Matrix Games Forums

Out of 80 Dive and Torpedo bombers, no hits on ANY IJN ships.IJN comes in sinks 2 CA's, CV Yorktown is also about to sink, and another CA is on fire.Funny, because my pilots can hit a small transport ship, but they can't hit A BIG HUGE FLAT FLOATING THING WITH A BIG RED SPOT ON THE DECK.I swear, these IJN pilots could drop a 1000ib bomb on a fly without killing it.My pilots could 2 feet from the deck of the IJN carrier and still miss.[X(]

Some how, I still managed to rape the AI in the Coral Sea Scenario, I guess by keeping my carriers out of range of the IJN carriers.I have every bit of confidence that these pilots can do better than that.

Sh%t happens.... [:)]

What fighters did you incounter ?

Tiger!

The usual A6M2 Zero and a few other Jap fighters I've never heard of before..Betty's and Val's as usual attacking my poor CV's and CA's.

can you paste the combat report of the strike(s)

poor kid; tough day at the office? Bollocks on a bunch of AI anyway................[X(]

sfbaytf, how do I do that?

I won the scenario as I said earlier, so I will have to start where I last saved.The major carrier battle was at the last couple of turns.I'll replay if you guys want.

Under the folder you installed, there will be a "SAVE" folder.

You should see a bunch of files.

Look for "combatreport" .txt file. That should be the latest combat report.

Ahhh....there are several combat report text files.

EDIT:Playing from last save.This time the carnage was WORSE.Uploading the screenshots, give me a minute or two.

Look at this:[:@]

Now look at this, 30 SBD's, no hits:

Only 5 Wildcats on CAP engaged. you may need to tweek the CAP levels.

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

Out of 80 Dive and Torpedo bombers, no hits on ANY IJN ships.IJN comes in sinks 2 CA's, CV Yorktown is also about to sink, and another CA is on fire.

I've had the exact same experience in the Coral Sea scenario: over 80 planes getting past CAP and zero hits on a Japanese CV task force. But I've also had occasions in which a small handful of planes destroy a Japanese transport fleet, claiming to sink almost every one, and it appears that almost every bomb/torpedoes hit their target. Same planes and pilots...same game.

Of course, randomness explains a lot, but we're talking a small sample here (two games) with what appears to be lots of outlier results. Can still be randomness, but you never can tell.

I've had similar results in a PBEM game. My strike force ravaged transports, but had much less success against a target that consisted of APD and DD's. They scored just 4 torpedo and dive bombs hits.

Transports were slow, poorly maneuverable targets and relatively easy to hit.

However when looking at the combat report, I discovered my planes were attacking in thunderstorms and light rain conditions. Attacking small, fast moving maneuverable targets that are shooting back at you and doing all they can to survive, in thunderstorm or light rain conditions hundreds of miles from your carrier in WW2 era aircraft and having to return back to the carrier.

Not an easy task. There is something called "the pucker" factor. This was also way before the smart bomb era. Statically speaking, most bombs dropped by WW2 era aircraft fell way off the target.

ORIGINAL: sfbaytf

I've had similar results in a PBEM game. My strike force ravaged transports, but had much less success against a target that consisted of APD and DD's. They scored just 4 torpedo and dive bombs hits.

Transports were slow, poorly maneuverable targets and relatively easy to hit.

However when looking at the combat report, I discovered my planes were attacking in thunderstorms and light rain conditions. Attacking small, fast moving maneuverable targets that are shooting back at you and doing all they can to survive, in thunderstorm or light rain conditions hundreds of miles from your carrier in WW2 era aircraft and having to return back to the carrier.

Not an easy task. There is something called "the pucker" factor. This was also way before the smart bomb era. Statically speaking, most bombs dropped by WW2 era aircraft fell way off the target.

I understand, but look at results.IJN Pilots get atleast 1:3 hit/miss ratio sometimes even 1:2.While my pilots don't get any hits at all.I had better luck getting 2 CA's in close range.The CA's big guns did more damage than my pilots.Last game, I got 2 CA's and 1 DD into sea combat with 2 IJN carriers and escorts.At end of the day, both IJN carriers are atleast on fire.Dive bombers didn't do jack squat.[:'(]

That actually isnt true, if you look at the thread topic "Flying Low Enough" you will see that the transports around Guadalcanal were attacked by a elite squadron of Bettys with a Zero escort, and the transports evaded the strike, only one DD was actually hit by a torpedo. The only transport to suffer damage was because of a Betty crashing into it.

Further the AAA was very effective against this strike, accounting for 17 of 27 Bettys employed in the attack. I think AE is on the mark, and I also think peoples views were "tinted" because of the results they saw in WITP.

AE is a quatum leap, like it or not. [:)]

ORIGINAL: sfbaytf

I've had similar results in a PBEM game. My strike force ravaged transports, but had much less success against a target that consisted of APD and DD's. They scored just 4 torpedo and dive bombs hits.

Transports were slow, poorly maneuverable targets and relatively easy to hit.

However when looking at the combat report, I discovered my planes were attacking in thunderstorms and light rain conditions. Attacking small, fast moving maneuverable targets that are shooting back at you and doing all they can to survive, in thunderstorm or light rain conditions hundreds of miles from your carrier in WW2 era aircraft and having to return back to the carrier.

Not an easy task. There is something called "the pucker" factor. This was also way before the smart bomb era. Statically speaking, most bombs dropped by WW2 era aircraft fell way off the target.

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey
I understand, but look at results.IJN Pilots get atleast 1:3 hit/miss ratio sometimes even 1:2.While my pilots don't get any hits at all.I had better luck getting 2 CA's in close range.The CA's big guns did more damage than my pilots.Last game, I got 2 CA's and 1 DD into sea combat with 2 IJN carriers and escorts.At end of the day, both IJN carriers are atleast on fire.Dive bombers didn't do jack squat.[:'(]

If you can find that combat report and post it (the combat reports usually have a date as well to help narrow it down from all those in your save folder), then I think people would be better able to advise/assist/commiserate/scratch heads/highlight any oddities

But from the little info I can pick out from your screenshots, sfbaytf's suggestion seems a good way forward. Only 5 wildcats won't be enough to disrupt, let alone shoot down, the IJNAF.

As for your strike on them, really hard to tell from what's there. But I noticed that you've got reports of search Dauntlessssss being shot down by the IJN CAP. It could be that your detection level (DL) was quite low as a result, which led to the poor combat result (note the message about your devastators losing cohesion too). Throw in relative experience levels of pilots and/or any leadership problems and that would explain things to me rationally and within the rules as I understand them for the game.

The problem is that I don't know which combatreport it is.In that game it was in May of 1942.Only dates I found were either around Early August of 42, early December of 41(my grand Campaign) or April of 43(Guadalcanal game).Then half them are blank.

maybe I can be constructive here. It's stated that the reports are generated by the combat replay (into a common 'hopper' as it were) therefore if you've been doing other things scenario wise,,,,,, this may account for missing reports......MAYBE?

ORIGINAL: dasboot

maybe I can be constructive here. It's stated that the reports are generated by the combat replay (into a common 'hopper' as it were) therefore if you've been doing other things scenario wise,,,,,, this may account for missing reports......MAYBE?

OH! I think I know what it is! In the options menu, I had Combat reports set to "off".This explains the missing reports.