I400 -Sieran TT attack, yes they do work

[Cavalry Corp]

PBEM SCN 2 LATE FEB44 2 day turns
I400 is a fun ship to get into play-
I400 is with various other subs with Glens looking for unescorted TF.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Cooktown at 96,136

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 27 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Japanese aircraft
M6A1 Seiran x 3

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
AK Deimos, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Allied ground losses:
Vehicles lost 3 (2 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x M6A1 Seiran launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo

So even though naval attack has the TT in red - it still works BUT the I400 has no TT stock as such so I have no idea what TT they are using.
The Glens spotted the TF and all the seirans were naval attack with TT.

[Dili]

Results of overpowered sea search Glen and underpowerd port recon Glen.

Glen historically was mostly employed for land(read port recon), in game they are almost useless while doing port recon and too good at sea search like if they could be in the air all day.

As an example when the IJN sent the submarine picket patrol ahead of Midway operation, not one was a submarine with Glens. Because they were difficult to employ for sea search as most players do.

[Cavalry Corp]

OK so a house rule would be to say restrict glen to say 2 hexes? The attack I think was at 3 hexes and the Glen spotted at 2 I think...
I do however think that these subs were build for ops at sea just like all othe FP on ships.

I always read that the allied FP recon was actually never that good and Jap always better - cannot remember where. Maybe its just the range of the Glen.

Anyway my post was about the I400

[crsutton]

Probably should be disallowed in a HR as this sort of attack really was not feasible. It is hard for me to imagine the sea and air conditions alone that would be suited for a float plane to get up into the air with a torpedo. Not to mention the logistical issues associated with arming them (but I don't know about those subs). However, as the Allied player, I don't think I would mind tossing an occasional holiday gift to my Japanese opponent so would not care much. He is going to be eating so many Allied bombs come 1944 anyways...[;)]

[Cavalry Corp]

The Japanese may have lost the war but they were clever. If it could not have been done they would not have built the sub. I read it was 1960 before there was a bigger sub than I400.

[Feltan]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Probably should be disallowed in a HR as this sort of attack really was not feasible. It is hard for me to imagine the sea and air conditions alone that would be suited for a float plane to get up into the air with a torpedo. Not to mention the logistical issues associated with arming them (but I don't know about those subs). However, as the Allied player, I don't think I would mind tossing an occasional holiday gift to my Japanese opponent so would not care much. He is going to be eating so many Allied bombs come 1944 anyways...[;)]

+1

Regards,
Feltan

[Dili]

The Seiran were build for this. They were designed as a submarine attack aircraft and one of the objective was to attack Panama Canal. They were catapulted from the submarine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_M6A


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine

[Dili]

ORIGINAL: cavalry

OK so a house rule would be to say restrict glen to say 2 hexes? The attack I think was at 3 hexes and the Glen spotted at 2 I think...
I do however think that these subs were build for ops at sea just like all othe FP on ships.

I always read that the allied FP recon was actually never that good and Jap always better - cannot remember where. Maybe its just the range of the Glen.

Anyway my post was about the I400

Maybe but i am not sure, the issues i see is that thay detect a lot of ships, then they have too much operational durability for flying all days in a patrol.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Dili

The Seiran were build for this. They were designed as a submarine attack aircraft and one of the objective was to attack Panama Canal. They were catapulted from the submarine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_M6A


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine

Have an in progress build of one underway now and you beat me to the statement regarding the catapult.

I know the assembly instructions have a drawing depicting how the torps were reloaded into the submarine.

I'll bring the instructions to work next Monday and scan them so I can post a pic.

Can't recall if the instruction include stats on torp capacity.

[Lowpe]

It is hard to analyze how much enjoyment a bombed out JFB gets enjoyment from something as little as hitting a lowly merchant ship in 1944. Let him have some fun.[:)] I shudder to think of all those ship points being spent to accelerate that ship to arrive in Jan of 44.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Dili

The Seiran were build for this. They were designed as a submarine attack aircraft and one of the objective was to attack Panama Canal. They were catapulted from the submarine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_M6A


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine

Yes, they could potentially carry a torpedo but could they when operating from a sub? Would the catapult launch them with a torpedo? Hard to imagine for the reasons I said above, but I just don't have a clue.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: Dili

The Seiran were build for this. They were designed as a submarine attack aircraft and one of the objective was to attack Panama Canal. They were catapulted from the submarine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_M6A


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine

Have an in progress build of one underway now and you beat me to the statement regarding the catapult.

I know the assembly instructions have a drawing depicting how the torps were reloaded into the submarine.

I'll bring the instructions to work next Monday and scan them so I can post a pic.

Can't recall if the instruction include stats on torp capacity.

Thanks Hans. It has my interest up a bit.

[Insano]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

It is hard to analyze how much enjoyment a bombed out JFB gets enjoyment from something as little as hitting a lowly merchant ship in 1944. Let him have some fun.[:)] I shudder to think of all those ship points being spent to accelerate that ship to arrive in Jan of 44.

No kidding. That's a lot of acceleration. Though now that I say it he's doing scen 2 and I'm looking at scen 1. In scen 1 I-400 and I-401 come in around 1 Jan 45. The Seiran plane would itself need accelerated to be available at such an early date. That's a big investment but it does look like a load of fun during an otherwise dark time.

[Lowpe]

Those three planes will come with the sub, so all you have to do is accelerate the sub which is very expensive.

[Insano]

I remember an AAR where someone was terrorizing (relatively speaking) the California coast with these things. Can't remember who it was though.

[Dili]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Yes, they could potentially carry a torpedo but could they when operating from a sub? Would the catapult launch them with a torpedo? Hard to imagine for the reasons I said above, but I just don't have a clue.

This aircraft was build for this propose. Which once again shows how much bad decisions the Japanese War production had. A monstruous super expensive submarine and a niche floatplane.

[JocMeister]

Erik used them in our game. No need to HR anything. They are amusing to watch but that is about it. [:)]

Who cares if you lose a couple of xAKs in 44? Its a good laugh for both sides!

[Jorge_Stanbury]

They cost as much to build as a cruiser [X(]
A real waste of time and resources. And being that big, easy to eliminate once detected. Just think how easily were German milkcows eliminated by dedicated ASW TFs. And I 400s were 3 times bigger

[Dili]

Note that this seems to have snorkel so it is a bit different.

[Cavalry Corp]

Anyway - no one has said how many TT reloads I have as the I400 has no separate TT load like a CV? the main point of this post was for jap players within the game. Yes I did accelerate the I400.
If operating a long way from home there is always a chance they catch a ship of real importance.
So I will post on this thread the activities of I400 and see how we go.