ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
...But before I go further, I want to run something up the flagpole for opinion. As stated above, I began the game totally in the dark about what carriers, BBs and CAs Japan begins the game with. We've now had sustained sightings by multiple patrol aircraft (and other types of aircraft, in some cases) of three enemy CVs TFs - the KB that hit Pearl (which has been sighted every days since then by patrols operating out of three Hawaiin Islands), the force now off Kuching (sighted many times evey day since the war began and targeted by A-24 Banshees once) and a tiny carrier force that was near the Celebes yesterday.
I'm thinking by now the Allies would have cobbled together a pretty strong list of what Japan has, so I'm inclined to open up a game from the Japanese side to see exactly what's out there. Does anybody feel like the Allies wouldn't have been able to identify the puzzle pieces after so many sightings over so many days?
I think that the allies would know of the existence of Japanese naval forces, even if they aren't as familiar with the details of the ships themselves.
If you look at the knowledge that the US had IRL 1941, they knew that the Japanese were building two battleships (
Yamato and
Musashi) but underestimated their size and capability.
This knowledge would come from a source like Janes Fighting Ships or Brassy without having to rely on formal intelligence agencies. Signal intelligence and other sources, like British or other Allied countries, would also help fill in the gaps.
Basically, I doubt that the US would be completely blind like you are making yourself. Yes, they made some assumptions based on US practice, but they pretty much had an idea of the number of ships.
