Carrier Hunting Works!

[herwin]

Let me start by quoting Wayne Hughes ""Carriers dominated the daylight hours but were sitting ducks for gunfire at night. Detaching before darkness, a battleship or heavy cruiser formation could travel two hundred nautical miles at night, a distance engraved in every tactical commander's mind. Since air strikes were mounted at ranges of around two hundred nautical miles, a carrier force could not be closed unless it pursued a crippled and presumably retreating enemy."

I had been playing Coral Sea as the Americans against my usual PBEM opponent. We had been playing a cat and mouse game, and I was covering Port Moresby from the Coral Sea. I suddenly lunged at him, and the resulting carrier duel was at 120 nm. Both sides were chewed up, my carriers worse, and I said 'what the hell' and went carrier hunting with my gunships. That night, both of my SAGs caught the Japanese, sinking the Zuikaku and shooting up the others. The following day, my stranded carrier airgroups mopped up, sinking the Shoho, a couple of cruisers, and most of the Port Moresby invasion convoy.

Carrier hunting works like it should! [:D]

One implication is that if the KB hangs around Pearl Harbour, hunt it!. For six carriers, the screen consists only of two fast BBs, two CAs, an old CL, and nine DDs. Unless the Japanese player has been lucky, the US Fleet should have enough intact gunships to give it a very hard time.

[Knavey]

I would think the results around PH would be different because those CVs aren't wounded like the ones in your example. Of course, if KB is sticking around, you might now have very many large guns intact to shoot at them![:D]

[John Lansford]

I hunted down Zuiho and her lone escort in the Java Sea using my ABDA TF of cruisers and destroyers, and severely damaged Ryuho using the same tactics.  I've also gotten several opportunities (but no hits) on the KB using PT and MTB squadrons as they sailed past some of my defended bases in the DEI.

[Knavey]

I have considered going after Zuiho...KB I figured may be a tough nut to crack since most of my BBs are damaged, but I may try the Herwin doctrine next time I restart.