying 100% LRCAP over the ships. I thought about beefing the convoys up with destroyers so I'd get more AA, but that would prohibit them docking in port, lengthening the unloading and so just attract more bombing raids.

All you can do is what you are doing: Put CAP over the ships. Otherwise, c'est la guerre. If it was easy, it wouldn't be fun, no?

Unescorted Bettys should be getting killed off pretty good by your fighters, AE better models their unfortunate tendency to burst into flames. You do need to pay attention to morale, fatigue, and altitude settings of your CAP. 100% LRCAP is probably not a good idea over several days, I bet your pilots are tired. A better setting is to just set them to "Escort" and 80% CAP; they will fly over PM, and the most tired pilots will take a break. If you have some P-40s that would also be a good idea, it's a better plane than the P-39.

Adding DD's won't do a whole lot, though the Bettys will target the DDs first, so that will "protect" the transports a bit, but presenting multiple targets is an expensive way to disperse an attack. I would keep the escort to a minimum.

SIDE NOTE: For WITP'ers, doesn't the P-39 look like a better plane in the stats now? Altitude bands do reflect it's lack of supercharger and poor high altitude performance, but it's got decent speed and firepower, and manueverability isn't terrible either. In WITP Zeros would eat P-39s for breakfast, will that be true anymore?

[Smeulders]

Thanks for the fast reply, I'll certainly look into stationing some better planes on both sides of the straights to protect shipping. Pilot fatigue shouldn't have been a problem though, the squadrons were given a couple of days to rest before I moved in my convoys.

Found something interesting in though, apparently docked ships are more vulnerable to air attack, so maybe I should try getting some amphibious ships over. It might slow down unloading a bit, but at least the bettys won't be getting a 50% hit rate at my ships.

[erstad]

You may also want to check the altitude the bettys are coming in at to see if you're spending a lot of time diving or climbing (which presumably cuts down the number of firing passes). If they're moving around altitudes, you could set each of your two squadrons to a different altitude.

[Zebedee]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball
In WITP Zeros would eat P-39s for breakfast, will that be true anymore?

Even the lowly Buff can get decent results against the Zero in the right circumstances. The P-39's performance is now definitely going to force the Japanese player to fly higher, with all the side-effects that has. It's certainly now showing the kind of performance which the combat records of US pilots who used it as their initial plane implied. Unfortunately