Attacking ships in port

[baronvonmunchausen]

Hi,

In my second poem game I am in, I am trying to destroy my evil opponent's ships in port.
The only result has been the destruction of my air and naval assets.
I have tried with : medium bombers with level 1 naval, maritime bombers with level 1, battleships with level 1 naval, and carrier planes with level 1. They seem to just bounce off.
What is happening?
What is the best way to go about this?

Dazed and confused Munchausen

[petedalby]

Are your carriers set to 'Bombers'?

They and Maritime & Medium Bombers should be most effective. Capital ships will attack the port itself with only a small percentage chance of damaging the enemy vessel.

[Bavre]

What level of AA does the target ship have? Does the port itself have AA upgrades?

[Tanaka]

Hi,

In my second poem game I am in, I am trying to destroy my evil opponent's ships in port.
The only result has been the destruction of my air and naval assets.
I have tried with : medium bombers with level 1 naval, maritime bombers with level 1, battleships with level 1 naval, and carrier planes with level 1. They seem to just bounce off.
What is happening?
What is the best way to go about this?

Dazed and confused Munchausen

That's very strange I find it very difficult to keep anything in port now. In my last PBEM I lost ship after ship trying to keep any of the German navy in France...

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

Depends on many factors.

1) Strength of the port. Strongest is Japanese home ports, strength 12. Those are nasty. Imagine costal guns, sub nets, embedded costal waters, mines, advanced aerial spotting tech. British got there 12 & 10. Kiel is a 12. If there's time, park two ships outside, bring Calcutta and Libyan ports to their knees. Then those calling the port home, will get soft.

2) Anti-Air for the Ship and Port. Tech makes it immediately worse for the attacker.

3) What are you attacking with? some half-strength Medium Bomber w/ no Tech and garbage supply ain't gonna to much. In contrast, how about high morale, Elite Japanese trained Carrier thrashing Pearl Harbor.

4) Multiple attacks by weak units against good defense is suicide. Weather hinders.

[HarrySmith]

All the above points are correct, I would only add that HQ attachment makes a huge difference for land based air.

[baronvonmunchausen]

Hi thank you for your thoughtful replies.

I did not know that port size affected its defence value. makes perfect sense.

In my current Pbem game, I tried for a couple of turns to attack Port Said and Alexandria, which are stength 5 ports, with a CV in one and I think a cruiser in the other. with italian med bomber level 1, with an HQ (and a fighter escort) at 7 supply. It just bounced of many times, taking damage. Probably should not have attacked again the following turn with units at now at lower strength, but I was angry
I also tried with a non HQ supported level 1 german naval bomber full strength initially, same thing.

Ennemy units are at 1 AA, so I suppose the port is also, but perhaps I am misstaken. I wonder if after attacking a port and clicking on it I can see the AA value.

In another game, I tried to attack Tobruk with CV s on bomber mode with again level 1 naval, and they also bounced off.

Perhaps I am incredibly unlucky

[Feinder]

Oh man. One of met pet frustrations. Wecome to my world. All good suggestions above.

1. Dont bother bombarding.
2. Lots of bombs, is usually what is necessary.
3. If the enemy has expended all their intercepts, you can switch your CVs bomber mode, but it also means they wont have CAP the next turn, so be careful and consider that before switching your CVs to bomber.

[Bavre]

Hi thank you for your thoughtful replies.

I did not know that port size affected its defence value. makes perfect sense.

In my current Pbem game, I tried for a couple of turns to attack Port Said and Alexandria, which are stength 5 ports, with a CV in one and I think a cruiser in the other. with italian med bomber level 1, with an HQ (and a fighter escort) at 7 supply. It just bounced of many times, taking damage. Probably should not have attacked again the following turn with units at now at lower strength, but I was angry
I also tried with a non HQ supported level 1 german naval bomber full strength initially, same thing.

Ennemy units are at 1 AA, so I suppose the port is also, but perhaps I am misstaken. I wonder if after attacking a port and clicking on it I can see the AA value.

In another game, I tried to attack Tobruk with CV s on bomber mode with again level 1 naval, and they also bounced off.

Perhaps I am incredibly unlucky

It's not the ports strength that defines its defensive bonus, but its type. What Elvis meant was that the biggest ones are easily recognizeable by having max strength 12 (instead of 10 like the others).

A ports defensive bonuses can be easily looked up. Just select one of your own of the same type and open properties. The left column gives the bonuses to units in port, the right the defense of the port, should itself be the target.
Selecting the lvl 1 AA upgrade for your port (but not confirming it) tells you what each level gives in additional defensive bonuses. That way you can calculate the enemy ports bonus, provided you know its AA lvl. The AA lvl can be seen by either moving a unit next to the enemy port, or bombing it once and then pressing the button that temporarily hides the units on the map.

The italian bombers level one (assuming it bomber tech one) also does not help at all vs ships. Therefore you need naval tech one. Just open the bombers properties and check the numbers.

The final piece is your bombers readiness. It is affected by Hqs, supply etc..., but a units immidiate power is really just stats*readiness (well and XP).

[baronvonmunchausen]

Got it.
I'm just amazed at how hard it is to hit a ship in port with all this arsenal. But taking all your points one by one, I guess I can make my piece with this.