Night Naval Battles

[SoulBlazer]

Well, I guess UV DOES take into account the Allies improving at night battles as the game wears on. I just got my *** handed to me in a series of battles.

The sitaation -- it's late June 1943 and in my game with Drex the one major advanatge I've had is in naval power. I recently sent down ships to start fast evac's of troops from Nevea, and they did a little fighting. Since then, the base has been pounded day and night by Drex and he knows I'll do it again. So I organized my ships in Rabul to have the best chance to bust through.

So, I organized two different kinds of fleets for the next Fast Transport Run -- smaller fleets of six ships, with a light cruiser or two and the rest destroyers, to pull out the smaller units, and larger fleets of 12-15 ships, with heavy and light cruisers, to get the larger ones. I made sure all the ships could make 34-31 knots, and then sent out all at once -- seven fleets with about 50 ships.

I figured the heavier fleets would fight with the Americans and bust through. There were good admirals in command, the ships were healthy and trained, and I counted on the Long Lancers inflicting major pain. Some of the ships even had radar!

Well, it all went for naught. It seems Drex knew I was coming because he had at least two if not three fleets there at port waiting for me to pull my troops out. And for some reason, the SMALLER fleet units did all the fighting, not the heavy ones. Maybe I should have attached a Surface Combat fleet to one of the FT fleets to make sure THAT one fought, but I suspect the Allies had too many ships there for one TF to do all of the fighting.

Here's the results:

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Nevea at 50,43

Japanese Ships
CL Naka, Shell hits 22, on fire, heavy damage
CL Tenryu, Shell hits 51, on fire, heavy damage
CL Yubari, Shell hits 7
DD Arashio, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Yukaze, Shell hits 18, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Helena, Shell hits 5
CL Phoenix, Shell hits 1
CL Cleveland
CL Columbia
CL Denver, Shell hits 1
CL Santa Fe, Shell hits 1
DD Nicholas
DD Strong, Shell hits 1
DD Stanly
DD Cony
DD Stevens
DD Converse
DD Wadsworth, Shell hits 2
DD Balch


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Night Time Surface Combat at 0,0

Japanese Ships
CL Naka, Shell hits 47, and is sunk
CL Tenryu, and is sunk
CL Yubari, Shell hits 37, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Helena
CL Phoenix
CL Cleveland, Shell hits 1
CL Columbia
CL Denver
CL Santa Fe
DD Nicholas
DD Strong
DD Stanly
DD Cony
DD Stevens
DD Converse
DD Wadsworth
DD Balch


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Night Time Surface Combat, near Nevea at 50,43

Japanese Ships
CL Sendai, Shell hits 12, on fire
DD Hatakaze, Shell hits 1
DD Oite, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Akikaze, Shell hits 25, and is sunk
DD Namikaze, Shell hits 18, on fire, heavy damage
DD Numakaze, Shell hits 14, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
CL Helena, Shell hits 4
CL Phoenix, Shell hits 1
CL Cleveland, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Columbia
CL Denver, Shell hits 1
CL Santa Fe
DD Nicholas
DD Strong
DD Stanly
DD Cony, Shell hits 1
DD Stevens
DD Converse
DD Wadsworth
DD Balch, Shell hits 1, on fire


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Night Time Surface Combat at 0,0

Japanese Ships
CL Sendai, Shell hits 35, and is sunk
DD Hatakaze, Shell hits 18, and is sunk
DD Oite, Shell hits 32, and is sunk
DD Namikaze, and is sunk
DD Numakaze, Shell hits 32, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Helena
CL Phoenix
CL Cleveland, on fire
CL Columbia
CL Denver
CL Santa Fe
DD Nicholas
DD Strong
DD Stanly
DD Cony
DD Stevens
DD Converse
DD Wadsworth
DD Balch, on fire


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Night Time Surface Combat, near Nevea at 50,43

Japanese Ships
DD Minegumo, Shell hits 17, and is sunk
DD Kasumi, Shell hits 21, and is sunk
DD Isonami, Shell hits 22, on fire, heavy damage
DD Shirayuki, Shell hits 20, and is sunk
DD Fumizuki, Shell hits 25, and is sunk
DD Harukaze, Shell hits 16, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Helena
CL Phoenix
CL Cleveland, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Columbia, Shell hits 1
CL Denver
CL Santa Fe
DD Nicholas
DD Strong
DD Stanly
DD Cony
DD Stevens
DD Converse
DD Wadsworth
DD Balch, on fire


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Night Time Surface Combat at 0,0

Japanese Ships
DD Isonami, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CA Shropshire
CA Canberra
CL Birmingham
CL Mobile
DD Spence
DD Anthony
DD Daly
DD Claxton
DD Aulick
DD Dyson
DMS Dorsey


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Night Time Surface Combat, near Nevea at 50,43

Japanese Ships
DD Maikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Urakaze, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
DD Nowaki, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Arashi, Shell hits 4
DD Asashio, Shell hits 1
DD Yamagumo, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
CA Shropshire, Shell hits 1
CA Canberra, Shell hits 1
CL Birmingham
CL Mobile, Shell hits 2
DD Spence
DD Anthony
DD Daly
DD Claxton
DD Aulick
DD Dyson
DMS Dorsey


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Night Time Surface Combat, near Nevea at 50,43

Japanese Ships
DD Maikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Urakaze, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Nowaki, on fire
DD Arashi, Shell hits 41, on fire, heavy damage
DD Asashio
DD Yamagumo, Shell hits 1, on fire

Allied Ships
CA Shropshire
CA Canberra
CL Birmingham
CL Mobile
DD Spence
DD Anthony
DD Daly
DD Claxton
DD Aulick
DD Dyson
DMS Dorsey


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Night Time Surface Combat, near Nevea at 50,43

Japanese Ships
DD Takanami, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Onami, Shell hits 1
DD Hayanami, Shell hits 9, on fire
DD Kagero, Shell hits 43, and is sunk
DD Kuroshio, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Hatsukaze, Shell hits 9, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
CA Shropshire
CA Canberra, Shell hits 3
CL Birmingham, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Mobile
DD Spence
DD Anthony
DD Daly
DD Claxton
DD Aulick
DD Dyson
DMS Dorsey


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Naval bombardment of Nevea, at 50,43

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 12

Airbase hits 3
Runway hits 46
Port hits 2
Port supply hits 2


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Air attack on TF at 48,41


Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 4
P-39D Airacobra x 6


no losses

Japanese Ships
DD Urakaze, on fire, heavy damage


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Air attack on TF at 48,41


Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 8
P-39D Airacobra x 42
P-40E Kittyhawk x 29


no losses

Japanese Ships
DD Urakaze, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage


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Can you say OUCH? 15 DD's and 4 CL's blasted to the bottom of the ocean! And all I got in return was major damage to one Allied light cruiser!

The only good news is that the other fleets -- all my LARGE ones -- were able to pick up troops and bug out. I got over 5000 men away, but I'm going to have to go down and do it AGAIN.

Any idea how I got creamed so badly? Was my guess correct? And how to improve my chances the next time I come down?

[Raverdave]

Any chance of doing a sneak raid the turn before with your CVs to plow the road before you send in your Fast TFs ?

[SoulBlazer]

Did you see the date?

You expect me to expose the heavy units of the Combined Fleet to air strikes from FIVE naval bases plus his own carriers, where his planes (espeicly the Corsairs!) are destroying my airpower at the rate of 200+ a month?

Oh sure, Drex would love that! :p

[Drex]

drex would love that. I have my 8 CVs standing by.

[Drongo]

Posted by SoulBlazer

Any idea how I got creamed so badly? Was my guess correct? And how to improve my chances the next time I come down?

All else being equal, the normal rules for the engagement order of multiple TFs is -
1) The largest TF (in number of ships) will tend to be engaged first followed by the next largest, etc.
2) Where TFs are the same size, they will be engaged in TF number order, lowest to highest.

Got absolutely no idea why only your smallest TFs were engaged. All I can add is that which TFs get spotted by defending TFs will obviously determine who gets engaged.

I assume you wanted to get the most men out in the shortest possible time but you always face a risk when none of your TFs are surface combat.

My only suggestion would be to commit to having 1 strong surface TF with a good, aggressive leader. They will always engage first (unless neither side sees the other) and will normally engage at least the first 2 defending TFs. Even if they come off second best, they should reduce the effectiveness of the defending TFs, maybe even to the point where defenders do not engage your following FT TFs. An extra is that any damaged ships the defender takes into later battles will up the chance of your FT TFs hitting them with torps/guns during combat.

Good Luck.

[AmiralLaurent]

Is it possible that speed of the TF is taken in account ? So the smaller forces with DD and CL sailing faster than the bigger with CA arrived first and get slaugthered, the US forces then exhausted/lacking ammo not engaging the next FT forces....

If this is the case, to send 15 DD on surface duty clear the way with torpedoes may do the trick.

At this stage of the game, I will never try such a thing anyway. If US is still invading Nevea, I guess Lunga is yours. So I would keep all my ships to send surface fleet attacking the invasion fleets that he will send one day to Solomons.

And let the Nevea garnison die for the Emperor. Then avenge them with your fleet against AP laden with Allied troops.

[crsutton]

Allied experience levels do increase dramatically with successful combat. Catch a Japanese transport convoy unawares with a cruiser and DD forces and then check your experience levels. It is not unusual for an untested ship's experience level to jump 20 points.