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Well guys, the inevitable has happened. First the Japanese siezed Gilli Gilli (destroying an Aussie division in the process), then they got Zeros and Betty's onto the island. The very next week my 3 CV TF was run down by the Japanese carriers. Not much I could do against a CAP of 148 Zeros. I did manage to get a torpedo into Shokaku, but it didn't sink. No other hits on any Japanese ships. All three of my carriers went down in the first Japanese strike (the Enterprise took 5 bomb hits and 6 torpedoes), along with their aircraft.

I think the game is essentially over at this point. Betty's are now raiding Australia, Guadalcanal was taken yesterday (gametime) and I have no carriers in play (Yorktown has still not been released from Pearl).

It's been fun though. I have whole new set of theories to try out next time.

Originally posted by Nikademus



How many squadrons are we talking here? I noticed that UV does not have restrictions on the total number of groups/squadrons that a base can have but that if the total number exceeds the airfield capacity based on size that there is a operational penalty.

From what it sounds like here (500+ aircraft???!!) is this not the case?

Coo! I wish. I don't think the Allies have 500+ planes in #17 let alone 500+ fighters.

In my game Port Moresby has been developed into a level 5 airfield so I think that means it can handle 250 planes without operational penalty. However, it only has 76 AV Sup available (currently 69 due to runway damage).

I have made a command decision to overload their AV Sup and I actually have 137 aircraft stationed at the base. But the original fighter force consisted of two squadrons of Kittihawks and two squadrons of Airocobra's about 48 planes.

Once Gilli Gilli built a fighter strip I transferred the two Kittihawk squadrons there and replaced them with the Maurader Bomber squadrons from the mainland and the new Airocobra Squadrons that had just arrived at Brisbane. The Airocobra's were not stationed at Gilli Gilli until it developed a bomber strip as they have a secondary role as naval attack planes wheras the Kittihawks don't.

Gilli Gilli currently has 87 aircraft on station 35 fighters and 21 Fighter/Bombers 15 Dive Bombers and 16 Level Bombers (B26B's). Although the LB's are on temporary assignment there to try and catch that damned BB bombardment group thats annoying me.

Port Morseby currently has 137 planes on station 94 Fighter Bombers 35 Level Bombers (B26B's) and 8 Recon planes normally assigned to Naval Search duties.

On the mainland the deployment is as follows:

Cooktown: 80 Level Bombers (Beaufort; B25D; Hudson, Havoc) The Hudson's are on Naval/Ground Attack the rest are on ASW duties.

Cairns: 55 planes 7 Level Bombers (B17E) 36 Transports (Dakota's) 12 Patrol Planes (PBY)

Townsville: 23 Planes 11 Transport (Dakota's) 12 Patrol (PBY's on ASW patrol)

I'm just trying out level bombers on ASW but so far I've not actually seen them do anything (Alt 100'). I know Beauforts were used in this role but so far nothing. Although the PBY's do sometimes spot the subs.

In my game I lost all my Cv to japanese ( the last 3 quite willingly in fact ). But It give me time.

I stocked up Lunga, Tulagi and GG with troupes engeneer and CD and build them FAST to air base ratingso when the japanese finally invade L they where faced with no number advantage and a tank unit.

Against Japanese hevay CV task force dont use your CV. Send them with a AO/TK force far to the left ( 10 hex or more ) of the solomons then head to the Big SOUTH map marks and hunt there, intercepting anything coming from Truk to Rabaul/SI.

AI like to keep his CV to the same spot while withdrawing at night, so simply put all your Subs in this very hex, you will lose some but eventually rack a CV or 2.

Transfer CV air group to land base this will multiply their efficiency.

Send LBA force from different AB at different Alt.

Smaller groupes can sometimes get through without interception and playnig yoyo with interceptor help that too. Also you will eventually run them out of Ack-Ack ammo faster this way.


U.V is somewhat weird in this kind of thing:
- If you stock 10 AP in a fleet you will lose 3 at max (sometimes 4 but rare ) in surface combat , if you make 10 1 ship TF you will lost 10 of them.
- If you stock 150 or more aircraft in a raid you will lose MANY of them to interception. If you send 10 * 15 planes raid then you will lose significally lower. I have yet to see a raid of 3 or 5 planes to take lose even against 90 interceptor.

Funniest thing I've tried so far is to use the AI's bombardment trick against their Carrier Group.

Because of the turn phasing and the long turn durations its possible for BB's and CA's to cover huge distances in one leap without risking interception.

So as an experiment I waited until the IJN moved their CV's against Lexington and Yorktown near Guadacanal and then detached every surface ship in the area and charged their hex.

In the real world this would have been a disaster but because of the unique turn sequencing I found myself next morning with most of my surface fleet nestled in amongst his carriers.

A fierce surface naval battle ensued with both sets of surface vessels destroying each other following which the IJN CV's ran for it.

I once tried something similar with the CAW Pearl Harbour Scenario. I chose the option that allows the US Battleship fleet to begin the scenario at sea and tried to charge down the IJN carrier force. It didn't work in fact it reminded me of Agincourt with my BB's in the role of the French Knights. I think the final losses were even heavier than at the actual battle.

I am playing the main campaign as allies with no Midway and its now Jan 43.
The only problem with the large number of planes is the supply.
Lunga alone is up at over 30000 required.
The Japs dont dare come near my bases during the day. The AI has "learned " that if it does its ships visit Davey Jones' locker
Also if you use level bombers correctly they are lethal.
Phil

Strange. In my game, over four months of constantly using level bombers to attack ships I don't think I hit a single one. All the bombers were set to attack at 100'. Similarly, I had torpedo bombers at PM that usually just sat around and watched Japanese ships moving around. They did actually launch a strike or two but never managed to hit anything bigger than a PC. In fact, based on my experience so far, I'd say don't bother with using level bombers at all. They seemed to be pretty useless for anything. Out of two squadrons of 12 B-17's each, they only ever managed to send 3 aircraft for a strike on Gilli. I must have been doing something wrong somewhere. The Hudsons were slightly better, usually managing to get 6 aircraft into the air.

I guess we'll see what happens in the next game.

Originally posted by Guardsman
Strange. In my game, over four months of constantly using level bombers to attack ships I don't think I hit a single one. All the bombers were set to attack at 100'. Similarly, I had torpedo bombers at PM that usually just sat around and watched Japanese ships moving around. They did actually launch a strike or two but never managed to hit anything bigger than a PC. In fact, based on my experience so far, I'd say don't bother with using level bombers at all. They seemed to be pretty useless for anything. Out of two squadrons of 12 B-17's each, they only ever managed to send 3 aircraft for a strike on Gilli. I must have been doing something wrong somewhere. The Hudsons were slightly better, usually managing to get 6 aircraft into the air.

I guess we'll see what happens in the next game.

Try increasing the height to 1000'. I can't swear to it but I don't think LB's drop bombs at 100' of if they do they don't arm themselves before they hit. Certainly my FB's wouldn't drop bombs at 100' prefering to use their machne guns.

BTW: I know what you mean about the B17's. I'm convinced the crews have forgotten there's a war on. As you say the Hudson's are much better (Aussie pilots of course). I'm actually wondering if there some sort of gliche with the B17's because they for a while they made regular attacks on Lae and then they just stopped and haven't taken off since.

Planes flying a naval mission at 100' will skip bomb and strafe. It's in section 11.11 of the manual.

Elmo:

That what it says, I've just never seen them actually do it. I have seen P40's try to strafe a BB, but I've never seen a level bomber (B-17, A-20, Hudson.....) ever drop a bomb from 100'.

Originally posted by Guardsman
Elmo:

That what it says, I've just never seen them actually do it. I have seen P40's try to strafe a BB, but I've never seen a level bomber (B-17, A-20, Hudson.....) ever drop a bomb from 100'.

Your pilots will not skip bomb at all if their experience is under a certain point. Or, they will skip bomb that their bombs will miss by such a wide margin that you won't even see the geyser signalling a miss.

Planes will skip bomb at 100' and you will see geysers indicating a near miss. Unless, however, the experience of the pilot is over 70 and they have not been damaged by flak, its unlikely you will see a hit.

Greetings,

I've been meaning to post on this for a while, but have been hoping to figure it out myself. I have several level bomber squadrons in PM ( B25Js, A20Gs, B26Bs ); minimum experience for these groups is 85. I set the altitude for 100', and mission is Naval Attack. They'll intercept and attack enemy TFs, during which they will strafe the hell out of them. Not once, in 9 months of game play, have they ever bombed an enemy ship. I get 50cal hits out the ***, but never any bomb hits. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I've read the manual several times looking for an answer, but have not yet found one. Any help is appreciated.

Regards,
Randy

Originally posted by dgaad


Your pilots will not skip bomb at all if their experience is under a certain point. Or, they will skip bomb that their bombs will miss by such a wide margin that you won't even see the geyser signalling a miss.

Planes will skip bomb at 100' and you will see geysers indicating a near miss. Unless, however, the experience of the pilot is over 70 and they have not been damaged by flak, its unlikely you will see a hit.

So assuming your pilots exp is 70+ how much more effective is skip bombing. I thought the sides of a ship were more heavily armoured than the decks.

Originally posted by Armorer
Greetings,

I've been meaning to post on this for a while, but have been hoping to figure it out myself. I have several level bomber squadrons in PM ( B25Js, A20Gs, B26Bs ); minimum experience for these groups is 85. I set the altitude for 100', and mission is Naval Attack. They'll intercept and attack enemy TFs, during which they will strafe the hell out of them. Not once, in 9 months of game play, have they ever bombed an enemy ship. I get 50cal hits out the ***, but never any bomb hits. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I've read the manual several times looking for an answer, but have not yet found one. Any help is appreciated.

Regards,
Randy

Yep, I finished one of the long campaigns and never did see a bomb drop at 100 feet, just a whole lot of MG fire even though most of the pilots were above 70 exp. Like spooky said set the alt to 1000 feet and kiss whatever they attack goodbye.

I have the feeling that skip bombing (100') is really not effective compared with low level bombing (1000') since :
- it needs much more experimented bomber squadrons
- the losses due to flak are quite high

What do you think ?

Spooky

PS : I never managed to do a lot of hits with skip bombing but maybe my squads were not exp. enough

I already have my LBA anti-shipping squadrons set for 1000'. I keep one set at 100', just in case the skip-bombing ever decides to kick in. And, of course, you're correct - I seem to get plenty of hits from 1000'. I guess I'm just greedy, and want to see if skip-bombing is even more effective.

Thanks for your input, nice to know I'm not the only one who can't get it to work.

Randy

I'm playing the Operation MO scenario (#7?) which does not mention an ahistorical OOB, though I did choose variable reinforcements. This is my second scenario (the first I played was the 15 day Coral Sea scenario). It is late June '42 and I am now facing a TF of (at least) Kaga, Akagi, Soryu, Ryujo and Junyo (all those have been identified by my search aircraft). At first I felt that seeing three new carriers in the area was reasonable, being as in May my forces sank the Shokaku and Shoho for sure and probably sank the Zuikaku (no confirmation of that yet). My PM a/c managed to hit the Hiryu enough that the Lexington/Yorktown groups finished her off about June 8, but now there seems to be every Japanese carrier in existence heading for PM.

Because of this topic being discussed here, I am concerned that EVERY game played against the AI is going to develop into this situation of trying to crack the super TF. Is this what the rest of you (playing as the US) are experiencing, or does it only occur some of the time? The replayability of the game is in serious danger if it always develops into the fight against the super TF.

Originally posted by bradfordkay
I am concerned that EVERY game played against the AI is going to develop into this situation of trying to crack the super TF. Is this what the rest of you (playing as the US) are experiencing, or does it only occur some of the time? The replayability of the game is in serious danger if it always develops into the fight against the super TF.

My expereince so far is limited to #17 Allies but I must admit that after my 7th attempt there is a definite SUPER CV TF pattern emerging.

The AI certainly likes to keep its CV's together if not in one TF then in one hex and it tries to force a direct face off between this Super CV TF and the your Carriers as quickly as possible.

The designers will no doubt point out that this is the best strategy for the IJN to follow but it does make for very predictable gameplay by the AI and if successful a very short game.

One glimmer of hope for the USN player is that this Super CV TF can only be in one place at a time. Unfortunately, this is benefit is reduced by the fact that the IJN operate on interior lines during #17 and so the AI can move its CV's quckly from one perimeter to the other. So major operations like invasions are bound to attract their attention.

So far the AI seems content to keep it on the fringes of my LBA umbrella (unlike my own CV's that charge Rabaul as soon as I turn on 'React to enemy'.) so it has not used its Super CV TF directly against any of my major bases. If it did I would probably be in real trouble. But it would be nice to get a few shots at it with LBA.