2 Oh, come on and a question

[hbrsvl]

Hi-Scen 6, Allies, mid 4/42.

1st Oh, come on- What has happened to Allied ASW in AE? In mid-April, '42, the Allies have not sunk ONE enemy SS. There have been numerous ASW attacks, but no joy.

2nd Oh, come on- How much does it take to sink an enemy CV by surface action, followed by air strikes? Zuikaku, originally with 2 DDs is near to Wake. All DDs have been sunk. The CV absorbed 23-count them-23 surface gunfire hits from Allied CA,CL & DDs. Then she was hit by air bomb(no torps) hits, "on fire, heavy damage" and still got away .

Question-Any news on patch 2?

Comments, please. Thanks, Hugh Browne

[DivePac88]

Remember that Fog-Of-War is very active in AE.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: DivePac88

Remember that Fog-Of-War is very active in AE.

VEry, VEry active. And those pilots WAY overstate what they hit. Amazing they can find the way to the head ... [:D]

[GB68]

ORIGINAL: hbrsvl

Hi-Scen 6, Allies, mid 4/42.

1st Oh, come on- What has happened to Allied ASW in AE? In mid-April, '42, the Allies have not sunk ONE enemy SS. There have been numerous ASW attacks, but no joy.

2nd Oh, come on- How much does it take to sink an enemy CV by surface action, followed by air strikes? Zuikaku, originally with 2 DDs is near to Wake. All DDs have been sunk. The CV absorbed 23-count them-23 surface gunfire hits from Allied CA,CL & DDs. Then she was hit by air bomb(no torps) hits, "on fire, heavy damage" and still got away .

Question-Any news on patch 2?

Comments, please. Thanks, Hugh Browne

Cannot comment on Q#2 , but Q#1 i agree. The ASW is very poor. Even if you manage to hit a sub, the damage is minimal. My understanding of submarine warfare IRL and ASW is that if a sub took a "hit" it was certainly disabled and multiple hits (read 4 or 5) meant disaster. But in AE I've had subs take 10 or more hits and come out with minor to moderate damage?

It may have to do with the definiton of a "hit" but it seems extraordinarily difficult to even disable a sub with ASW from either the air or naval elements. I'm not sure of what the developers have in mind for patch 2 or indeed if they have anything in mind, but some minor tweaking is needed.

[PaxMondo]

I interpret a 'hit' in the combat report to simply mean a DC was dropped in the vicinity of the sub.  IE, simply an indication of usage of munition, nothing more.  Unless it says "forced to surface", I never assume any damage done.
 
AFAIK, this is consistent with early war reports on both sides.  They way overestimated their ASW effectiveness.  When that became glaringly apparent, there were changes made by USN on sub reports that lowered the overstatement, but that wasn't until late '43 or '44.
 
So, to me, the reports are flavor, and consistent with the times.  And yes, ASW was really poor in '42 and '43.  That's why subs were so powerful and feared and effective (with torpedos that worked).  Radar is what evened up the game.  Snorkeling then put the advantage back to subs until sonar became effective along with better radar.