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I'm not an old CaW vet, so this is all new to me. Very fun...played cat and mouse as the Allies with my carrier groups, trying to keep them out of the clear weather. It was touch and go, because the Japanese ran the transport group down pretty close to Port Moresby. It really looked like they were going for it, and there was a carrier group covering. I managed to get a strike in early from the Yorktown and hit the Zuikaku, but lost a lot of SBDs and TBDs. No cohesive strike here, send 'em in! Since the reports can be exaggerated, I wasn't sure if I had put the Zuikaku out of action.

I won a decisive victory. I really wore out my land-based planes going after the transport group. I sent them up to Cooktown, then up to Port Moresby as I saw the transport force turning the corner around Gili-Gili. Then I kept close tabs on my planes, and turned them around ASAP for more strikes. I also kept the B-17s flying. I managed to get one Lexington strike in on the transport group, but it didn't do much.

My forces sank the Zuikaku and three transports, plus some damage to a couple of cruisers. I had one major strike come at the Lex, but it was Vals only, no Kates (those things are scary), and near dusk, and I survived with three black bars of damage. That night, the night of May 10th, with my air groups fairly gutted, I turned and retreated, no way I was going to lose a carrier now, it was up to the land-based planes. The Japanese, unknown to me until mid-morning, also retreated.

All in all very exciting. Finding out your carrier group has been sighted out in the clear is a bump in the blood pressure. Then when there's an incoming alarm...

Can't wait to try Midway.

ORIGINAL: jazman

{snip}

I won a decisive victory.

{snip}

No one likes a show off you know [:D]

Joe

What Victory at Coral Sea looked like:

I thought people would like this. Summary: if you wound the Jap carriers and only lose one of your own, you've done as well as history. The Japs ran away afterwards with the Shokaku afloat, yet wounded. 100 Japanese planes were lost most failing to land due to the condition of thr Shokaku's deck and with them, the Jap operational tempo.

Makes me feel better when I look at my performance in CaW. Especially when I read things regarding the first attack on the Shokaku from the Yorktown:

"... all their torpedoes missed or failed to to explode and only two bombs found their mark."
- 20th Century Air Warfare, Bishop p211.

Sound familiar? [:)] But that was enough for a US victory in the Coral Sea. I'm respecting this game more and more.

Hmm, not bragging (consciously), I'm willing to concede beginner's luck. I was thinking that even though I won big, it was still pretty tense, and looked like a very close thing until near the end.

I didn't tell you that in my first try at Coral Sea, I lost Yorktown to a hail of bombs and a wall of torpedoes, it got caught in the open on the first day. I killed that game pretty quickly, because it was such an "arrggh!" moment. I was reading another thread with tips and realized how I had messed up. Next time that happens, though, I'll try to make the best of it.

Next up is playing as the Japanese.

Hey finally got my own US Decisive Victory at Coral - out of how many tries.

I gambled that on the second day, the twin Jap carriers might be hiding in a storm and I set up an artificial sighting to hit at dawn.

I was in luck. They were there and my flyboys were thankfully accurate.

I later lost my cruiser force to some overly greedy, aggressive play chasing a Jap AV but here's the best part - I kept the Yorktown and Lexington TG's fully unharmed [8D] [8D]

I also played this scen with accurate enemy damage reports OFF. This was a great decision. At one stage I actually rejoiced (yes Gregor was right you can get emotional here) because my strike estimates showed both Zuikaku and Shokaku sunk with about 7 other ships.

As the Victory screen would show, I in fact only sank the Zuikaku. I had taken the Shokaku's deck out but it remained afloat somewhere. What a shock!

But it seems as with that pic I posted - history repeated itself. The loss of the Zuikaku was enough for the enemy to halt its invasion - but it still stayed active in the waters for 5 days more goading me forward into the air umbrella of the Shoho, lurking for an ambush.

I think I can declare that just like Battle's in Normandy, SSG is replicating history pretty closely with Carriers at War and doing so with a gutsy AI.

My game had four sunk ships in all: the Zuikaku and three transports. Not a bloodbath at all. But the AI also did push the invasion force forward, making me suspect any reports of damage on the Zuikaku. In the end it really was gone.

Here's something I noticed: when a ship is sunk, it _looks_ like it's gone, it's greyed out when your planes are attacking. Obviously it's not a "ghost ship" that your planes might mistakenly attack.

It would seem that this is a bit of FOW dissipation. You know it's not in another TG; it might have been detached, but that's only for if it's a cripple.