PT Boats not fighting?

[PMCN]

As the Dutch navy has been driven out of Java by the Kibbles&Bits plus friends all shores tour I was trying to interdict landings with PT boats. The Dutch ones and 3 survivors from the Philippines. Currently 2 groups of 3 PT boats are stationed in Timor at Koebang, 1 group of 2 in Java still but none of them attack. Well once I believe I saw a PT launch torpedoes but when I was using them in the Philippines they actually managed to get in and sink the odd transport (pre-patch). But now even if there is nothing but a PB and a xAKL they "evade" combat and generally only delay the landing slightly.

Has something changed? It does seem to have neutered PT boats operating in litorial waters a lot. Admittedly in the last case they were retreating from a IJN TF with a CA, DD, PB and xAk (or AK) but in many cases they avoid combat with much less robustly screened forces.

The RAN Hobart screened by the RAN Vampire and Vendetta put paid to that IJN TF sinking the transport and leaving the battle with all the enemy ships ablaze for moderate damage to all RAN ships. Go RAN GO!

[wild_Willie2]

New script: PT's will only engage at night.  During the day they will most likely evade combat.
 
Best results are gotten on moonless nights where the PT's can sneak up to an opponent and combat is engaged at close range.
 
So wait for moonless nights/ low visibility and hit invasion forces at night.
 
Believe me, PT's still have plenty of teeth left, even post patch
 

[PMCN]

Ahhhh...come to think on it in the Philippines most of the attacks were at night...  Thank you for the information, helps a lot.

[P.Hausser]

Try very agressive commander

[Sardaukar]

There is small(ish) chance with aggressive commander, that they will attack also during day. But since PT boats are basically cardboard boxes with torpedoes, results are rarely pretty in that case. PT boats have snowball's chance in hell without surprise and/or getting close..and as one can imagine, it's lot easier to achieve surprise and get to torpedo range during night than during day.... May work in bad weather with low visibility.

[PMCN]

One time they attacked during the day, well sorta inadvertently since I think they were trying to withdraw but anyway one PT boat did launch its torpedoes and miss.  But I'm so used to that by now, when torpedoes not only hit but explode I am generally surprised.  The IJN DD Kamikazi (or something like that) was missed by 3 spreads of torpedoes, then finally a torpedo hits it and..."Hit but no explosion."  The crew must have been passing the sake around after that one.

Well the PTs might be plywood boxes with torpedoes but their opponents are merchant vessels with small caliber guns and poor quality gun crew guarded by a converted fishing boat.  And the PT boats do 35+ knots so they aren't easy to hit.  I can understand them withdrawing from a warship but not from a PB guarding a few xAKL well ok truthfully the sea was full of Japanese ships.  Though in that case both sides seemed to feel discretion was the better part of valor.  I don't mind them just bouncing the invasion either, that works since I'm trying to keep the troops off the beach.  I'm actually thinking about making some MGBs since they aren't such pains to re-arm (an AG can do it).

I'm not sure why exactly the attacks in at least me sending them from Koebang to Launtern/Dilli were not at night.  The ones where I had to stage them up the Java coast from Soerabaja were going to be during the day.  Possibly the night ones had the IJN slipping away...or slinking off...or Banzii-ing "that away"

[Nomad]

Paul McNeely, if you look, there are no ship commanders with any good ratings. They have aggresiveness aroune 25-35 and naval skill about 40 or so. I have never been able to get the Dutch MTBs to do much of anything.

[Rob Brennan UK]

even if you do have a 'few' good agressive commanders , do you really want to risk them on the aformentioned plywood coffin ? .. much more useful in a bigger ship imo.

[PMCN]

I believe you are correct but the guy in command actually elected to attack, and the PT boats closed to 6000 yards then one took a 12cm hit and became kindling.  The PTs retired then, I can't rightly blame them for that.

I don't doubt they aren't good, I seem to recall seeing low numbers.  My problem with leaders is trying to sort out which combination I should look for.  I've been mainly trying to get good land commanders for the Chinese, but it is utterly arcane and seems to be splitting hairs or atoms to differentiate between someone rated for a rear area command and someone else who is rated for a front line command.

I'll look at the commander though and see if I can get someone in there.  "Lt. Prince, What part of: you are the only thing between us and Japanese landing do you not just quite get?"...or else maybe the Ruskies will lend me some NKVD troops.

I should not whinge too much though since Java is actually the first time the Japanese are behind the historical timeline...the KNIL still holds half of Java and at least some of the lead Japanese forces have been badly hurt.

[usersatch]

ORIGINAL: wild_Willie2


Believe me, PT's still have plenty of teeth left, even post patch

Yup, I sank two Japanese CVs off of Townsville with them.

[Sredni]

I had a hard time getting my pt boats to do anything in the PI. They kept going out and "avoiding action" in the night and then fleeing back to safe harbor. By the time I actually got them to do something I'd lost manilla and I couldn't reload their torpedoes [:(]. Though the one engagement they did fight they killed a bunch of transports guarded by a couple PG's so well worth their price I guess.

I'm not expecting much out of the pt's in the dei.

[Nomad]

You can change out the PTs in the PI with some decent commanders( not the Philipine ones though ) The British MTBs at Hong Kong have some good leaders also. A good thing is that most of them can be changed for 0 PPs.

[Nomad]

ORIGINAL: Rob Brennan UK

even if you do have a 'few' good agressive commanders , do you really want to risk them on the aformentioned plywood coffin ? .. much more useful in a bigger ship imo.

Most of the PT commanders are Ensigns and not suitable for anything other than PTs.

[ETF]

How can you ensure to attack at night?

[Alfred]

Base them close enough to the target so that the distance they have to travel equates to what they can do in the first 12 hours.

Alfred

[freeboy]

well for what its worth pt are GREAT kamakasi bait! 

[jetjockey]

Watch your fuel-range. The only time my PTs get skittish is during the day or when they don’t have a lot of fuel (tagged to another TF for ferry). Though not as skillful as the US PTs or British MLs, the Dutch PTs will get right in there and mix it up. Also, PTs are better in the Attack than they are on Defense.

[freeboy]

note regarding fuel range, pt will refuel from ships AND subs.. giving you a way to GREATLY extend the ranges .. so you cannot put into same tf, but you can set to not retire, stay command, and if in same hex they usually auto refuel! not that in the early war you would do this but as the war progresses it really can hinder the enemy to have pts poaching the sea lanes

[jetjockey]

I love the "sub"idea!

[PMCN]

I looked at the commanders. The people in BUPERS had assigned the worst twits to command the PT squadrons that they could find. There are much better commanders available and I installed the best I could get for a 0 PP cost swap. Or at least the best my poor understanding of leader traits allowed me to select. Aggression levels of all current commanders are at least x2 the old, Naval is generally at least +10 more, and leadership, and inspiration are higher.

I have done some fair complex routing in the past to stage PT boats to the strike through bases and such. I had to do this along the Java coast.