Invasion Fleets

[jamesjohns]

When invading an island, what is the composition of task forces that you have?

A few specific's

In the amphip task force do you add cruisers, BB's for fire support in the same amphip TF, and maybe draw fire to themselves away from troop carrying ships OR do you have them in a separate bombardment TF?

Do you have any escort carriers doing ground support and/or CAP in the same hex but separate TF or do you have them stay back a hex, away from the invasion hex?

[rms1pa]

yes to BBs in the anphib TF.

if it takes multiple turns to unload be prepared to swap in some BBs with ammo.

CVEs can operate from same/base hex without penalty but CVL/CVs should be back a hex or two.

of course you want some minesweeper task forces and bombardment TFs and ASW and fighter cover and level bombers and some extra amphib supply TFs.

there is no overkill here, only "open fire" and reloading.

oh yes, lots of recon too.

rms/pa

[rustysi]

If you are playing as the Japanese be aware that Bombardment TF's may damage some valuable property. IOW if you bombard a target with oil, refineries, resources, etc. they may be damaged by the bombardment. I prefer to keep my heavy ship units in the amphib TF, and as stated have some to swap in if needed. Then again in a high value base you don't want to be fighting for several turns if you can avoid it.

[BattleMoose]

I would set a SAG to "follow" the invasion task force, in case of interception, has a chance to interdict the intercepting enemy fleet. Also keep a few heavy ships in the invasion fleet, primarily in case of interception in my opinion.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

If you are playing as the Japanese be aware that Bombardment TF's may damage some valuable property. IOW if you bombard a target with oil, refineries, resources, etc. they may be damaged by the bombardment. I prefer to keep my heavy ship units in the amphib TF, and as stated have some to swap in if needed. Then again in a high value base you don't want to be fighting for several turns if you can avoid it.

As noted, trade-off involved. As IJ, you need to take things quickly and bombardment helps. OTOH, bombardment can damage installations. The former usually outweighs the latter for me, but YMMV. It is a player decision and with the rolls involved I don't think there is a clear right/wrong here.

[Dragoastro]

There is a very good thread with lots of details on this. I highly recommend finding it. I think there could be 3 types of approaches: 1) Targets that have no stacking limits.
2) Fast and dirty approach, for an atoll, you come in with alot, capture immediately, and have TFs to immediately remove your troops over stacking limits.
3) slow and steady, you keep your force under stacking limits, and have many in hex reserves to swap damaged units out and replace them with fresh units.
I am just paraphrasing, can't look up the original thread right now, which is much more detailed and useful.