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March 43. Japanese carrier task force of Ceylon cruising back and forth bombing Colombo. Been a few days now. Most of my BB's are in Madras after a bombardment mission but I have a lot of stuff trapped in Colombo. This task force won't leave. I could just wait it out but I wouldn't have much left. So, I am dispatching the Madras force, and creating another surface combat task force, and I am going to try for a surface combat. Hopefully it will be cloudy and they will leave witout complete annihilation of the British battle fleet. How long is this TF going to hang around for. They have been hitting me for days.

Assuming the CV TF is the KB, what are you doing everywhere else while the IJ have all those resources tied up way over there by Ceylon? The US CVs have a completely free hand. They just need to avoid heavy areas of land based air. And the KB are burning fuel every turn which is good.

I am not sure I would call the AI's action a bad thing. I wish the KB would move to the IO [;)]

And you know where the KB is. that's really useful information. I wish I knew where it was in my game.

Well it looks like 3 or 4 carriers, at least by the aircraft amount.  2 of my carriers are under refit, but the other 2 just mauled the a Port Morseby invasion.   Took some fighter losses that hurt

It didn't work out bad at all.  First combat by CL's and DD's put a hurting on 1 carrier and BB, sunk a cruiser and some DD's and damaged some others.  The BB task force did not fair as well and took the brunt of some retaliatory airstrikes but it looks like I traded 3 cl's and some DD's for a heavily damaged BB vs. 1 CV and BB that will be out of the picture for a year.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Koggala at 30,52, Range 5,000 Yards
 
Japanese aircraft
      no flights
 
Japanese aircraft losses
No Japanese losses
 
Japanese Ships
      CV Kaga
      CV Hiryu, Shell hits 2,  on fire
      CV Soryu, Shell hits 4
      CV Shokaku, Shell hits 29, Torpedo hits 2,  on fire,  heavy damage
      BB Haruna, Shell hits 14, Torpedo hits 4,  on fire,  heavy damage
      BB Kirishima, Shell hits 1
      CA Chikuma, Shell hits 9
      CA Aoba, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
      CL Natori, Shell hits 2
      CL Tama, Shell hits 17,  heavy fires
      DD Oyashio, Shell hits 28, and is sunk
      DD Maikaze, Shell hits 29, and is sunk
      DD Natsugumo, Shell hits 35, and is sunk
      DD Arare, Shell hits 17, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
      DD Uranami, Shell hits 29, and is sunk
      DD Okikaze, Shell hits 5
      DD Nokaze, Shell hits 4,  on fire
      DD Asagao, Shell hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
 
Allied Ships
      CL Durban, Shell hits 1
      CL Caledon, Shell hits 1
      CL Capetown, Shell hits 10,  heavy fires
      CL Colombo, Shell hits 11
      DD Tjerk Hiddes
      DD Stronghold
      DD Decoy
      DD Express
      DD Fortune, Shell hits 1
      DD Griffin
      DD Isis, Shell hits 1
      DD Jupiter, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
      DD Norman
      DD Panther, Shell hits 4,  on fire
 
 

That looks like another one sided affair ! 

Well, it was a bit more even after the air strike:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Koggala at 30,52
 
Weather in hex: Clear sky
 
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 21,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 45 minutes
 
Japanese aircraft
      A6M2 Zero x 33
      B5N2 Kate x 44
      D3A1 Val x 37
 
 
 
Allied aircraft
      Fulmar II x 3
 
 
Japanese aircraft losses
      B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed, 18 damaged
      D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed, 7 damaged
 
Allied aircraft losses
      Fulmar II: 1 destroyed
 
Allied Ships
      BB Resolution, Torpedo hits 1
      DD Panther
      CL Capetown, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
      BB Royal Sovereign, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 3,  on fire,  heavy damage
      DD Isaac Sweers
      BB Revenge
      CL Danae, Torpedo hits 2,  on fire
      CL Emerald
 
 
 
Aircraft Attacking:
      15 x D3A1 Val diving from 2000' (Kaga-2 / General Defence)
               Naval Attack:  1 x 250 kg GP Bomb
      13 x D3A1 Val diving from 2000' (Soryu-2 / General Defence)
               Naval Attack:  1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
      21 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet (Soryu-3 / General Defence)
               Naval Attack:  1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
       9 x D3A1 Val diving from 2000' (Hiryu-2 / General Defence)
               Naval Attack:  1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
      21 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet (Hiryu-3 / General Defence)
               Naval Attack:  1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
       4 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 8000 feet (Hiryu-1 / General Defence)
 
CAP engaged:
No.273 Sqn RAF with Fulmar II (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
      0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 3 out of immediate contact.
      Group patrol altitude is 9000
      Time for all group planes to reach interception is 41 minutes
 
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring BB Royal Sovereign
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Koggala at 31,52
 
Weather in hex: Overcast
 
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 19,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 51 minutes
 
Japanese aircraft
      A6M2 Zero x 6
      B5N2 Kate x 24
 
 
 
Japanese aircraft losses
      B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed, 10 damaged
 
Allied Ships
      CL Caledon, Torpedo hits 1,  on fire,  heavy damage
      DD Fortune
      CL Colombo, Torpedo hits 2,  on fire,  heavy damage
      DD Express
      CL Durban, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
      DD Decoy
 
 
 
Aircraft Attacking:
      23 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet (Kaga-3 / General Defence)
               Naval Attack:  1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
 

I still think surface combat is a little goofy. A surface combat fleet with 4 CLs and 10 DDs is a decent force but when faced with 2 BB, 2 CA, 2 CL and 8 DD screening 4 CVs? Should the outcome be this one sided in just the surface combat alone? Especially midday when this occurred. How did the fleets engage at 5000 yards in day time anyhow? Explanations would be nice at least, something like, "Allied TF comes out of squall. Japanese TF surprised.", this would be nice.

I think the LL torpedo hit rate needs looking at. The British get a 9:1 hit ratio in that encounter. I ran ten surface fights head to head in the Guadalcanal scenario and I think the IJN managed three torpedo hits in total, the allies the same amount.

That said, I think the team are looking into the surface combat results in general, I dont know if there will be any tweaks for the first patch though.

Edit: Just looking at the results of that combat again. Four old CLs and ten DDs manage to sink a CV, a BB, a CA and 6 DDs for the loss of 2DDs. At that rate of exchange the IJN will have nothing left by 1943.

Well, I just had my socks knocked off. March 20 1942 and I had a Japanese surface force show up way south east of Canton Island right in my shipping lanes. They surprised a small convoy carrying not one, not two, not three, not four, but "five valuable bomber airgroups to Noumea. Escorting DD and all merchies not to mention airgroups are now history! Two heavy crusiers, one light and two DDs. How they found me out in the middle of nowhere is a anyones guess.
 
One thing I noticed. I backed up and read the operations report and a catalina had spotted them the turn before. However, in AE now you do not necessarily get an icon on the map for a spotted TF. You have to read the operations report. I would like to see this changed. All real and imagined sub contact and TFs should be marked on the map where spotted-even if it is a generic marker to note a supicious report. This is really for ease of play more than anything else. It is too easy and too critical to miss an item like this in the operations report.
 
 

Yeah,  that group is wondering around my samll Islands.  got 2 AK's with fighters.  Seems to be going in a cirlce doing commerce raiding.  so within about the last 2 weeks I had a Port Morseby invasion attempt,  The Indian ocean deathstar and the commerce raiders.  Was ready for one and got lucky on another.

ORIGINAL: crsutton

One thing I noticed. I backed up and read the operations report and a catalina had spotted them the turn before. However, in AE now you do not necessarily get an icon on the map for a spotted TF. You have to read the operations report. I would like to see this changed. All real and imagined sub contact and TFs should be marked on the map where spotted-even if it is a generic marker to note a supicious report. This is really for ease of play more than anything else. It is too easy and too critical to miss an item like this in the operations report.

^^^^^ This!

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Well, I just had my socks knocked off. March 20 1942 and I had a Japanese surface force show up way south east of Canton Island right in my shipping lanes. They surprised a small convoy carrying not one, not two, not three, not four, but "five valuable bomber airgroups to Noumea. Escorting DD and all merchies not to mention airgroups are now history! Two heavy crusiers, one light and two DDs. How they found me out in the middle of nowhere is a anyones guess.

One thing I noticed. I backed up and read the operations report and a catalina had spotted them the turn before. However, in AE now you do not necessarily get an icon on the map for a spotted TF. You have to read the operations report. I would like to see this changed. All real and imagined sub contact and TFs should be marked on the map where spotted-even if it is a generic marker to note a supicious report. This is really for ease of play more than anything else. It is too easy and too critical to miss an item like this in the operations report.

I agree without a Bodhi utility to map out the sightings I am really poor about xx sighted at hex x,y. At least an icon without any info would be really helpful.

ORIGINAL: crsutton
One thing I noticed. I backed up and read the operations report and a catalina had spotted them the turn before. However, in AE now you do not necessarily get an icon on the map for a spotted TF. You have to read the operations report. I would like to see this changed. All real and imagined sub contact and TFs should be marked on the map where spotted-even if it is a generic marker to note a supicious report. This is really for ease of play more than anything else. It is too easy and too critical to miss an item like this in the operations report.

While we are at it, it would be great that all those contacts on map had mouseover effect, linking them to operations report that detected them. So if above mentioned Catalina did detect that TF mouseover would show "PBY Catalina detected 5 ships heading south", or whatever else we see during the search combat phase.

All this is already in the game but we have to look at ops report and to find those hexes on map. It would just make the interface more player friendly and it doesn't seem too complicated to implement, at least from my limited programming experience. Ofc I can be wrong [:)]

I got lucky and killed that "Japanese commerce raider" by Canton Island. A carrier force was passing by, found it, and sunk it. Then I dispatched a BB Task Force that was also passing by Canton Island to finish it off.

I'm still waiting for "something" to show up/happen in the Indian Ocean (I'm March 19th in my game). But, so far, nothing.

Damn AI does not know when to quit.  It sunk 2 more CL's, got some more licks in on another CV.  It still will not leave.  2 carriers and a BB badly damaged.  It just breaks them off and the other 2 keep troolling back and forth.  Seems fuel and ammo are not a problem.  Guess I have to evacuate Columbo.  Make many task forces and pray for rain

There is a small problem with that script it assumes a number of things which some strategies will trigger it early.
 
I have amended it for the patch to cope with a more variable strategy but in order to fix it I would need to step into each game for a turn and run the japanese side to clear it.
 
OK I am out of the country this weekend if you want this issue fixed send me a save and I can manually step in if I get time and fix it.
 
The TF needs to be off of Ceylon otherwise I cannot adjust it so anyone who needs this fixed send me a save
 
a.mcphie@btinternet.com
 
if I can I will do them tomorrow if not it will be Sunday when I get back

Wow,  thank you, that is generous.  First rate service around here.  Thank you,  I will pass.  I wacked the Japs pretty hard and it will keep 2 carriers in the dock well until the the Essex error.  I traded a lot for it but short 2 carriers makes it even and I can try a small offensive

Yeah there is first rate service around here, but you didn't trade a lot for it ![;)]