Night time naval attack

[Full Moon]

Do bombers ever attack ships at night? Even if I set bombers for night time naval attack, they never do it.
I know IJN developed night time naval attack tactic with Betty and Nell in real life.

[Mr.Frag]

The issue is with detection level (DL). Without something setting the detection level above 0, your planes are not going to go off and attack. Remember, there is no air search phase during the night part of the turn. Something else needs to spot for you to get a DL set above 0 so your planes have a target as I understood DL vs MDL.

While a unit can have a MDL above 0 due to how it shifts towards 0 slower then DH, DH is automatically set to 0 at the start of each phase. The unit must do one of the actions that causes a DL increase to happen before your planes would have a target.

This is covered in section 14.1 in the manual if you want more details on it. I am not really sure, but I assume that is why night air attacks are so rare.

[Full Moon]

Actually when IJN sank Chicago by night time attack with Betty and Nell, they launched them before sun set based on spot report around 4:00 PM. So search planes spotted Chicago before sun set and they lauched Betty and Nell also before sun set and they attacked Chicago after sun set around 8:00 PM.

[Mr.Frag]

Yep, thats the MDL level decaying slowly ... as modelled in UV.

[crsutton]

SBD operating out of the Canal frequently hit Tokyo express runs at night. In fact Japanese high command severely curtailed operations in the two weeks of the month when the moon was brightest as ships could be spotted in full moonlight fairly easily.

[Drongo]

Posted by Full Moon

Do bombers ever attack ships at night? Even if I set bombers for night time naval attack, they never do it.

Do you mean something like this?
**************************************************
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/12/43

Weather: Clear

Sub attack near Momote at 10,23

Japanese Ships
BB Ise

Allied Ships
SS Greenling


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on Momote , at 10,23

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 3

Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 14

no losses

no losses

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 20

Runway hits 2


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF, near Momote at 10,23

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 3

Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 20
P-70A Havoc x 7

no losses

Allied aircraft losses
PBY Catalina x 2 destroyed
PBY Catalina x 18 damaged
P-70A Havoc x 3 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Ise, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Yamashiro, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
*******************************
These attacks all occured during the turn's night phase. A Jap surface combat force were spotted in Momote harbour the day before. 3 elite (80+ exp) Catalina squadrons were shifted to allied held Madang and dutifully attacked during the night phase.

One squadron was used as a "pathfinder" for the other 2 by making an attack against the port. When they made the port attack, they sighted the IJN ships which was enough to trigger the night naval attack by the other 2 Catalina squadrons during the same phase. So yes, they can attack. You just have to set up the proper conditions. The P-70s just came along for the ride, as usual (they are not needed for the attack to work, the Catalinas on there own will do the trick despite not having radar).

Couple of things to note for night naval attack success -
1) Do not waste your time expecting to attack enemy TFs other than those that are at a base.
2) Slipping a sub into the same port as an enemy TF will help trigger a night naval air strike (sub acts as a spotter).
3) Despite the resetting of the DLs to 0 before a night phase, prior daylight air recon missions of the enemy port will help keep up the MDL of any enemy TF sitting at the location. While it wont trigger a night air attack, it does help the strike in finding and hitting the enemy TF. Heavy use of daylight naval search missions on the prior turn will also benefit your attack.
4) The closer your strike base is to the enemy TF, the better.
5) Finally (and most important of all), have at least one other friendly squadron from the same friendly base (as the squadrons on night naval strike) set to make a night port attack on the enemy base containing the enemy TF. This one is critical as, if the squadron attacking the port is experienced, its sighting report will have a good chance of triggering the night naval strike.

As expected, to have a good chance to deliver an effective night attack, use aircraft with an experience of at least 75, preferably a lot more. The "Night Cats" from the AAR all had experience in the 80's to 90's (after about 6 months of game play, most Catalina squadrons should have sufficient experience for night attacks, even if they had spent the whole time just doing naval search).

The allies also get an extra advantage in the form of Coastwatchers. Their sightings (increase target DL) will occur at the start of the night phase, increasing the chance of a naval strike occuring during the night air phase.

I have had a fair amount of success with the Jap night naval strikes as well. In a PBEM game, the allies were operating a large number of TFs out of Luganville (which was protected by heavy CAP). My LBA (Bettys and Nells) were based at Lunga. The distance between the 2 bases made triggering a night naval strike difficult but by setting some of my squadrons to port attack and slipping subs into Luganville harbour, I managed to get off about 1 (large) naval strike a week for about a month. The results were not as spectacular as those that can be gained in daylight but losses to AA was far less than a daylight mission and his night CAP failed to cause any real casualties. Non combat operational losses from night missions, however, must be taken into consideration when planning operations under the current 2.3 version of UV.

Hope this helps.

[Chiteng]

I think the funniest post I have ever seen was:

Alas Drongo chum
Ack ack guns useless


etc etc

I can remember the whole text. But when I see Drongo post I burst into laughter.

[Drongo]

Posted by Chiteng

I can remember the whole text. But when I see Drongo post I burst into laughter.

Glad to be of service.

[Chiteng]

Originally posted by Drongo
Posted by Chiteng


Glad to be of service.

Alas Drongo, mate
Shipload of fine AA guns
Was sunk by a sub



here is the original text

[SoulBlazer]

Well, thanks for the info -- I'll have to try to use this. Maybe then I ca finally use those useless night fighters.