Game balance gone AWOL?

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

ORIGINAL: Geordie Boy

Think my eagle eyed boys spotted the Fletchers first and opened fire. My flyboys finished off the Allied TF remnants from the air in daylight so from what you are telling me this was a Jap victory?? Cant afford too many more of these some-one once said.....


Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 39% moonlight: 12,000 yards
Range closes to 24,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 24,000 yards
Range closes to 18,000 yards...
Range closes to 12,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 12,000 yards
Japanese ships attempt to get underway

That's what screwed you over. The Japanese ships were sitting anchored in the hex when the USN showed up.

Yep. Caught napping ... and Fletchers are a nasty SCTF ...

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Geordie Boy
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 12,000 yards
Japanese ships attempt to get underway

I´m pretty sure that means you were at anchor (docked). Not too strange a result considering that.

EDIT: Should have read the entire thread before replying! [:D]

[msieving1]

ORIGINAL: Geordie Boy

Its the torpedo hit accuracy that I am objecting too. A single DD also took on the Yamato and several DD's in a transport TF a few game weeks ago and also hit the BB with a torpedo. If in June 1944 the Allies torpedos were so good then there must be real evidence somewhere????

Look up Arleigh Burke sometime. He wasn't the only destroyer commander who had great success in the Solomons in 1943. Also, while the battleship engagement at Surigao Strait gets the most attention, the destroyers actually caused the most damage.

[rroberson]

I have been in late war games enough with the Japanese navy to know they get their ass handed to them by the American navy in most surface duels. That late, I'm bringing battlewagons to the fight or I expect to lose. You are confusing early war American warships with late war ones.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Geordie Boy

Its the torpedo hit accuracy that I am objecting too. A single DD also took on the Yamato and several DD's in a transport TF a few game weeks ago and also hit the BB with a torpedo. If in June 1944 the Allies torpedos were so good then there must be real evidence somewhere????

Surprise, low light, and quick Fletchers moving in tight. At 2k yards it's pretty easy to get torpedo hits.

Any TF in range of Allied forces will always be on 'patrol' for me. At least then they are ready to go. Wait until you face DDs and Clevelands! [:D]

[Itdepends]

A good example of where the entire combat report helps tell the story- caught at anchor makes easier targets- and if the game engine simulates it- may mean more crew stood down/longer to get to action stations.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Geordie Boy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher-class_destroyer

Nothing on any wondrous torpedo abilty here - sank alot of SS's - are they just vastly overrated like division destroying 4E's??????????

You aren't going to establish much credibility with that kind of extremist vitriol.

Yes the Fletchers were awesome multi-capable ships. By June of '44 American ships enter with crews much more highly trained than in the early war and radars had improved as well as the abilities of crews and commanders to take advantage of them.

If you would like to have your belief in the myth of Allied 4E overpoweredness dispelled try giving Jockemiesters AAR a read.

Japanese 2Es unopposed against the Chinese routinely kill off LCUs just as effectively as Allied 4Es, especially in open terrain.

As many have pointed out you got caught with your fleet at anchor.

Someone else also mentioned the Battle off Samar wherein a very small group of Fletchers and even smaller DEs turned away a far, far superior force of cruisers and super BBs.

Learn from the experience, both game experience and the experience being shared here by very experienced players.

Whining won't help anything. Trust me I know first hand. Many here can tell how much I used whine over the things I perceived as inequities in the game. All I accomplished was to make a lot of people here dislike me.

[SuluSea]

ORIGINAL: Geordie Boy

Its the torpedo hit accuracy that I am objecting too. A single DD also took on the Yamato and several DD's in a transport TF a few game weeks ago and also hit the BB with a torpedo. If in June 1944 the Allies torpedos were so good then there must be real evidence somewhere????

Gary Player once said something to the effect "the harder I work, the luckier I get".
It looks like it applies here.

Yamato or any valued warship will only maneuver as fast as the slowest ship in the tf.
You more than likely saved some weaker vessels but tied up your shipyards in the process.
If you set your transport group to follow a lower numbered SAG, the lower numbered group
would have engaged in the hex first.

Chances are your escorts in the transport group may not have fired a shot.

[offenseman]

Yep, the key was the IJ force being "Japanese ships attempt to get underway". Caught flat footed is real trouble.