ORIGINAL: Charles_22
ORIGINAL: goodboyladdie
I continually use my Allied subs to lay mines in enemy ports. Aggressive skippers (with good Naval skill) often attack Jap ships while they are there. Targeting ports makes a lot of sense as you can guarantee some ships will end their turns in a port hex. It means that the Jap player is forced to run MSW tfs all over the place to try to keep his ports clear and also has to deploy ASW and LBA assets away from the front to try to stop you. It is proving to be more effective than setting up mobile patrol lines at choke points up to and including May '43 and I'd imagine it will remain effective as long as I keep an eye on where he is placing mines/ASW. It must be infuriating to load a ship, get it all the way to the receiving port only to have most of the cargo destroyed in a mine strike[:D]...
The other benefit is that the subs gain a lot of experience as a lot of transits to and from MLEs are involved.
It can be something of a problem though, especially with a major port, because the ship may be pretty difficult to destroy with major repair facilities readily available. Considering that, and the likelihood of major ASW forces around such ports, it would probably be more productive to sink them in the ordinary way at sea, or to mine ports which are more minor. I wouldn't dream of using the IJN subs on mining major ports. They have enough difficulty often enough from what I've seen getting away from the more minor ports unscathed.
Actually to be most effective in sub minelaying, my thoughts are that it's strategically of more importance also to not only pick a more minor port, but to also make sure that same port isn't being stalked by your own subs nearby. The idea is to cause the ASW assets to be spread more thinly, and in having patrolling ordinary mission subs nearby would be to quite possibly draw more traffic to the same port.
Funnily enough - I am happy to fill his yards up with ships that are damaged approaching/leaving port. If his yards are clogged with transports they are not repairing warships very quickly and are using up plenty of supply which could be used in production. The subs get in and out in one turn and the only losses/damage over six months of this strategy have been to mines (1 loss and 3 damaged I think for loads of mine hits and many successful torpedo and gun attacks). I am managing to keep most his major ports in the HI and DEI/PI/Indochina mined.
