So, our remaining Capital Ships have put themselves at risk by insisting on routing to Noumea instead of Cooktown and air cover as intended.
I set all their home bases as Cooktown, and plot a route there taking account of the potential air threat. This time it looks as though they are going to follow orders!
The 4xDDs that failed to attack the tanker have already been identified and attacked by the enemy CVs. So they will try to get to Milne Bay overnight and take on all the fuel there before joining the other Surface ships at Cooktown.
Well our Cruisers got back to Cooktown without incident, but the Japanese CVs hadn't finished their trail of destruction yet.
The 4xDDs attempting to shelter at Milne Bay are intercepted at dawn by no less than 3 strikes from the enemy Carriers. Each raid hits one of our DDs. Then land-based aircraft from Lae and Rabaul join the party. As night falls DD Worden limps into the tiny port at Milne Bay, badly damaged but afloat. We have lost 3 Destroyers!
Our Sub S-42 makes a failed attack on a CL ear Tulagi.
Any good news!? Well unlikely but possible. The CVs air strikes have delayed their retirement northwards and our Subs lay in wait ahead of them. If only . . .
No, I'm fairly sure I can select my intended ratios for air missions. That was a relatively easy concept.
No, someone commented on my Aleutians thread that there was a hotkey to show air balance I think it was in each hex. Unfortunately, despite looking through, I can't find that remark.
In a similar way, I have not yet located the hexside control display. I'd like to see that if possible.
Hexside features (physical map features) is F6.
Hexside control is the W key, for "Who controls the hexsides".
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
Yes, I'm aware of those keys and always play with hexside features ON. They're on the hotkey list which I printed out right at the start of my escapades with WitP(AE).
Unfortunately, the 'W' key has never seemed to do anything. Nothing on the display seems to change. Ah, of course! I play with hexside features ON, so presumably that overwrites anything 'W' reveals?
I'd still be interested to know what this 'air balance' display looks like. Whoever it was who mentioned it (I think it was during the incident when a TF jumped off the map due to an air threat in the Aleutians Campaign.) I'd really appreciate an explanation since I cannot find your post despite trawling through the previous AAR.
Give me a week to lick my wounds and I'll try again!
ORIGINAL: Energisteron
Unfortunately, the 'W' key has never seemed to do anything. Nothing on the display seems to change. Ah, of course! I play with hexside features ON, so presumably that overwrites anything 'W' reveals?
F6 does not overwrite W. Red or green lines for hexside controls are pretty thin but they are still there.
Try toggling F6 off and try W again. If your W does not visibly work anyway, maybe it's time to reinstall the latest patch.
The W key has worked since game release, so the patch has nothing to do with it. I just tested it and the hexside control does seem to override the F6 display.
It may be that you have selected the hex that you wish to view, and the cursor's white selection lines have overwritten what you want to see. Select a different hex before using the W key.
There is no key for "air balance", but discussion of things like CAP and unescorted bombers might have strayed into relative strengths of both sides' air forces and how that "balance" influences your decisions about whether to be aggressive or defensive. Perhaps about your lonely CVE in that scenario and what mix of aircraft to have on it?
There is so much info between the game itself and forum postings in AARs, the War Room, and Main Forum that it is easy to forget where you saw something!
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
I'll watch out for how it looks in shared (invasion) hexes next time it happens.
This is how every small island should look normally. There is no hexsides on the small islands, since no other adjacent land hexes. So blue borders all the way - nobody controls the reefs.
Load up scenario #1 and look on large land masses e.g. China, both with and w/o F6 and W. You will see how it is.
GAME 2 - The CORAL SEA - Usual caveat about spoilers of course!
Ok, I'm going to have another attempt! I will use the same settings as game 1, except reinforcements for the Allies will NOT have +/- 15 day variability. So it'll be against HARD AI again.
Right, so what did I learn last time? What mistakes did I make? Can I avoid repeating them?
Lessons learnt:-
1. Carrier battles are brutal and deadly. A successful first strike usually kills or incapacitates so that the Carrier is rendered defenceless thereafter. [Last time, Lexington was destroyed as above, but Yorktown did limp away to fight another day because she was at extreme range and attacked in the afternoon, so escaped detection during the night]
2. Concentrate, and concentrate some more! The maximum possible mutually supporting CAP must be maintained by keeping Carriers in the same hex (i.e less than 40 NM apart) or even in the same TF. [[My previous tactic of having 2 Carriers slightly separated so that if one was detected the other might not be, failed spectacularly. However, there was some logic in it. When Yorktown was hit and slunk away, Lexington caused a distraction, as intended, by taking up the offensive. However, on her own she was overwhelmed with ease. This probably means that if I lose one Carrier I have to think seriously about withdrawing the other. So it's the 'Beatty principle', keeping the force in being as a threat is more important than actually using it!]
3. Allied assets, both naval and land-forces, are sparse at best and in any case there are no transports to move them around! So, Port Moresby cannot be reinforced. Consequently, if the Japanese land there they will take the base and almost certainly win.
4. Allied air assets are not so bad, BUT the aircraft are mostly outmoded, land-based, and those bases are poorly fitted out and too far away from the action to offer much support or detailed recon.
5. Hide and seek! Somehow, the Allied player must find the enemy Carriers and strike before they know we are there! Then the enemy Transports can be crippled. [Last time I cheerfully started attacking enemy Transports, not to the greatest effect, gave away my presence and the enemy Carriers hit us while our eyes were looking the other way. All so obvious now!]
6. Tulagi. I have a sneaking suspicion that this place is more important than it looks! Doubtless its float-plane recon can see me coming. So I either keep well away or try to knock them out. But, no runway to destroy so maybe that's not a realistic proposition. In any case, to attack Tulagi would mean revealing my Carriers.
Mistakes:-
1. Not concentrating my Carriers quickly enough. (BTW they do start deployed far apart.)
2. Revealing our Carriers' presence by attacking Transports.
3. Not improving northern mainland airbases (not sure that can be done in the time allotted) or at least switching air assets north soon enough.
4. Being lazy and not checking my Recon arcs every day.
5. Doubtless several other things I've not even realized yet!
Replaying a scenario is a great way to learn what works after learning what doesn't!
A couple of small points:
If you do go to Tulagi, you can do a strike against the port to kill the AV/AVP that is supporting the search aircraft there. I think the AI will withdraw the patrol aircraft if there is no support. See if LBA can reach - you don't want to reveal your carriers with an early strike if you don't have to.
Another tool in your toolbox is the use of your Catalina and Empire aircraft as transports to get critical air support, engineers or supply into PM, but only after you have decent search set up.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
The Carriers will merge into one TF about 300 NM west of their current position. Then their escorting Cruisers will be detached as a Surface Combat TF to take direct action against any enemy Surface ships including Transports that stray outside enemy air cover. The Carriers will then head for cover from land-based aircraft near Cooktown and Cairns while searching for any approaching enemy Transports.
Meanwhile, the Australian Surface Combat TF will make a feint towards Tulagi intending to turn back as soon as under air attack. All our Subs will concentrate around the Milne Bay bottleneck at the eastern tip of New Guinea.
Land-based aircraft will be transferred northwards to the limit of the airbase capacity.
Both Carrier TF spotted by Mavis Search planes probably based at Tulagi. One Mavis is destroyed by CAP. CVs expected to join up at dawn today. Aussie TF moves boldly northwards but currently undetected. Oilers retire rearward hopefully out of harm's way!
Catalinas, Subs and Coastwatchers spot enemy TFs moving from Rabaul towards Milne Bay
