Naval attack at night?

[Kizsam]

Hi

I have set up Jap and US aircombat TF in the tutorial scenario. All the planes on the Jap TF have night naval attack as their mission, with the fighter are on night - sweep. The US TF has all planes set to training ( so that they don't spoil my fun [:D]). Both TF are parked right next to one another just south of Guam. All Jap land based aircraft are set to naval search 100% on the surrounding islands, to try to get maximum DL. Morale of the pilots on the Jap CVs is around 80.

I have sat these two TFs next to each other for a week and the Jap planes make no attack, not even a fart. Is there something I am missing here? Or is it simply not possible to make a night attack from a CV?

Thanks.

[Xargun]

I believe it is possible to make night attacks off CVs but I know its not easy getting units to attack from land at night so attacking from CVs is probably even harder - less chance. Maybe they cannot do it due to the difficulty of landing on a CV in the dark... Have to wait for a beta to answer this..

Xargun

[Kizsam]

Hi

I think it is a DL thing. I put both TFs in the same hex and they still didn't attack after sitting there for a week. The Jap TF finally ran out of fuel after two and a half weeks so while it was heading back to Palau I made up about ten subpatrol TFs for the Japs and sent them along to sit in the hex with the US carrier TF. After refueling I sent the Jap carriers back to the US TF, it got to within three hexes and launched an attack(subs were in position by this time). The Japs continued to attack every turn thereafter.

What I have figured is that the DL is set to zero at the beginning of the night phase. No naval search fly at night, so you get no detection there. Therefore, the only chance of detection is coast watchers or subs (still need to test the coastwatcher theory). However, this does not seems to apply to surface combat TFs, which will enter combat at night on a regular basis regardless of subs and coast watchers. So I guess the level of detection needs to be higher to launch a naval attack mission with air units...

What are the chances of two carrier groups, sitting in a 60 mile radius for two weeks, not knowing that each other were there, day or night? Oh well, back to the game [:)]

Regards

[Captain Cruft]

If the enemy TF is in a base you can fly a night port attack against that base to bump the DL up. Also, as I understand it, night naval attacks _may_ be triggered purely on the MDL value. Again, if the TF is at a base, you can recon the base heavily which puts the DL and therefore MDL up a lot more than simple naval search.

[AmiralLaurent]

In UV, I have never seen Vals or Kates launch a night naval attack, only floatplanes (PBY, H6K, H8K) and B-26.

[Captain Cruft]

In WitP so far I have seen only Blenheims and Hudsons do it ...

[MengCiao]

As the Japs in the Campaign game, I have had Kates make night attacks off of light carriers (one hit the AS Canopus off San Jose in the Phillipines) and Lilies make night attacks from land (one blew up a PT boat off Manila even)....so it is possible. I set them to 3000 feet and the area was heavily patrolled by day.

[DJAndrews]

Playing the Mariannas scenario I've found that land-based Frances and Emilies perform night naval attacks on a regular basis (say about 30-40% of the time). They never hit anything, but then they never hit anything in the daylight either (they rarely survive the air cover to make their attack).

I've had absolutely no luck with night attacks by CV-based a/c, whether against naval targets or defined bases/ground units.

[Captain Cruft]

ORIGINAL: DJAndrews
Playing the Mariannas scenario I've found that land-based Frances and Emilies perform night naval attacks on a regular basis (say about 30-40% of the time). They never hit anything, but then they never hit anything in the daylight either (they rarely survive the air cover to make their attack).

That's good to know. I'd guess that if their exp was 75+ or so they would be getting hits.