Ridiculous Surface Combat Result

[John Lansford]

No warship goes into combat at "cruise speed"; that's too slow and would make them a sitting duck, especially for torpedoes.   Fast, wildly maneuvering ships might cause their gunfire to be less accurate, but it also makes it less likely of them being hit as well.  Every incident I've read of where a ship loses speed in a surface gunfight inevitably ends up getting hit a lot more after losing that speed.  If the routine is screwing up the hit results because of the AI using cruise speed, that is a bug that definitely needs to be fixed.

[crsutton]

I have not seen enough surface fights to really judge but had an interesting fight when a Japanese raider TF ran into an Allied TF of four DDs.
 
The IJN had two CA, one CL and two DDs vs the four Allied DDs. It was a daylight fight, overcast, 30,000 yd visb.,
The Japanese started off right and crossed the T but missed all shots and things went very wrong after that. The four American DDs dealt out a royal "pimp slapping" over numerous rounds-perhaps 15 or so. Range varied between 20,000 yds and 8,000 yds but most rounds took place in the 13,000 to 17,000 range. Oddest thing was that the CAs rarely fired and had only one 8 inch hit on an American DD for the whole battle. Basically the Japanese spent the whole battle missing with every shot. They fired a lot of torpedoes at very long range but no hits. In the end one American DD was mildly damaged 30 sys, 30 float, and 14 engine with the Japanese force shot up pretty bad. One Japanese DD was sunk and the two CAs suffered heavy superstructure damage.
 
Thing is I would think that a daylight engagement at these ranges would have been perfect for the IJN CAs main guns. It was the right range for 8 inchers and conditions were good. Yet the guns fired only a few times and hit nothing. The IJN crossed the T so you would expect all of their ships to fire I wish I had a save as I would have replayed that battle a few times. I have to get in the habit of saving more.
 
I know they are working on it so won't bitch.

[Bluebook]

Doesnt seem broken to me... these two engagements are from my AAR.
Its a PBEM by the way, not a game vs the AI.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Kota Bharu at 51,75, Range 30,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
BB Haruna, Shell hits 1
CA Takao, Shell hits 1
CA Atago
CL Jintsu
DD Asashio, Shell hits 1
DD Oshio
DD Michishio, Shell hits 2
DD Arashio
DD Akatsuki
DD Hibiki

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 15, on fire
BC Repulse, Shell hits 32, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Vampire, Shell hits 1
DD Tenedos
DD Electra
DD Express



Reduced sighting due to 67% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Overcast Conditions and 67% moonlight: 8,000 yards
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 30,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BC Repulse at 30,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Kongo at 30,000 yards
BB Haruna engages DD Express at 30,000 yards
BB Haruna engages DD Electra at 30,000 yards
Range closes to 24,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BC Repulse at 24,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BC Repulse at 24,000 yards
BC Repulse engages CA Atago at 24,000 yards
BB Haruna engages DD Electra at 24,000 yards
BB Haruna engages DD Vampire at 24,000 yards
Range closes to 22,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BB Prince of Wales at 22,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BC Repulse at 22,000 yards
BC Repulse engages CA Takao at 22,000 yards
Range closes to 20,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Haruna at 20,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Haruna at 20,000 yards
DD Hibiki engages DD Express at 20,000 yards
DD Hibiki engages DD Electra at 20,000 yards
DD Hibiki engages DD Vampire at 20,000 yards
DD Oshio engages DD Electra at 20,000 yards
BC Repulse engages DD Asashio at 20,000 yards
Range closes to 17,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages BB Haruna at 17,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Kongo at 17,000 yards
DD Oshio engages DD Express at 17,000 yards
DD Electra engages DD Oshio at 17,000 yards
CL Jintsu engages BC Repulse at 17,000 yards
DD Hibiki engages DD Express at 17,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Electra at 17,000 yards
DD Michishio engages DD Express at 17,000 yards
DD Express engages DD Asashio at 17,000 yards
Range closes to 15,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Haruna at 15,000 yards
BB Kongo engages BC Repulse at 15,000 yards
CA Atago engages DD Express at 15,000 yards
CA Takao engages DD Electra at 15,000 yards
BC Repulse engages CL Jintsu at 15,000 yards
DD Hibiki engages DD Vampire at 15,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Express at 15,000 yards
DD Vampire engages DD Oshio at 15,000 yards
DD Electra engages DD Asashio at 15,000 yards
Range closes to 13,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BB Prince of Wales at 13,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Kongo at 13,000 yards
CA Atago engages BC Repulse at 13,000 yards
BC Repulse engages CA Takao at 13,000 yards
CL Jintsu engages BC Repulse at 13,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Vampire at 13,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Tenedos at 13,000 yards
DD Vampire engages DD Asashio at 13,000 yards
Range closes to 10,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BB Prince of Wales at 10,000 yards
BB Kongo engages BC Repulse at 10,000 yards
CA Atago engages BC Repulse at 10,000 yards
CA Takao engages BC Repulse at 10,000 yards
DD Tenedos engages DD Oshio at 10,000 yards
DD Hibiki engages DD Express at 10,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Electra at 10,000 yards
DD Asashio engages DD Electra at 10,000 yards
Range closes to 7,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BC Repulse at 7,000 yards
BB Kongo engages BC Repulse at 7,000 yards
CA Atago engages DD Express at 7,000 yards
BC Repulse engages CA Takao at 7,000 yards
DD Akatsuki engages DD Tenedos at 7,000 yards
DD Hibiki engages DD Vampire at 7,000 yards
DD Akatsuki engages DD Express at 7,000 yards
DD Tenedos engages DD Michishio at 7,000 yards
DD Asashio engages DD Electra at 7,000 yards
Range increases to 11,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Haruna at 11,000 yards
BB Kongo engages BC Repulse at 11,000 yards
CA Atago engages BC Repulse at 11,000 yards
CA Takao engages BC Repulse at 11,000 yards
BC Repulse engages CL Jintsu at 11,000 yards
DD Vampire engages DD Akatsuki at 11,000 yards
DD Akatsuki engages DD Vampire at 11,000 yards
DD Vampire engages DD Michishio at 11,000 yards
DD Oshio engages DD Tenedos at 11,000 yards
Range increases to 13,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages BB Haruna at 13,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Kongo at 13,000 yards
BC Repulse engages CA Atago at 13,000 yards
CA Takao engages BC Repulse at 13,000 yards
DD Tenedos engages DD Oshio at 13,000 yards
DD Vampire engages DD Hibiki at 13,000 yards
DD Express engages DD Akatsuki at 13,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Express at 13,000 yards
DD Oshio engages DD Electra at 13,000 yards
Range closes to 12,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BB Prince of Wales at 12,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Haruna at 12,000 yards
DD Express engages DD Akatsuki at 12,000 yards
BC Repulse engages CA Takao at 12,000 yards
CL Jintsu engages BC Repulse at 12,000 yards
DD Vampire engages DD Asashio at 12,000 yards
DD Michishio engages DD Vampire at 12,000 yards
DD Express engages DD Asashio at 12,000 yards
Range closes to 9,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BB Prince of Wales at 9,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Haruna at 9,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Express at 9,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Electra at 9,000 yards
CL Jintsu engages DD Tenedos at 9,000 yards
DD Hibiki engages DD Vampire at 9,000 yards
DD Oshio engages DD Tenedos at 9,000 yards
Range increases to 10,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BB Prince of Wales at 10,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BC Repulse at 10,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Express at 10,000 yards
DD Akatsuki engages DD Electra at 10,000 yards
DD Michishio engages DD Tenedos at 10,000 yards
DD Oshio engages DD Vampire at 10,000 yards
DD Vampire engages DD Michishio at 10,000 yards
Range closes to 9,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages BB Haruna at 9,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Express at 9,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages CA Atago at 9,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages CA Takao at 9,000 yards
CL Jintsu engages DD Vampire at 9,000 yards
DD Hibiki engages DD Tenedos at 9,000 yards
DD Michishio engages DD Vampire at 9,000 yards
DD Oshio engages DD Vampire at 9,000 yards
DD Express engages DD Asashio at 9,000 yards
Range increases to 11,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BB Prince of Wales at 11,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages BB Kongo at 11,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages CA Atago at 11,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages CL Jintsu at 11,000 yards
DD Oshio engages DD Express at 11,000 yards
DD Asashio engages DD Express at 11,000 yards
Range increases to 14,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BB Prince of Wales at 14,000 yards
BB Kongo engages BB Prince of Wales at 14,000 yards
CA Atago engages BB Prince of Wales at 14,000 yards
CA Takao engages DD Tenedos at 14,000 yards
DD Vampire engages DD Arashio at 14,000 yards
DD Express engages DD Arashio at 14,000 yards
DD Michishio engages DD Electra at 14,000 yards
DD Tenedos engages DD Oshio at 14,000 yards
DD Electra engages DD Asashio at 14,000 yards
Range increases to 19,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BB Prince of Wales at 19,000 yards
DD Express engages DD Oshio at 19,000 yards
CA Atago engages BB Prince of Wales at 19,000 yards
DD Akatsuki engages DD Tenedos at 19,000 yards
DD Arashio engages DD Tenedos at 19,000 yards
DD Michishio engages DD Vampire at 19,000 yards
Range increases to 23,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages BB Haruna at 23,000 yards
BB Kongo engages DD Express at 23,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages CA Atago at 23,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages CL Jintsu at 23,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages DD Asashio at 23,000 yards
Range increases to 27,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages BB Haruna at 27,000 yards
BB Kongo engages DD Express at 27,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages CL Jintsu at 27,000 yards
BB Prince of Wales engages DD Oshio at 27,000 yards
Task forces break off...

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Dec 10, 41

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Singkawang at 56,88, Range 5,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Shell hits 2, on fire
CA Mikuma
CA Suzuya
CA Kumano
DD Maikaze, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Nowaki, Shell hits 1
DD Arashi
DD Hagikaze

Allied Ships
CL Java
CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Tromp, Shell hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
DD Banckert
DD Van Nes, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Witte de With
DD Evertsen
DD Kortenaer, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Piet Hein
DD Van Ghent



Reduced sighting due to 57% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 57% moonlight: 12,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 5,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 5,000 yards
CL Tromp engages CA Mogami at 5,000 yards
CA Mogami engages CL De Ruyter at 5,000 yards
CA Mikuma engages CL Tromp at 5,000 yards
CA Mogami engages CL De Ruyter at 5,000 yards
CA Mogami engages DD Piet Hein at 5,000 yards
DD Nowaki engages DD Kortenaer at 5,000 yards
DD Maikaze engages DD Piet Hein at 5,000 yards
DD Maikaze engages DD Van Nes at 5,000 yards
DD Banckert engages DD Maikaze at 5,000 yards
Range closes to 2,000 yards
CA Kumano engages CL Tromp at 2,000 yards
CA Kumano engages CL De Ruyter at 2,000 yards
CL De Ruyter engages CA Mikuma at 2,000 yards
CL De Ruyter engages CA Mogami at 2,000 yards
DD Hagikaze engages DD Kortenaer at 2,000 yards
DD Kortenaer engages DD Maikaze at 2,000 yards
DD Nowaki engages DD Witte de With at 2,000 yards
DD Van Nes engages DD Nowaki at 2,000 yards
DD Maikaze engages DD Banckert at 2,000 yards
Range increases to 5,000 yards
CA Kumano engages CL Tromp at 5,000 yards
CL Tromp engages CA Suzuya at 5,000 yards
CL De Ruyter sunk by CA Mikuma at 5,000 yards
DD Van Ghent engages DD Maikaze at 5,000 yards
DD Piet Hein engages DD Nowaki at 5,000 yards
DD Evertsen engages DD Maikaze at 5,000 yards
DD Evertsen engages DD Maikaze at 5,000 yards
DD Maikaze engages DD Van Nes at 5,000 yards
DD Banckert engages DD Maikaze at 5,000 yards
Range increases to 8,000 yards
CL Tromp engages CA Kumano at 8,000 yards
CL Tromp engages CA Suzuya at 8,000 yards
DD Nowaki engages DD Van Ghent at 8,000 yards
CL Tromp engages CA Mogami at 8,000 yards
DD Kortenaer engages DD Hagikaze at 8,000 yards
DD Arashi engages DD Piet Hein at 8,000 yards
DD Nowaki engages DD Witte de With at 8,000 yards
DD Van Nes engages DD Maikaze at 8,000 yards
Task forces break off...

[Barb]

I thought in WITP when TF were at cruise speed for surface combat they would switch for max speed in combat. It seems it no longer applies for AE.
Certain Task Forces in anticipating night surface combat LOWERED their speed to not give away their positions due to flourescent wake.
As for preparing for combat - what you need is to have your boilers lit and turbines ready - to switch them on.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Barb
Use Mission speed for your TFs and you will not see Ridiculous Surface Combat Results again...

I don't think I've ever not used Mission Speed... certainly never cruise speed anyway.

[CV Zuikaku]

ORIGINAL: Barb

I have conducted some tests. You can see results in AAR section (especially posts number 4, 5 and 6) : tm.asp?m=2215485
Use Mission speed for your TFs and you will not see Ridiculous Surface Combat Results again...

Yes, I've seen your test results. And it seems that speed is very important- but if the TF enters the battle on cruise speed, I'm sure they'll increase speed if needed. Cruise/mission and full shouldn't have any impact on combat. Only on tear and wear, fuel consumption and number of hexes that TF's travell during one day. Or am I wrong?! Anyway, they were at full speed during the encounter I posted above...

[Barb]

It worked that way in WITP. Dont know if it works the same in AE - I am waiting for confirmation.

[JuanG]

Reduced sighting due to 67% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Overcast Conditions and 67% moonlight: 8,000 yards
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 30,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BC Repulse at 30,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Kongo at 30,000 yards
BB Haruna engages DD Express at 30,000 yards
BB Haruna engages DD Electra at 30,000 yards
Range closes to 24,000 yards

Anyone else see something wrong here?

I remember noticing this is one of the pre-release AARs and commenting on it, but it seems it still happens.

I could understand the Japanese returning fire after the first few rounds even if its beyond the normal visibility, as by then they will see flashes and there will probably be illuminations rounds in the air, ect, but right off? Those Kongos must have some serious anti-radar gear...

Is there a reasonable explanation for this or is this a bug?

[Mike Scholl]

ORIGINAL: JuanG

Reduced sighting due to 67% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Overcast Conditions and 67% moonlight: 8,000 yards
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 30,000 yards
BB Haruna engages BC Repulse at 30,000 yards
BC Repulse engages BB Kongo at 30,000 yards
BB Haruna engages DD Express at 30,000 yards
BB Haruna engages DD Electra at 30,000 yards
Range closes to 24,000 yards

Anyone else see something wrong here?

I remember noticing this is one of the pre-release AARs and commenting on it, but it seems it still happens.

I could understand the Japanese returning fire after the first few rounds even if its beyond the normal visibility, as by then they will see flashes and there will probably be illuminations rounds in the air, ect, but right off? Those Kongos must have some serious anti-radar gear...

Is there a reasonable explanation for this or is this a bug?

Gotta say it's still screwed up. The longest range a BB EVER scored a hit was about 26,000 yards, so the Allies opening fire at 30,000 is really dumb (expecially with a radar spot and such limited visability...all that happened is they wasted their "suprise"). Secondly, even if the Japs were firing at "muzzle flashes", why would the DD's be firing at all? To have a hope of hitting anything with their 4.7's, they would have to close to about 15,000. "Reasonable" it ain't..., so "bug" sounds appropriate.

[Tazo]

I can now say the following after a very long testing period on Guadalcanal (now 5 campaigns). Five points 1-5 on the main topics here, after two general claims.

Claim 1. To balance the beginning of the thread I would like to point out that as the IJN side I felt to have a kind of surface engagement superiority, mainly thanks to torps and BBs. (And very good zeros/betties/Kates too but this is another thread.)

Claim 2. The dice can hardly balance very unbalanced encounters, but DO decide in balanced engagements. It's fair. The player has to recover from defeats and provoke unbalanced engagements in the right direction by combined arms coordination and some good inspiration. To that aim, maintaining good logistics and sufficient active TF prevails on tactical outcomes. The losses however leads to adaptations in the way to defend one's logistic /front line and to attack the enemy ones. This alchimy between tactical scale and operational scale, and also opponent moral/psychology, is great and almost unique. This certainly explains all our concerns about realistic tactical resolutions in AE.

1 - The "firing back" process.

I fully agree with the above impression of Thales concerning the "you fired at me so I fire back" process. This seems not realistic in case of multiple ships firing at a single one since when the latter acquiers a target she has to keep it a little bit, and not more than one target per type of range/caliber. However quite often I also observed series of salvos exchanged between two opposite ships or say, between pairs, the other ships being not considered at first or exhanging salvos simultaneously without interacting with the previous ones. So this moderates the "firing back" strange process, a ship that mainly fires on a fixed one but changing only from time to time is OK.

I also agree the "one to one shots with immediate fire back" does cause a small size TF shoot as many shells as the bigger one they are facing. Here again a moderation comes from the fact that at times I've seen series of shots with no fire back, at the end or in the middle of some battles - maybe everybody closed up the same target, or the target had a range problem to reply or low ammo or damaged gun.

2 - Night engagements.

The night battles with very close ranges are quite annoying because far too frequent. In bad weather, entering an hex and always finding the enemy TF there at 1000' is not satisfying, and can lead to overkilling games after months. I even have seen a US BB crossing the T to a Jap BB at 1000' ! A nonsense because then, two minutes later the converging Jap BB is now crossing the T to the other one !

Night fights may be short and intense at close initial range or, far less often, very long and lazy because of careful long range exchanges of useless fire, certainly provocated on purpose by the US side. The point to be fixed here is clearly the frightening encounters between 2 TF's in bad weather at 1000' or 3000' in non coastal hexes, very improbable but seen many times, and at least the disengagement should be tempted immediately by the side that don't know about the exact opposition - maybe both sides.

On the opposite day surface engagements are very nicely modeled, I always managed to find good explaination of the outcomes and have seen reasonable disengagements on right time, a lot of draws and many marginal victories, deadly IJN torpedoes compensating well the slightly better hitting factors of some US/Auxies ships. Wiped out convoys are a well understood exception. The range are very often reasonnable, between 9000' and 23000', almost no shots beyond 24000', sometimes hazardous closings below 8000' - few days with such a visibility too.

Sometimes, but less than 5-10% I've seen agressive IJN TF raiding convoys in coastal hexes catching a slow TF trying to retire because of early radar detection. During night the empirical probability of escaping is 100%. However a 90-95% chance of success to escape a >30kn TF at 10-12kn during day just due to early detection seems exagerated, especially with more than 20 planes in naval search in a very small aera nearby. The 100% by night is quite exagerated too, as already observed in the thread.

---> Conclusion : probability of night/low visibility engagement seems too high, too many very short initial ranges, disengagement in low visibility not enough used, radar previous detection too automatic and escape of slow TF too easy during day.

3 - Day battles.

As an aggressive jap player in Guadalcanal I've seen a lot of IJN victories by night but more often with the larger number of ships, and each time helped by a number of welcomed torpedoe hits at short or medium ranges that widely compensate the good US ships hitting factors. I also experienced draws when outnumbered, and no disasters or outstanding victories - except surprised and wipped out convoys. As a US player I was more concentrated on sinking ships by using intensively SBD squadrons - not enough Kates on the other side, but more hunting surface TFs.

Concerning "similar size" TF in surface combat, the Guadalcanal scenario, especially in september, the IJN has so many ships that he can try many kinds of engagement doing the counter invasion. Having done that with TF of similar size compared to AI-US ones, my experience is that surface combat are fair and really full of realistic uncertainty, and in view of point 2 above here I mainly talk about day engagement. As the IJN I clearly won more than one half of the combats, but only marginaly, and I was able to sink almost everything by day (or night afterwards) raids provided the US CV were already neutralized or occupied fighting mine. Some details later in an AAR post about replays of "Yamato versus South Dakota" near Rabaul.

First fact, frequency of engagements strongly depend on the agressiveness of leaders, even with 3BB+5CA a careful leader will retire by invoking a "retirement due to surface threat", and if engaged with a weak opposing TF then keep distances as far as possible, a real mess if you put the wrong man in charge of a SCTF - tried on purpose.

Second fact, tactically both sides have well modeled strong and weak points that can reach there climax if the right circumstances have been met : see 4 and 5.

Third, I've seen no disaster nor "one way victory" in day surface combat between warships, always heavy or light exchanges, generally in favor of the side with more ships. Desengagements were logical, at least more than during night fights. By the way one issue to retire on time is to consider differential of number of hits but this is not a good indicator of damages and critical hits are always likely to revert the immediate fate, especially unexpected tropedoes. The point is that the damage curve is not linear with hits but has jumps at random times, and this risk may overhelm the actual estimate of "ratio of hits" especially at short range - and medium range to a smaller extend. So the right formulae to evaluate a situation in the nice Herwin suggestion has to take immediate possible jumps into account (are we risking torps if we close up range to exploit our superior rate of fire ?).

---> Conclusion (3+4+5) : good LR torp job but not systematic at medium range, colorful cruisers battles rather impredictable, DD are a dangerous nuisance but not decisive, jap DD efficiently neutralize US-DD if in superior number, BB are very solid, able to give a lot in duel and impressive in day surface combat, US ships have better hitting factors but lesser sinking factor (torps do actually sink more often).

4 - Torpedoes.

The jap LR torpedoes saved me more than one time by hitting some over-firing US CA "à la Boise". I sunk many CA/Cl/DD by jap torp at 5000 to 12000 but wasted the torps fired at more than 13000. Speed seems crucial here since when launching to slow big transports the number of hits is extreme. In the same time US DD often charged the big ships and scored well when they are too close, but almost never critically, and several times they simply exploded while crossing the critical 9000-15000 range where everybody (BB/CA/CL/DD) has good hitting probabilities, they rarely - but it happens - got sunk by torps, and finally their own torps scored some hits but quite often never exploded. In low visibility the jap cruisers are really at their ease thanks to deadly torps. For instance I've seen US cruisers becoming too confident after many hits on jap cruisers, then closing range less than 9000 and suddenly sunk by torpedoes launched by their almost crippled victims, a badly inspired closing up! On two occasions I stopped watching a CA battle in clear advantage of the US-AI but the report announced a draw or marginal jap victory thanks to a feew successful torps just after my stop!

5 - BB and CA.

As already reported in this thread BB can not operate accurately at close range, especially in low visibility, but they can really take a lot of hits thanks to the "belt armor" or "tower armor". It is nice to see their high durability in action, and if they have no BB in front of them they are really hard to hurt, and deliver efficient fire on cruisers and stand to be reliable flag ships in their SCTF. They can also damage entire squadrons of bombers and thus can close enemy air TF on some important occasions. Also a couple of times "my" Yamato charged 2 or 3 DD to cach the escorted AKs and immediately sunk 2 of them at medium range during the closing, then decimated herslelf the convoy using all her shells. The most impressive day battles are when both sides have BB aligned, and then you smell the breath of burning steel and feel the smoke of big guns in action for results heavily depending on critical hits or outrageous number of hits, typically the cruisers playing a separated battle together and the BB breaking off after taking too much... usually to become at the mercy of bombers having uncontested air superiority. But sinking a BB using diving bombers really takes days and CV squadrons are too precious to be engaged and damaged all the time.

So everything has a strong point and a weak point, the complementarity of air/ships makes any missuse of them or any underevaluation of some risk very determinant. For me the "day" model is great and even BB have their place. So here is my answer to players that found that the "DD > BB" - I had this feeling for a while when playing the US side, but no more after playing all the jap BB in many tasks. "Please give me 4 more BB in exchange of 20 additional DD for you" - whatever my side. Yes, a night battle of 20DD versus 4BB can be a disaster for BBs, but I won't use the BB together, they will be combined to other ships and certainly be able to cripple more ships than the 20DD for sure. Also, DD are far easier targets for bomber pilots, mine have suffered a lot trying to sink one or two BB but sunk freely dozens of spotted DDs.

In cruiser fights, after a lot of tests, prediction are even harder to make due to high rates of fire and multiple torp launches, the efficientcy of which depending on the closing. However in an upcoming AAR post on Savo battle I shall observe that given 4 TFs there is some ordering in the average outcomes, some TF being more likely to beat such other due to some not well identified factors, but not a nation-biais since US(1)=IJN>US(2)>US(3). So this is neither such or such biais nor pure randomness, and by testing one can find the right explicative variables to feel the right relative strengh between 2 particular TFs, but this is impossible before the next encounter/circumstances in the actual game!

[witpqs]

Tazo, thanks for an excellent write-up of your observations and conclusions! [&o]

I would like to express one point of disagreement, that regarding the 'firing back process'. The problem with the firing back process is when and if it causes any gun to exceed its rate of fire.

The rate of fire is basically the laws of physics plus crew quality. I realize the game engine might not apply crew quality to rate of fire, but even if it did the effects should still be limited because of the physical apparatus involved.

I realize from my readings on various naval battles that often a ship would purposely target a ship that was firing upon it and of course I have no problem with that. The problem comes in when (if) the game engine applies that concept and causes one or more guns to exceed their rate of fire. Just to illustrate my point, a gun with a rate of fire of 4 times a minute cannot fire 7 or 8 times a minute, and probably can only fire 5 times a minute for a short period with an excellent crew. Even that might be stretching it, I hope subject matter experts chime in.

Even if 20 enemy vessels are firing at you, you can still only fire that gun 4 times per minute. This was one of the factors identified as a weakness in WITP, so hopefully it was changed for AE. Or, if it wasn't changed yet hopefully it can be changed in a patch.

[Mus]

Had a fight off Guadalcanal last night. A night engagement between one of my CV task forces and a force the Japanese AI sent to raid down the island chain. Japanese force was 1 CA, 1 CL and 2 DDs I think. My force was something like CV, BB, CA, CA, CLAA, DD, DD, DD, DD, IIRC.

Engagement started off at 1000 yards with some minor slugging back and forth, but not much damage. Then it increased to 2000 yards. My BB N Carolina kept peppering the Japanese ships with .50 machinegun fire and 20mm AAA fire at 2000 yards and they kept firing back with their biggest guns and doing lots of non-penetrating hits. The guns from my Cruisers and Destroyers also seemed to be causing a lot of "shoot back" and then the Japanese started firing torpedoes back at me, 2 of which hit N Carolina causing major flooding and engine damage. At that point the Captain of the N Carolina remembered that his ship had 16" guns and they finally started shooting, still at 2000 yards, doing some good damage with the few hits scored. Then the ranges gradually increased as both sides had been trying to disengage and I continued firing the big guns with few hits but good results when I did. Both sides heavily battered the TFs broke off.

My CV and 3 DDs made out without much damage (luckily). They launched strikes on the broken up Japanese TF in the morning and sank them all.

N Carolina has 80 flooding, 43 major, 50 something engine and is limping back to base under escort at 3 knots. Both my CAs and the CLAA were also heavily damaged in the fight and headed back to port together in a group.

If somebody could give me a tip how to print these combat reports would appreciate it. Just started playing the game a few days ago. Are they logged somewhere?

[Mike Scholl]

"My BB N Carolina kept peppering the Japanese ships with .50 machinegun fire and 20mm AAA fire at 2000 yards and they kept firing back with their biggest guns and doing lots of non-penetrating hits."
 
This has been a problem for years.   Wish someone could figure out how to achieve a rational fire distribution with this program.  At that range N.Carolina should have been engaging Cruisers with her main (16") battery, and probably DD's with her secondary (5") guns.   The light AAA batteries shouldn't even be manned, let alone doing the majority of the firing.   Maybe someday...

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: Mus

If somebody could give me a tip how to print these combat reports would appreciate it. Just started playing the game a few days ago. Are they logged somewhere?

Look in your "Save" folder (one level down from the folder titled "War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition") for a text file titled "combatreport_(year)(month)(day).txt" Where year-month-day are two digit numerals. For example, "combatreport_430613.txt" is what happened on June 13th, 1943.

[Mynok]

ORIGINAL: Mike Scholl

"My BB N Carolina kept peppering the Japanese ships with .50 machinegun fire and 20mm AAA fire at 2000 yards and they kept firing back with their biggest guns and doing lots of non-penetrating hits."
 
This has been a problem for years.   Wish someone could figure out how to achieve a rational fire distribution with this program.  At that range N.Carolina should have been engaging Cruisers with her main (16") battery, and probably DD's with her secondary (5") guns.   The light AAA batteries shouldn't even be manned, let alone doing the majority of the firing.   Maybe someday...

Could they even fire at something that close? Those big guns did have depression restrictions.

[Mus]

ORIGINAL: Mynok

Could they even fire at something that close? Those big guns did have depression restrictions.

2000 yards is over a mile away. The target is above sea level too, so there isn't that great a deal of vertical offset, plus the guns did have some negative depression. Main threat was a Japanese CA, not a patrol boat or guy in a rubber innertube.

Also the 5" secondary guns on the BB were not fired at 1000 yards either, only the .50 machineguns and the 20mm AAA guns.

My CA (checked and saw I only had one CA not two) was not firing its 8" guns at the very beginning either, instead using 1.1" AA guns in imitation of the BB I guess.

[Dili]

Could they even fire at something that close? Those big guns did have depression restrictions.

Yes they could, Matapan was that close.

[witpqs]

The BB's many 5in guns should have been devastating at that range...

[Mike Scholl]

ORIGINAL: witpqs
The BB's many 5in guns should have been devastating at that range...

Capitol ships in general get "the fuzzy end of the lollypop" in the WITP surface action program. One big advantage they had was multiple fire control positions and directors so that they COULD effectively use both their Primary and Secondary batteries at the same time and aginst multiple targets.

In the game, they are limited to one calibre of guns when they fire, and as often as not it's a totally rediculous choice like 20mm AAA. Really wish someone could figure out how to improve this situation.

[Dili]

Capitol ships in general get "the fuzzy end of the lollypop" in the WITP surface action program. One big advantage they had was multiple fire control positions and directors so that they COULD effectively use both their Primary and Secondary batteries at the same time and aginst multiple targets.

That's another good point. They had also several AA directors(at worse one by each side) while a destroyer had one at best and some none.