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In the absence of the tutorial promised in the manual, here is a starter tutorial based on my own newbie experience.

Start up the Coral Sea scenario with AI vs AI (after that is finished you will play the US yourself).
Just press the Japanese orders button then the Allied orders button and watch what happens. You have to press the buttons at the start of each turn. The scrolling lines at the bottom left are mostly messages saying what game phases are gonig by, and unless you slow them down they go by too fast, so you can disregard them, but try to see what goes on from the messages in the middle of the screen and on the popups. Soon you will have some carrier battles and chances are that the US will get its butt kicked - doesn't matter, you are learning. Eventually the Japanese will invade Port Moresby and probbly win the battle and the game.

You can check out the manual occasionally, but it has more info than you can digest at this point.

Now restart the scenario with you as the US and the AI as the Japanese. Look at the boxes on the top of the screen. Press them to see what each one shows, but disregard the ones on the left that shows all the Allied and Japanese planes and ships - few of them are in this scenario. Some of the screens that open when you press the buttons have buttons that you can press yourself.

You have 3 task forces, 2 of them carrier forces and one with cruisers and such.Therre are buttons on the top right that will open a screen or you can double-click on the units on the map to see what is in them.Actually just hovering the mouse over a TF will show what it contains and a few other data.

Select one of the carrier TFs and click the button on the top right of its screen that says "destination", then click on a hex to the NW about 5 hexes away. Do that for both carrier TFs so they will be close together and headed in the general direction of Port Moresby where the Japs are sending their invasion force supported by 2 carrier groups.

Open a carrier TF screen and click on the carrier to open its screen. Then click on one of the fighter (not bomber) groups on the bottom to open its screen. Click on the button to the right middle (I forget what its called) to open the CAP screen. Choose about 50% CAP - this will put about half your fighters on combat air patrol (it was set to 30%). Do the same with the other carrier TF.

Choose the float planes on various ships and have them search to the NE and E for enemies (the non-carrier TF has some too). Have Port Moresby put up CAP and search planes too - have some search to the SE, because the Japanese invasion force will have to come around the bottom of the peninsula to get to Port Moresby.

Now press the orders comlete button and watch the fun. If you are lucky you may win - especially if you can cripple the invasionforce. In my game, I lost every ship and did not sink a single Jap carrier, but I won a marginal victory because I crippled the invasion force who were unable to take Port Moresby.

Now you can read the manual.

Henri

Hi Henri,

Can I just say a BIG thanks for this easily readable help out for a WITP total newbie who has d/l AE and is waiting for the hard copy (and most importantly the manual!) to figure out how to start without the in game tutorial being ready.
I know there is a pdf but I cant deal with those!

I was going to try out AI v AI Coral Sea to see if it would give me a clue, but now you have given me a chance to play with this scenario at least.

Thanks again.

Ian

Ditto thanks! I had(have) WITP back in the day, and mostly (actually always) lost, either AI or a couple of PBEM's. This is a good suggestion for getting started. (Now if I can just keep my PBEM friend away from this thread[:D])

I am new to WitPAE and started the Coral Sea scenario last night. I was able to set the various PBYs in the area to search for the IJN in which they found the invasion fleet along with a couple of CV fleets. I did not understand what orders to set for my bombers and fighters for example Naval Attack, Sweep, Search, CAP ect? I ended up directing my 2 CV TFs towards Guadalcanal being careful not to go too far north to cover Tulagi. I tried a combination of trying to get bombers set to Naval Attack and assigning fighters as escorts - I did not have any luck with this. I got my butt handed to me by the IJN.

I am a little confused now after reading the tutorial above. All that is needed is CAP by fighters in order to attack the IJN invasion fleet? Once the search planes (PBYs) find the IJN fleet(s) can't I set up an attack using bombers and escorts? If so how do you do this? As I said before I tried using Naval Attack, but I was not able to select the target.

Thanks for any help.

ORIGINAL: [RS]Wedge

I am new to WitPAE and started the Coral Sea scenario last night. I was able to set the various PBYs in the area to search for the IJN in which they found the invasion fleet along with a couple of CV fleets. I did not understand what orders to set for my bombers and fighters for example Naval Attack, Sweep, Search, CAP ect? I ended up directing my 2 CV TFs towards Guadalcanal being careful not to go too far north to cover Tulagi. I tried a combination of trying to get bombers set to Naval Attack and assigning fighters as escorts - I did not have any luck with this. I got my butt handed to me by the IJN.

I am a little confused now after reading the tutorial above. All that is needed is CAP by fighters in order to attack the IJN invasion fleet? Once the search planes (PBYs) find the IJN fleet(s) can't I set up an attack using bombers and escorts? If so how do you do this? As I said before I tried using Naval Attack, but I was not able to select the target.

Thanks for any help.

A few comments to get you started. As you discovered, you cannot set a target for naval attack. You will have to hope your search planes spot the target the next day and that your local commanders agressively send in the bombers. As far as fighters go, when you set them to escort the amount you set to CAP will stay behind to protect the base. The escort will come from those not set to CAP or training or rest. Setting the escorts to the same altitude as your attacking bombers will improve the chances of a coordinated strike, but the fighters may arrive with the bombers, or before, or after or not at all.
What actually happens will depend a great deal on what the local commanders decide.

This aspect is frustrating to some but a big part of the appeal to others. If you expect everything to go as planned you will probably be frustrated by this game. If you want things to work a little bit like they do (or don't) in the real world you will have lots of fun.

Good luck.

Thank you for your reply Chicken.

So I will not have to order the bombers to attack - they will automatically be sent to attack the IJN CV fleet(s) and/or invasion fleet?

ORIGINAL: [RS]Wedge

Thank you for your reply Chicken.

So I will not have to order the bombers to attack - they will automatically be sent to attack the IJN CV fleet(s) and/or invasion fleet?

You hope so. First your search planes must locate the enemy fleet and your local commanders must decide to launch the strike. That depends on morale and commander agressiveness for example. Low morale or tired units will not fly against heavy odds.

Great thanks again. I will not waste anymore time trying to get my bombers to attack a specific enemy TF.

Everything went smooth - almost too easy [;)]


1.  I sent my CVs and surface combat TF north towards PM followed by the tankers - making sure I stayed to the west of Rossel Island. 

2. I set my land based PBYs to search and half of my various float planes to search as well and the other half to ASW. 

3.  I set all of my Wildcats based on YT and LEX to CAP increased from 30 to 50.

The search planes immidiately found the IJN invasion TF and then the Wildcats and SBDs pounded it without any problems.  I did lose a few planes here and there to enemy CAP, but nothing to serious.  A few turns later the IJN invasion TF was totally eliminated.  The CV commanders then sent fighters/bombers to Lae a few times and I lost a few more planes due to enemy CAP and AA. 

After a few more turns I decided to take YT and LEX south to seek out the IJN CV TFs.  Bad idea.  They sank the YT and I then took LEX back north to PM to avoid any further losses. I did not have near enough fighters/bombers to compete against those IJN CVs. 

The scenario ended with a decisive victory for the Allies.  I scored 1400+ points to Japan's 598 points. 

I wish there was a statistical review of the scenario like:   what ships were sank, who actually scored hits, which planes were shot down, ect.

Thanks again for the Coral Sea Tutorial.  This scenario definitely gets the player started on learning how things work with TF movement and assigning aircraft to perform certain task without having to worry about production, base management, troop movements, resource management, ect.

Excellent job.  Thanks for all the help.

Thanks for making this thread. Like one of the above posters, I was trying to find a target for my bombing group.

There is very informative thread already started by a very knowledgable veteran.

Here is a link.

tm.asp?m=3219921

Helpful assistance.. thank you very much.
but..

Stupid question alert!

How come IRL the two fleets did considerable damage to one another but in the game the same fleets, planes, you stated do not have enough planes to compete against the IJN carrier forces present?

Lexington - damaged - but damage was shored up and and she was underway- then because a generator was left running in an aviation fuel vapor filled area a massive internal explosion rocked the ship. She was making 25 knots even after her aviation fuel explosion - it would take dual explosions in the afternoon to cause the Evac and her scuttling.
Yorktown - damaged - would participate in Midway
66 airplanes lost

Zuikaku - escaped damage but her air forces were decimated and she would sit out Midway
Shokaku - heavily damaged and she would have months of repair ahead of her
light carrier Shoto - sunk
77 airplanes

The answer is already in [RS]Wedge´s post itself (I guess you are referring to his post).

In his game the attrition of the USN CV force before the carrier battle tilted the balance in favour of the fully operational IJN CV fleet.


In the Battle of the Coral Sea the events were already influenced by initial losses tilting the balance in favour of the USN: The Japanese
strike only found the USN reppers and sunk an oiler (which was first misidentified as USN CV), while the USN sank Shoho only losing 3 planes.

So, the consecutive CV vs. CV engagement on the next day saw the Japanese already with a diminished CV force, and the US still close to their original
complement. The scenario represents the setup before the battle, where the force relation was still a bit different.

I see that all the earlier people apparently found this clear seeing their nice compliments, however, I am a little confused. I found the CAP box OK for the Lexington, and set it as you said. The other TF (Yorktown) is way down in Noumea at start. I guess you meant to do the same thing with CAP, which I did regardless of its location...as it is still in port and both TFs are not near one another as your instructions seem to apply.

Now the float planes...you said to "search" and I presumed that you meant to choose the "Patrol" box and set the planes to search which I did, and those eligible non-aircombat ships that had float planes, but I didn't understand how you set their direction? So I just exited.

And for Port Moresby...there IS NO CAP choice so all I could do there is send out more to search? And again I didn't know how to designate either the float planes or the fighters to a specific direction. Could have used a bit more instruction if this was to be my first game after just watching the AI to AI battle. Those dialog boxes have an awfully lot of choices. I am sure someone familiar with the game could follow those instructions without much specifics...I could not but I appreciate having the tutorial. Like I said, I am not sure if I will know that I did it correctly or not. I also presume that you meant to KEEP hitting the end orders button making no other changes? And just watch the fun? For ten turns? I guess I will see when it ends. Thanks.

Back again so soon...well this is a big kick in the head. Believe I followed the above instructions for the Newbie tutorial as best as I could for my first post AI to AI game. I guess you all who found this tutorial helpful did a lot better than I. After TURN one the Lexington is GONE and all that is left of its Task Force is CA Minneapolis and DD Phelps! Not too encouraging a beginning and not sure what I learned. Though I think I could have managed losing a whole TF in one turn myself without the instruction.

CAP is not set by the base or the carrier screen, you do it in the air unit screen, over on the lower right side. Set the Mission as "Sweep" or "Escort", then choose a CAP % and a range. DO NOT set a long range - this will dilute the number of planes available in the patch of sky over your carriers. Range 1 is what I use most.

It is not sufficient to have your PBYs spot the enemy carriers one day and expect your force to strike the next day - the enemy will have moved. You need to set some of your aircraft on search. Note that one of your SBD squadrons is designated VS - that means it is expected to do some search. I set 20% search, max range for the aircraft. I do not bother with search vectors - the results seem better if you do not specify a direction. Cruiser float planes should be set to 100% search - they have no other mission (their pilots are not trained enough in ASW to do a good job of that). Set your bombers to Naval Attack. DBs at 10,000 feet to make their most accurate attack and TBs at 1000 feet to sneak in low, whether armed with torpedoes or bombs.

Once your carrier search finds the enemy (usually in the morning air phase) they will attack in the PM air phase, weather permitting. Weather is the wild card that can decide the battle for either side. IRL, Zuikaku escaped damage because it hid in a rain squall, and I believe the USN carriers were also hidden by weather part of the time.

Thanks for the good start. I was reading the manual and beginning to consider seppuku instead.[:)]

Thanks for the tutorial, I got a decisive victory on my first try, played as Allies, JAP was Easy AI.

Thanks all for these post and tutorial. Just finished my first ever scenario in WitP and I had a decisive victory as the allies!
Lost many planes and one carrier but held up the invasion force on the way to Port Moresby(or atleast somekind of Troop Transport). One of my Cruiser/DD TF had one decisive battle and rained hell on those japanese transport ships, sinking 95% of them and killing thousands of ground troops.

With the help of this post(and some great youtube tutorials) I am now thinking about climbing the ladder of complexitiy(or just replay the Coral Sea Scenario as Japan or another go with the Allies). This was so much fun. Now before I get back into WitP I will play the Coral Sea Scenario of GMT's/Mark Herman's "Pacific War" and try to get a similar outcome.

Cheers and thank you all again for your beautiful posts and helping me find a good first strategy