Matrix Games Forums

24 Feb 42

Sub War

Off Noumea, I-10 put two more torpedoes into xAP Mataroa, putting her down along with whatever she was carrying. Banzai! She was a big girl at 8910 tons and a personnel capacity of 2600 and cargo capacity of 800. Hopefully, she was full of troops!

5 Fleet

KB is moving into position.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

There were 2 sweeps of Pt. Moresby today. First, 21 Zeros met 6 P-40Es, shooting down 2. Then, 3 Zeros met 2 patched up P-40Es and shot one of them down. To date, 64 P-40Es have been shot down. That's a LOT of experience gained! (Edit: This was just in February 1942 in this AO!)

SRA

Malaya

Singapore - 1507(+9) - 868(-4)

Philippines

Bataan - 911(+4) - 681(+1)

Borneo

Samarinda and Miri are repairing oil fields.

Sumatra

Palembang and Djambi are repairing oil fields.

Java

A couple of B339Ds have been attempting to harass my troops with their tiny bombs. MKBs Zeros caught them today and shot them down.

Burma

Twelve Lilys performed a night bombing raid on the airfield at Mandalay, where a squadron of Flying Tigers is stationed. There was minor damage to the airfield and an H81-A3 was destroyed with 3 more damaged. Hopefully, they got a pilot or two as well.

Meiktila was liberated today destroying the 9 Burma Rifles Battalion. Now, 15 Army will move to Mandalay to try to force the Flying Tigers squadron out from there. Intel says there are 45k troops there. I suspect it's mainly a combination of Indian and Chinese troops. We'll see...

China

Herding cats.

Other Stuff
Reinforcements
10 Garrison Unit - 14 Army - Manila garrison
11 Garrison Unit - 14 Army - Soerabaja garrison

Mike Solli wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 4:26 pm
Sumatra

Palembang was finally liberated today! Here's the damage:

Manpower: 1(1)
Resources: 18(2)
Oil: 801(99)
Refineries: 668(82)

I'll repair only the oil. So, here's the damage that I incurred so far:

Miri: 28 (+150 that started the game damaged and Ted wasn't kind enough to start repairing) - 18 repaired
Brunei: 12 - all repaired
Tarakan: 0
Balikpapan: 6 (+8 refineries I've repaired) - all repaired
Djambi: 5 - 0 repaired, need supply there.
Samarinda: 20 - 0 repaired, supply flowing there now that Balikpapan is done.
Palembang: 99 - 0 repaired, just captured and need supply there.

So, this will cost me a total of 178k supply (+150k from Miri). Overall, within the 200k (+150k) I had anticipated.

Keep in mind that I don't yet control either oil field in Java, Madang or the 2 small fields in the southern SRA.

So, overall, on the better side of oil field damage. CONGRATS!!!!

Mike Solli wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 4:39 pm 16 Feb 42

One P-40E rose today over Pt. Moresby and was promptly shot down. 30 P-40Es shot down this month.

Really surprised that Ted's continues to "feed" your buzzsaw. Do you think he is just overlooking this, or ... ???

RangerJoe wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 5:04 pm Actually, in the game anyway, the P-39 is not that bad defensively. Also, in actuality, I do believe that the P-39 units took the edge of the Japanese at Port Moresby before the P-40s took over.

I tend to agree with you about the P39, both in game and historically. I think the P40 got a lot of glam from Chennault, not criticizing here, Chennault studied the P40 and the Nate/Oscar carefully and came up with a set of tactics to suit the P40. His successes with it gained it a lot of fame when good news was hard to come by. Well deserved. That glam never happened with the P39 because the big users were the SOV. I think enough said.

On paper and in game, the P39 is very formidable. Switch out the C/L gun to a 20mm hispano (or equivalent, which the SOV did) and you get a serious interceptor. The speed and roll parameters on the P39 both exceed the P40. The altitude issues are a bit overblown: the P40 lacked the twin charger for most of the early war just as the P39 did for the same reason: There weren't enough of them for the Allison engine, and the ones available were going to P38's. It wasn't until '43 that enough were available. So, the P40 altitude performance was about the same. The IJ fighters had the same limitation, so everyone was fighting at the same altitudes with very similar issues.

So why the poo-poo on the P39? My opinion? Politics. The inventor of the P39 was a bit too outspoken and tried too hard to sell it. He pissed off the wrong general and .... there was one real defect on the P39: the pilot cabin was SMALL. 5'8" was the stated max, but having sat in one when I was still 5'6" (and 140lbs), I can tell you first-hand that 5'6" was tight. I can't imagine 5'8". However, in the 40's mens' average height in the US was less than now and it would have worked, but it created an issue that the Army was able to exploit.

PaxMondo wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:14 pm

Mike Solli wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 4:39 pm 16 Feb 42

One P-40E rose today over Pt. Moresby and was promptly shot down. 30 P-40Es shot down this month.

Really surprised that Ted's continues to "feed" your buzzsaw. Do you think he is just overlooking this, or ... ???

He said that he's using them because they are what he calls provisional squadrons. I guess he figures the planes will be lost when that squadron withdraws. (Maybe they are. I seem to recall that happens sometimes, but can't remember for sure.) At any rate, I don't think he realizes how much experience the pilots are gaining. Yeah, I lose one every now and then, but the overall gain far outweighs the lost pilots. I'll count up the IJN fighter pilot losses to date so we can have some idea of what they are.

Last game, Ted grounded the Dutch Air Force (except for those excellent Do-24s) for the simple reason that he didn't want to give me easy experience for my fighter pilots. Guess he forgot he did that. That was a long time ago, after all.

Ok, I did some simple math to show enemy kills vs. losses by arm:

IJA:
KIA/MIA: 14, at least 7 from op losses
Enemy kills: 41

IJN - Land based:
KIA/MIA: 12, at least 2 from op losses
Enemy kills: 161(!)

IJN - Carrier based:
KIA/MIA: 7, at least 6 from op losses - yes, only one carrier fighter has been shot down.
Enemy kills: 99

So, overall there have been 18 Japanese fighters shot down in exchange for 301 enemy planes (all types) shot down. This does not include any other types of losses for either side. We have lost a lot of IJA bombers to flak, mainly over Luzon and Singapore. To be expected, and there are plenty more training.

This is inclusive between 8 Dec 41 and 26 Feb 42.

Mike Solli wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 8:10 pm

PaxMondo wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:14 pm

Mike Solli wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 4:39 pm 16 Feb 42

One P-40E rose today over Pt. Moresby and was promptly shot down. 30 P-40Es shot down this month.

Really surprised that Ted's continues to "feed" your buzzsaw. Do you think he is just overlooking this, or ... ???

He said that he's using them because they are what he calls provisional squadrons. I guess he figures the planes will be lost when that squadron withdraws. (Maybe they are. I seem to recall that happens sometimes, but can't remember for sure.) At any rate, I don't think he realizes how much experience the pilots are gaining. Yeah, I lose one every now and then, but the overall gain far outweighs the lost pilots. I'll count up the IJN fighter pilot losses to date so we can have some idea of what they are.

Last game, Ted grounded the Dutch Air Force (except for those excellent Do-24s) for the simple reason that he didn't want to give me easy experience for my fighter pilots. Guess he forgot he did that. That was a long time ago, after all.

You could tell him that when those squadrons that leave, he keeps the planes!

That might make his day.

Or just wait until you have shot most of those down to tell him that.

Some thoughts on the IJN Carrier force...

KB

I discovered (probably forgot a long time ago) that I can't change the size of the air units on the fleet carriers. I think that I will be able to change them to what I want after they can change historically, which is July 42. (The CVLs and CVEs can change from day one, and I did that.)

So, how do I set up the air groups? Typically, I'll make the fighter group around half the max for the carrier, the torpedo bombers will be about a third of the torpedo complement and the rest will be dive bombers. Here's what the air complements will look like come July 42:

Ship - Zero/Val/Kate

Akagi - 39/27/15 - 45 torpedoes (81 plane capacity)
Kaga - 39/27/15 - 45 torpedoes (81 plane capacity)
Hiryu - 36/15/12 - 36 torpedoes (63 plane capacity)
Soryu - 36/15/12 - 36 torpedoes (63 plane capacity)
Shokaku - 36/21/15 - 45 torpedoes (72 plane capacity)
Zuikaku - 36/21/15 - 45 torpedoes (72 plane capacity)

So, come July 42, KB has a total of 222 Zeros, 126 Vals and 84 Kates. That's not a lot of Kates, but they use torpedoes pretty much exclusively.

I give each daitai 3 spare planes and 3 spare pilots. It gives them a little staying power in case things get ugly.

Just about all the time, I'll keep 10% of the Kates on naval search, so those 84 Kates are effectively 76 Kates.

I usually keep the carrier divisions the same as was done historically. I like to put them in TFs of about 200 or so aircraft when I anticipate combat and will divide them up in 2 TFs, with Akagi, Kaga and Hiryu in one and the other 3 in the other.

Almost all the time the fighters are set on escort with 60% CAP. So, if full air loads fly, they are escorted by about 89 Zeros with about 133 Zeros flying CAP over the carriers. I set the Zeros and Kates at range 7 and the Vals at range 6. The Vals only carry 2x 60 kg bombs at range 7, which is pretty useless. I always try for combat within 6 hexes so my attack force is increased by about 150% with the addition of the Vals.

Later in the war, I'll use a mix of A6M3a for long range escort and A6M5c (armored) for CAP. By that time I have the Judy III/IV and the Jill, which greatly increases my attack range.

MKB

All the little carriers are MKB, which currently is Ryujo, Shoho, Zuiho and Hosho. Taiyo will eventually be added once I get some Val pilots trained up. Here's their composition:

Ryujo - 36/0/12 - 27 torpedoes (48 plane capacity)
Shoho - 21/0/9 - 18 torpedoes (30 plane capacity)
Zuiho - 21/0/9 - 18 torpedoes (30 plane capacity)
Hosho - 14/0/6 - 6 torpedoes (20 plane capacity)

Something I learned about Ryujo. She sucks. She's blessed with a large torpedo capacity but has only 141 sorties. Even little Hosho has 220 sorties.

Right now, I keep them all together, except when Ryujo has to head back to port to replenish her sorties. They are really fragile, so I keep them out of harms way for the most part. They stay out of the big girl battles. Sometimes, I'll keep MKB in the wings of a large battle to help with clean up should things go wildly in my favor.

MKB tends to spend a lot of time in the SRA, where they can ambush TFs heading from the Indian AO to the west coast of Australia. I remember last game, I caught a big convoy hauling 9 Australian Division and utterly destroyed it. I think only 1 or 2 beat up xAPs survived. It was glorious for my little MKB.

Carrier Reinforcements

I'm kind of weird about this.

I shut off Shinano. Nuff said.

I currently have Hiyo accelerated. She 77 days out. Junyo is 65 days out. When Hiyo reaches Junyo (in 12 days) I'll set her to normal so they both arrive on the same day. They will be the same CV Division and will steam together. They're really slow (25 kts) so they are the flagships of MKB.

Ryujo comes out on its normal date of 28 Nov 42. Her air complement doesn't arrive unit 1 Nov 43, so she'll most likely sit in port unless I lose a carrier, in which case she'll pick up that carrier's air complement. I may give her some land based planes, but I like to keep all I can training. It all depends on the situation.

Taiho is a nice ship, but expensive. I keep her building normally, but I'll accelerate her later when my other carrier (see below) are built. I anticipate getting Taiho around the end of 43.

Amagi, Unryu and Katsuragi are a carrier division (189 total planes) and I am currently accelerating them until they are all arriving on the same date. Right now the first 2 are arriving on 24 Jul 44 and the last is accelerated and is currently at 30 Aug 44. By the time she meets the other two, I'll be able to accelerate all 3 at the same time. I should get them in late 43.

CVL Ibuki will accelerate later and arrive probably in mid-44. We'll see...

The last 3 CVs, Kasagi, Ikoma and Aso are also a carrier division and will be accelerated together like the other 3. I anticipate them arriving in early 44.

Other ships

I am building Yamato and Musashi, which will arrive in 82 days and 1 Dec 42 respectively. Once they're done, that'll allow me to accelerate more carriers. Can't wait.

I accelerate all DDs, as soon as I can. Right now, it's only 7 but I'll accelerate as soon as they are able.

I'm getting the CLs as they come.

I'm building the subs as they come. I stopped 57 and have 104 still coming.

On the merchant side....

I'm accelerating CVEs Unyo (8 days) and Chuyo and am allowing Kaiyo and Shinyo to arrive normally. These guys will most likely provide naval search and ASW support to large convoys.

I currently have 8x Type-1 TM class TKs (8150, 14 kt) accelerated (2 have arrived). I'll probably accelerate more as time goes on.

There's lots more, but I already babbled on more than I wanted to.

Mike Solli wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 1:55 am
Kaga - 39/27/15 - 45 torpedoes (81 plane capacity)

MKB

All the little carriers are MKB, which currently is Ryujo, Shoho, Zuiho and Hosho. Taiyo will eventually be added once I get some Val pilots trained up. Here's their composition:

Ryujo - 36/0/12 - 27 torpedoes (48 plane capacity)

You might want to check on the Kaga, I think that her capacity is 72 aircraft.

The Ryujo would be nice carrying 54 Zeroes for defensive CAP. Not much to worry about her sorties then.

Your Kates will fly with two 250 kg bombs when their carrier is out of torpedoes and will bomb very accurately at 1,000 feet. That is a great way to kill enemy cruisers (but not late war CAs) and smaller, including most American CVs. I actually prefer the Vals for Naval search although their range is less than the Kates. But if you have your CS along, their Jakes can fly searches. But your Jakes flying from your CS ships on low naval can also do a pretty good job on destroyers (with some training) and cargo vessels. So they can also raid enemy shipping lanes although they don't have a lot of sorties.

Mike Solli wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 8:10 pm

PaxMondo wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:14 pm

Mike Solli wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 4:39 pm 16 Feb 42

One P-40E rose today over Pt. Moresby and was promptly shot down. 30 P-40Es shot down this month.

Really surprised that Ted's continues to "feed" your buzzsaw. Do you think he is just overlooking this, or ... ???

He said that he's using them because they are what he calls provisional squadrons. I guess he figures the planes will be lost when that squadron withdraws. (Maybe they are. I seem to recall that happens sometimes, but can't remember for sure.) At any rate, I don't think he realizes how much experience the pilots are gaining. Yeah, I lose one every now and then, but the overall gain far outweighs the lost pilots. I'll count up the IJN fighter pilot losses to date so we can have some idea of what they are.

Last game, Ted grounded the Dutch Air Force (except for those excellent Do-24s) for the simple reason that he didn't want to give me easy experience for my fighter pilots. Guess he forgot he did that. That was a long time ago, after all.

OK, so that's the thinking I would have ... so maybe he just forgot ... happens ...

RangerJoe wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 2:38 am

Mike Solli wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 1:55 am
Kaga - 39/27/15 - 45 torpedoes (81 plane capacity)

MKB

All the little carriers are MKB, which currently is Ryujo, Shoho, Zuiho and Hosho. Taiyo will eventually be added once I get some Val pilots trained up. Here's their composition:

Ryujo - 36/0/12 - 27 torpedoes (48 plane capacity)

You might want to check on the Kaga, I think that her capacity is 72 aircraft.

The Ryujo would be nice carrying 54 Zeroes for defensive CAP. Not much to worry about her sorties then.

Your Kates will fly with two 250 kg bombs when their carrier is out of torpedoes and will bomb very accurately at 1,000 feet. That is a great way to kill enemy cruisers (but not late war CAs) and smaller, including most American CVs. I actually prefer the Vals for Naval search although their range is less than the Kates. But if you have your CS along, their Jakes can fly searches. But your Jakes flying from your CS ships on low naval can also do a pretty good job on destroyers (with some training) and cargo vessels. So they can also raid enemy shipping lanes although they don't have a lot of sorties.

You're right, in vanilla Kaga has 72 capacity. In this mod, she has 81 capacity. I'll take it!

In my current turn (not yet posted), KB sent 51 Kate sorties, all bombers at 10k feet (thought I had them set to torpedoes, but I guess I didn't), and they got exactly 1 hit on a DD. 1% hit rate. Sheesh. 16 Val sorties got 3 bomb hits spread over 2 DDs. 18% hit rate. Both were awful. Those 4 DDs should be gone.

Good suggestion for Ryujo. I may do that later when the Yamada groups and Okamato group withdraw and I have some extra pilots to play with. I'll probably keep a few Kates on board for scouting and to use the torpedoes when needed.

PaxMondo wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 12:15 pm

Mike Solli wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 8:10 pm

PaxMondo wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:14 pm

Really surprised that Ted's continues to "feed" your buzzsaw. Do you think he is just overlooking this, or ... ???

He said that he's using them because they are what he calls provisional squadrons. I guess he figures the planes will be lost when that squadron withdraws. (Maybe they are. I seem to recall that happens sometimes, but can't remember for sure.) At any rate, I don't think he realizes how much experience the pilots are gaining. Yeah, I lose one every now and then, but the overall gain far outweighs the lost pilots. I'll count up the IJN fighter pilot losses to date so we can have some idea of what they are.

Last game, Ted grounded the Dutch Air Force (except for those excellent Do-24s) for the simple reason that he didn't want to give me easy experience for my fighter pilots. Guess he forgot he did that. That was a long time ago, after all.

OK, so that's the thinking I would have ... so maybe he just forgot ... happens ...

We're all getting older...

Mike Solli wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 4:34 pm

In my current turn (not yet posted), KB sent 51 Kate sorties, all bombers at 10k feet (thought I had them set to torpedoes, but I guess I didn't), and they got exactly 1 hit on a DD. 1% hit rate. Sheesh. 16 Val sorties got 3 bomb hits spread over 2 DDs. 18% hit rate. Both were awful. Those 4 DDs should be gone.

Yeah, except DD's have really high maneuver speeds ... hard to hit with bombs, unless you are saturation bombing with LB's. On the flip side, near misses should be hits because without armor they should fold up like soda cans .... so maybe the naval model is a bit forgiving in this area ....

Anyway, yes, DD's are dang hard to hit. My best success is with Kates at ~5K. I'll take AA losses, but I can hit DD's with them ... so trade off. I don't go DD hunting with my best Kate pilots ... generally I will replace them with Val pilots (naval bombing) and use them when I need to.

PaxMondo wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 6:25 pm

Mike Solli wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 4:34 pm

In my current turn (not yet posted), KB sent 51 Kate sorties, all bombers at 10k feet (thought I had them set to torpedoes, but I guess I didn't), and they got exactly 1 hit on a DD. 1% hit rate. Sheesh. 16 Val sorties got 3 bomb hits spread over 2 DDs. 18% hit rate. Both were awful. Those 4 DDs should be gone.

Yeah, except DD's have really high maneuver speeds ... hard to hit with bombs, unless you are saturation bombing with LB's. On the flip side, near misses should be hits because without armor they should fold up like soda cans .... so maybe the naval model is a bit forgiving in this area ....

Anyway, yes, DD's are dang hard to hit. My best success is with Kates at ~5K. I'll take AA losses, but I can hit DD's with them ... so trade off. I don't go DD hunting with my best Kate pilots ... generally I will replace them with Val pilots (naval bombing) and use them when I need to.

The Kates at 1k feet work great against DDs. I just keep the Kates at 1k feet unless I have them bombing a port but there is very little need for the Kates to do that against the AI. Even Jakes with decent pilots work nicely as well.

25 Feb 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

KB is sneaking up to the Aleutians.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

One P-40E rose today over Pt. Moresby and was promptly shot down. That's 65 shot down for the month.

Ten Banshees came into Gasmata for a port attack do no damage. My CAP was flying high and they came in low. I added some low CAP for tomorrow.

SRA

Malaya

I had noticed a couple of days ago that there was no more AAA over Singapore. No more supply there? *Shrug* I tried a shock attack that failed. (I should have just done a deliberate attack.). Anyway, it failed and there still are 3 forts there. I lost only a few squads but had a lot disabled. Allegedly, he lost 53 squads and a couple dozen others. I'll keep bombing his troops for the time being and rest my troops. Damn Singapore. I can never take that place in a reasonable amount of time.

Ted does tell me regularly that he thinks my troops can handle 6 or 7 more shock attacks.

Philippines

Bataan - 910(-1) - 674(-7)

Borneo

Still pumping and repairing that oil!

Sumatra

Same as Borneo.

Java

Still squeezing the Dutch south and killing off isolated pockets of troops.

Burma

Moving toward the 44k troops at Mandalay. Curious to see what's there.

China

Nothing exciting to report.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

RangerJoe wrote: Fri Oct 03, 2025 1:15 am The Kates at 1k feet work great against DDs. I just keep the Kates at 1k feet unless I have them bombing a port but there is very little need for the Kates to do that against the AI. Even Jakes with decent pilots work nicely as well.

Yeah, I just don't have IJN Naval pilot trained at low Nav this early in the game. Generally May-ish timeframe before I can get those pilots enough low Nav to be effective ....

26 Feb 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

KB goes in tomorrow.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Six Zeros caught 11 Banshees coming in low for an attack on Gasmata but shot down only 2. Really? The Banshees did no damage at all.

SRA

Malaya

Singapore - 1123(-981) - 769(-103) - My AV will come back pretty quickly and his will stay there. Like I said, my losses were almost all disablements and his were mainly kills. Still, it's going to take a while, I think.

The Dutch Squadron bombarded Merauke beating up the poor engineer company trying to build an airfield. Such is life on the frontier.

Philippines

Bataan - 912(+2) - 674(0)

Borneo

Still pumping and repairing oil.

Sumatra

Same.

Java

Still killing isolated pockets of Dutch troops while moving in on Soerabaja.

Burma

A dozen Lilys tried a night bombing attack on Mandalay's airfield today, but severe storms caused them to bomb some jungle.

China

I've been moving on Loyang and have the 3 Sally sentai stationed in Manchuoko bombing the troops there. It's at their maximum range, but they are causing casualties and gaining valuable experience. I bombarded Loyang by ground as well and discovered we have twice the raw AV as the Chinese.

I attacked Hami in the far north and am learning that Ted is concentrating his army much better than in previous games. I have only 2 Cavalry brigades here and will need more strength to take it.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements
CS Nisshin - Naval search and ASW.
I-29 - Glen sub - SE Fleet AO
TK Akane Maru - Type-1 TM (8150 capacity) - headed to Palembang.
40 JNAF AF Unit - Southern Fleet - going to let it build its SNLF squads then head to SE Fleet.

PaxMondo wrote: Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:37 pm

RangerJoe wrote: Fri Oct 03, 2025 1:15 am The Kates at 1k feet work great against DDs. I just keep the Kates at 1k feet unless I have them bombing a port but there is very little need for the Kates to do that against the AI. Even Jakes with decent pilots work nicely as well.

Yeah, I just don't have IJN Naval pilot trained at low Nav this early in the game. Generally May-ish timeframe before I can get those pilots enough low Nav to be effective ....

I haven't even started training any Kates on low naval. That's just not on my radar. I want a pool of torpedo bombing pilots. That'll come later for me.

Mike Solli wrote: Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:51 pm

PaxMondo wrote: Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:37 pm

RangerJoe wrote: Fri Oct 03, 2025 1:15 am The Kates at 1k feet work great against DDs. I just keep the Kates at 1k feet unless I have them bombing a port but there is very little need for the Kates to do that against the AI. Even Jakes with decent pilots work nicely as well.

Yeah, I just don't have IJN Naval pilot trained at low Nav this early in the game. Generally May-ish timeframe before I can get those pilots enough low Nav to be effective ....

I haven't even started training any Kates on low naval. That's just not on my radar. I want a pool of torpedo bombing pilots. That'll come later for me.

I don't train them on Low Naval with bombs, I just set them to torpedoes and they are pretty good that way! Bettys and Nells will fly a full bomb load at 1k feet if their mission is set for naval attack with torpedoes and they will do that from a level 2 airbase. Those two aircraft, among others, are considered torpedo bombers which fly with no problems from a level 2 airbase. The key for having the bombs is not to have torpedoes available so they switch to bombs with no penalty.

RangerJoe wrote: Sat Oct 04, 2025 2:34 pm

Mike Solli wrote: Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:51 pm

PaxMondo wrote: Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:37 pm
Yeah, I just don't have IJN Naval pilot trained at low Nav this early in the game. Generally May-ish timeframe before I can get those pilots enough low Nav to be effective ....

I haven't even started training any Kates on low naval. That's just not on my radar. I want a pool of torpedo bombing pilots. That'll come later for me.

I don't train them on Low Naval with bombs, I just set them to torpedoes and they are pretty good that way! Bettys and Nells will fly a full bomb load at 1k feet if their mission is set for naval attack with torpedoes and they will do that from a level 2 airbase. Those two aircraft, among others, are considered torpedo bombers which fly with no problems from a level 2 airbase. The key for having the bombs is not to have torpedoes available so they switch to bombs with no penalty.

So, it looks like you're suggesting that when the engine does the auto-swap from torps to bombs it ignores low-nav skill? I've never seen that, but I also have never tested that. It's a pretty big oops if true, I hope that the last update will close this hole if it exists ....

I have tested Kates/Netties at low nav attacks against low nav skill (1000 ft bombing), and not surprisingly the results are lousy until low nav gets above 50 .... ditto low ground skill. By lousy, I mean that if your nav skill is 70, then you will get a LOT more hits at 2000 ft compared to 1000 ft until your low nav skill gets above 50.