Surface combat TF

[LittleJoe]

Ive been going around all my ports as the japanese and forming new task forces from combat ships just sitting around, and ive send out the 3 carriers ported in Japan and now im forming some surface and bombardment tf, and was wondering how many Battleships should be in one?

I would of thought 1 or 2 along with the usally cruisers and destroyers, but i plan to make a few more surface fleets by new year, and only have 3 BBs sitting in port so how many should i put in one fleet??

[Mr.Frag]

Need to think about it from what are you facing standpoint, not just what you are planning to hit.

Singapore has the Brits with a BB & BC that could come out and play. PI has a CA. SRA has a bunch of CL's and DD's.

Those are things you could run into ... They dictate where you want your firepower as much as where you are going to pound stuff.

Since you want odds, you would aim more BB's at Singapore ... 1 CA at PI can be countered with multiple CA's of your own.

BB's are great for chewing up airfields, but are a tad slow and run out of ammo quickly. Keep that in mind. Sending them a long ways away from where you can reload them makes them a non-threat for a while.

Once you have looked through that ... 3 per seems to be a good bet. More means less escort. Try and always keep < 10 ships for reasons of spotting. You don't want to engage only to find that your BB's don't enter the fight because you have 25 ships that are spread out all over the place.

[Captain Cruft]

If it's for bombardment the more ships the better and the bigger the guns the better.

For surface combat, there is an awful lot of randomness associated with surface battles so bigger does not necessarily mean better. Plus, in night actions, DDs and other torpedo-equipped ships can potentially defeat anything including BBs. In day actions, the big guns are much more useful.

Personally, for "raiding" I tend to form TFs of 6-8 ships composed of CAs, CLs and DDs. Possibly even just CLs and DDs if no CAs are around.

[LittleJoe]

Thanks guys

[Toro]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft
Personally, for "raiding" I tend to form TFs of 6-8 ships composed of CAs, CLs and DDs. Possibly even just CLs and DDs if no CAs are around.

Unless, as Mr Frag notes, you're hitting an airfield. BBs do wonders against based a/c.

Also consider whether there's a CD unit or two in the target hex.

[Captain Cruft]

By "raiding" I mean going after enemy ships. If you look, for bombardments I say "as much as possible and as big as possible".