Balade of the Newbie: First Stop, Operation Buccaneer

[BBfanboy]

Did your TB miss with their torps, or were they just armed with bombs?
Even when you specify torpedoes for the squadron, if it is flying beyond "Normal Range" it cannot carry the heavy torpedo and will automatically switch to bombs.

[BlitzimX]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Did your TB miss with their torps, or were they just armed with bombs?
Even when you specify torpedoes for the squadron, if it is flying beyond "Normal Range" it cannot carry the heavy torpedo and will automatically switch to bombs.

I think they were armed with Bombs.

[BlitzimX]

I finally found them! Or at least...they found me.

I spent 5 days looking for that Surface TF, my planes even spotted it more than once but no planes were sent to intercept or anything.
And then, on that cold morning of the 11th of November, a massive raid hit my first Carrier TF, coming from the TF which slipted behind me depite all the NAval searches. That raid sank me one CV and damaged seriously the second one.

My answer to that raid was incredibly low, with very few bombers displayed and not even escorted! Perhaps it's because my escorts had already interecepted the Japs raid or something..

My Surface BB was more lucky, hopefully i put its max reaction to 4!

[BlitzimX]

After the loss of a CV, its squadrons rebased to PB while the KB retreated to Rangoon. I don't think about pursuing it since it would put me in range of its LBB, and from what i saw it still has quite a sizeable force (the LBB, not the KB which has its two main BB almost sunk, and Carriers in the same shape).

Since the squadrons on my CVs have been crippled by the attack (mostly due to flying unescorted to the enemy SHips), i'm thinking of rebasing them on PB and combining them with the remaining of the sunk CV. Is such an action recomended?

Since the squadrons on my CVs have been crippled by the attack (mostly due to flying unescorted to the enemy SHips)

I think this is due to my FTR squadron being put to 80% CAP over the carriers to protect them from the LBBB (i didn't expect any carriers in the KB). AS a result, very few were able to do the Escort mission, and with bad luck or bad organization, the bombers left unescorted.

I also should have put my TB and DB to 100% Naval attack.

But really with all the Searchings, i was put in a false track. Each turn i had report of a large fleet near the southern east part of the map, so i focused all my searches in this area. But in the end, the KB popped behind me near PB , located only by the Catalina on PB which had a much widder searching arc. I found that quite surprising.

[BBfanboy]

A few comments from the peanut gallery ...
- Kido Butai is the name for Japan's Carrier fleet, not the BBs or other ships. If I refer to KB I mean the carriers and am too lazy to type it all out [;)]

- British fighters have very short range and the bombers can go further so this may be the reason your strike went un-escorted. The only way to deal with this is to reduce the max range for your bombers to match max range of the fighters. BUT, be aware that fighters on escort duty are handicapped and will suffer in clashes with enemy CAP. The fighters end up sacrificing themselves so the bombers can get through.

- At maximum speed, ships can move double their normal distance, although they will suffer some system and engine damage and use lots of fuel. This would have enabled the KB to dash in from beyond your CV search range and be in range to strike next turn. Another possibility is that bad weather kept your search planes from launching while KB approached.

- What reports were you getting of the enemy fleet that drew you off? Sigint? Sightings reported in the Op Report?
Encounters with your subs? The subs are usually pretty accurate - they are trained to be. Air search can be inaccurate unless the squadron has high Naval Search skills. Signal Intel can be full of FOW. For instance a single enemy sub sending out lots of signals can pretend to be a large fleet.

- Chasing that contact drew you away from your primary mission - guarding the landings. Eventually, the enemy will have to come to you at the landing site, so there is no need to go chasing.

- You did very well in your first scenario. It is often fun to try it again to see how much different it feels when you use the things you learned from the start.

- Is that BB Richelieu in your Avatar icon? I am using BC Strasbourg!

[BlitzimX]

Code: Select all

British fighters have very short range and the bombers can go further so this may be the reason your strike went un-escorted. The only way to deal with this is to reduce the max range for your bombers to match max range of the fighters. BUT, be aware that fighters on escort duty are handicapped and will suffer in clashes with enemy CAP. The fighters end up sacrificing themselves so the bombers can get through.

In fact the KB surprised me a first time. I reloaded the game and mooved my Carreirs north to intercept it, so in fine they were just 2 or 3 hexes away. But it's not so much the BB which hammered me, it's the planes from the 2 CVS I think my CVs TF were too far away from eachother to defend themselves (3 hexes) together.

What reports were you getting of the enemy fleet that drew you off? Sigint? Sightings reported in the Op Report?
Encounters with your subs? The subs are usually pretty accurate - they are trained to be. Air search can be inaccurate unless the squadron has high Naval Search skills. Signal Intel can be full of FOW. For instance a single enemy sub sending out lots of signals can pretend to be a large fleet.

Well it was sight reports, but it provided from various planes which all reported the same thing so...i got fooled. It's true i didn't get any Sub report even if i had 4 in the area.

Is that BB Richelieu in your Avatar icon? I am using BC Strasbourg!

Yush , the Richelieu Pride of our Navy during the war, one of the most modern BB of her time. I love that ship. I think the picture was taken after her visit in US shipyards (where they took some..inspiration for their own firing guidance sistem ).

[BBfanboy]

I built plastic models of both Strasbourg and Richelieu.

Somehow the French designers managed to put all the big guns forward but still got a beautiful ship. I can't say the same for British BBs Nelson and Rodney which always look like their sterns were cut short when the money ran out. I also read that the French 15" gun was the most powerful for that caliber in any navy. They also had very good protection.

It's too bad a British destroyer squadron stole Richelieu's moment of glory when they sank CA Haguro at night with torpedoes. Richelieu was on course to intercept Haguro next day. [:(]

[BlitzimX]

Indeed, for a while i think that the only ship as advanced was the Bismark, but even the Richelieu had better armament and was more manoeuverable.

Lucky for us it never felt in German's hand and the British never sank her.