Naval bombardments

[cirrius06]

Hi everyone.
Since the last official update, I've noticed that US mines do more damage in Japanese naval bombardments.

Yet I set the bombardment range to over 15 miles and without an escort, and in the end, I have one cruiser and one destroyer hit. Are mines normally placed at harbor entrances and between 1 and 2 miles from the coast?
What do you think?

[BBfanboy]

I don't believe the 15 miles figure. The "Standoff distance" is in yards X 1000, not miles.
Mines can be anywhere in the hex, but usually are encountered close in.

It appears your forces had not detected the minefield previously. Once a minefield is detected your ships will rarely hit one, so it is imperative to send in expendable ships or minesweepers to find the minefields before you bombard.
I believe the damage caused by the mines is modified by the difficulty setting of the game (but I have not tried the new Beta so I can't say more).

[cirrius06]

Yes BBfanboy, I made a mistake, I meant yards, not miles.

Indeed, there were no maritime reconnaissance missions in the port, and besides, I'm playing on "very hard" mode, which might explain the uncompromising nature of the action.

(I won't play on "very hard" mode again; I find it much harder for the Japanese player than the Allied ones.)
Thanks, BBfanboy, for your explanation.

[cirrius06]

Hi everyone,
I'm back to the topic of naval bombardments.
US bombardments with 3 CA/2 CL/6 destroyers inflicted far more damage on airfields and ports than Japanese bombardments with 4 BB and 10 destroyers!
This was in July 1942.
I find that abnormal.

[btd64]

Hi everyone,
I'm back to the topic of naval bombardments.
US bombardments with 3 CA/2 CL/6 destroyers inflicted far more damage on airfields and ports than Japanese bombardments with 4 BB and 10 destroyers!
This was in July 1942.
I find that abnormal.

Luck with the dice, weather, terrain, etc....GP

[Bo Rearguard]

Luck with the dice, weather, terrain, etc....GP

In addition to these factors we're missing a lot of details. Were both bombardment targets identical in size and number of aircraft stationed there? Did both take place at night? If at night what were the moon conditions? Identical ranges? Did either side encounter surface forces or naval batteries? Did both sides deploy float planes to spot shellfire? Is this observation based on one set of bombardments or an ongoing series of bombardments?

[cirrius06]

to "Bo Rearguard"

Outre ces facteurs, de nombreux détails nous manquent. Les deux cibles de bombardement étaient-elles identiques en taille et en nombre d'avions stationnés ? Les deux bombardements ont-ils eu lieu de nuit ? Si oui, quelles étaient les conditions lunaires ? Les distances étaient-elles identiques ? L'un ou l'autre camp a-t-il rencontré des forces de surface ou des batteries navales ? Les deux camps ont-ils déployé des hydravions pour repérer les tirs d'artillerie ? Cette observation se fonde-t-elle sur un seul bombardement ou sur une série de bombardements continus ?

I bombed Lunganville, held by my US adversary, at night. The port and base were size 1 and 2. He bombed Roi-Namur, a size 3 port and base, at night.

Indeed, I had more aircraft stationed there than he did (approximately 60 compared to about 20).

However, I didn't hit any of the ten or so cargo ships stationed in the port of Lunganville, while all of my dozen cargo ships and support vessels at Roi-Namur were hit by my US adversary.

I had reconnaissance aircraft; I don't know about him, but neither side had any coastal defenses.
My results were 10 ships damaged or sunk, and 15 aircraft destroyed, while he had no ships hit and only 1 or 2 aircraft destroyed!

[btd64]

to "Bo Rearguard"

Outre ces facteurs, de nombreux détails nous manquent. Les deux cibles de bombardement étaient-elles identiques en taille et en nombre d'avions stationnés ? Les deux bombardements ont-ils eu lieu de nuit ? Si oui, quelles étaient les conditions lunaires ? Les distances étaient-elles identiques ? L'un ou l'autre camp a-t-il rencontré des forces de surface ou des batteries navales ? Les deux camps ont-ils déployé des hydravions pour repérer les tirs d'artillerie ? Cette observation se fonde-t-elle sur un seul bombardement ou sur une série de bombardements continus ?

I bombed Lunganville, held by my US adversary, at night. The port and base were size 1 and 2. He bombed Roi-Namur, a size 3 port and base, at night.

Indeed, I had more aircraft stationed there than he did (approximately 60 compared to about 20).

However, I didn't hit any of the ten or so cargo ships stationed in the port of Lunganville, while all of my dozen cargo ships and support vessels at Roi-Namur were hit by my US adversary.

I had reconnaissance aircraft; I don't know about him, but neither side had any coastal defenses.
My results were 10 ships damaged or sunk, and 15 aircraft destroyed, while he had no ships hit and only 1 or 2 aircraft destroyed!

What is the date? USN might of had radar directed gunnery....GP

[cirrius06]

to "Bo Rearguard"

What is the date? USN might of had radar directed gunnery....GP

... july 42

Thank you for your help.

[RangerJoe]

The DL of the target, the amount of munitions fired since the BBs carry fewer rounds with fewer guns that the CLs and the CAs, Gary Grigsby's die rolls, the captains of the ships, whether or not the escorts bombarded, the fortification level of the targets, the number of ships at the target, the number of aircraft at the target, and so on . . .

[btd64]

Also the size of the port, airfield. The bigger it is the easier to hit....GP

[Chris21wen]

to "Bo Rearguard"

Outre ces facteurs, de nombreux détails nous manquent. Les deux cibles de bombardement étaient-elles identiques en taille et en nombre d'avions stationnés ? Les deux bombardements ont-ils eu lieu de nuit ? Si oui, quelles étaient les conditions lunaires ? Les distances étaient-elles identiques ? L'un ou l'autre camp a-t-il rencontré des forces de surface ou des batteries navales ? Les deux camps ont-ils déployé des hydravions pour repérer les tirs d'artillerie ? Cette observation se fonde-t-elle sur un seul bombardement ou sur une série de bombardements continus ?

I bombed Lunganville, held by my US adversary, at night. The port and base were size 1 and 2. He bombed Roi-Namur, a size 3 port and base, at night.

Indeed, I had more aircraft stationed there than he did (approximately 60 compared to about 20).

However, I didn't hit any of the ten or so cargo ships stationed in the port of Lunganville, while all of my dozen cargo ships and support vessels at Roi-Namur were hit by my US adversary.

I had reconnaissance aircraft; I don't know about him, but neither side had any coastal defenses.
My results were 10 ships damaged or sunk, and 15 aircraft destroyed, while he had no ships hit and only 1 or 2 aircraft destroyed!

How do you know you didn't hit anything? Just because the game routines didn't report them as hit doesn't mean they were not FOW. Plus other stuff mention above. Also, bombardment isn't specifically aiming at ships, airbases, base structures or anything else. Luck of the draw on whats hits. Then there's Detection Level (DL), if it's poor you will hit little and for any bombardment you should put up recon a/c to improve it, usually FPs from the same TF as spotters, night or day. That's what FP on ships were for, well that and search.

[cirrius06]

To "RangerJo"

The DL of the target, the amount of munitions fired since the BBs carry fewer rounds with fewer guns that the CLs and the CAs, Gary Grigsby's die rolls, the captains of the ships, whether or not the escorts bombarded, the fortification level of the targets, the number of ships at the target, the number of aircraft at the target, and so on . . .

Indeed, there are a multitude of parameters that can affect the outcome.

But this isn't my first PBEM; I've played about ten in the last 12 years, but almost always modded versions (RHS, DaBabes, Reluctant...).
However, this is my first time with the latest official version, and my opponent isn't very communicative either.
There's also something else I'm thinking about: it's also the first time I've played on "very hard" mode.
So perhaps the information and reconnaissance are less reliable?

To "Chris21wen"

How do you know you didn't hit anything? Just because the game routines didn't report them as hit doesn't mean they were not FOW. Plus other stuff mention above. Also, bombardment isn't specifically aiming at ships, airbases, base structures or anything else. Luck of the draw on whats hits. Then there's Detection Level (DL), if it's poor you will hit little and for any bombardment you should put up recon a/c to improve it, usually FPs from the same TF as spotters, night or day. That's what FP on ships were for, well that and search.

Yes, there were reconnaissance missions carried out by my "Mavis" every day well before the attack.
However, I only place reconnaissance missions from attacking ships using their embarked seaplanes during the day, never at night. Do you think it would be useful to put the embarked seaplanes in night mode ?

[btd64]

Night recon is best. At a 0 range....GP

[BBfanboy]

Night recon is best. At a 0 range....GP

Correct. If you want to have a Spotter aircraft it must be set at night (when virtually all bombardments begin), Recon mission and 0 Range. This must be the FP on the largest, most powerful ship in the TF that will fire first (not necessarily the flagship). If you are not sure which fires first, set all the FPs to night recon. You will see a line at the start of the Combat Report details saying a FP is spotting for (ship name). It spots for the whole TF.

If you set the TF to "Remain on station" there is a chance that it will bombard during the day too. This is usually only effective if you have a 4+ large ships bombarding because some of them will still have some ammo left after the night phase. You can set some of the other TF FPs to day Recon of the target but they will not show up as spotting aircraft in the CR.

If there is no naval fort nor coastal defence arty unit, your bombarding ships can close in without being shot at (mines are another story). Set your standoff distance to 1 (1000 yards) to get as close as possible. Leaving that setting at 0 uses the default standoff distance for the ship type (BB/BC, CA, CL, DD).

[pbiggar]

BBFanboy - I did not know about setting the range to 1, otherwise the TF defaults to ship standoff range. Good to know!

[BBfanboy]

BBFanboy - I did not know about setting the range to 1, otherwise the TF defaults to ship standoff range. Good to know!

I owe that one to Chris21wen!

[cirrius06]

by btd64 »

Night recon is best. At a 0 range....GP

By BBFanboy,

Correct. If you want to have a Spotter aircraft it must be set at night (when virtually all bombardments begin), Recon mission and 0 Range. This must be the FP on the largest, most powerful ship in the TF that will fire first (not necessarily the flagship). If you are not sure which fires first, set all the FPs to night recon. You will see a line at the start of the Combat Report details saying a FP is spotting for (ship name). It spots for the whole TF.

If you set the TF to "Remain on station" there is a chance that it will bombard during the day too. This is usually only effective if you have a 4+ large ships bombarding because some of them will still have some ammo left after the night phase. You can set some of the other TF FPs to day Recon of the target but they will not show up as spotting aircraft in the CR.

If there is no naval fort nor coastal defence arty unit, your bombarding ships can close in without being shot at (mines are another story). Set your standoff distance to 1 (1000 yards) to get as close as possible. Leaving that setting at 0 uses the default standoff distance for the ship type (BB/BC, CA, CL, DD).
Re: Naval bombardments
by btd64 » Mon Dec 22, 2025 1:07 pm

Thanks a lot, guys.
I've always bombed between 12,000 and 15,000 yards to avoid potential mines, and I didn't know all the things you wrote... My results are definitely going to change.