I´m such a looser - but WHY?

[Hartmann]

Ok, after having successfully played some of the short scenarios, I finally started the Grand Campaign (Midway no).
Side: Japanese
Diff: Historical

I had two TFs, one heavy cruiser TF, and one carrier TF (I had transferred the Shoho to the carrier TF already containing Shokaku and Zuikaku. The cruiser TF accompanied the carrier TF. The carrier TF itself has two CA and about 6 destroyers. Cap level 60%. Rest of the planes on naval attack and (secondary) rest.

On May 17, weather overcast, the American carriers (Lex and Yorktown) were spotted directly between Gili Gili and the coral reefs.

My TF was about six or seven hexes to the NE, perfect.

This is what happened: the Americans came in first, with Dauntlesses carrying 1000kg bombs. They were too far away for Devastators. The CAP and AA seemed to do very bad job, though. All my carriers were sunk.

My own guys, otoh, while arriving on the target in big numbers (250kg bombs and torpedoes), did not score a single hit!!!!

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Although the scenario seems lost early (I have to cancel all my invasion fleets), I will play on.
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Still, for reasons of learning what the mistake was, I reloaded and played the pertinent terms again. I did this 10 times. I varied the turns so that the attack did not occurr always on the same day. Weather varied from overcast to rainy.
I stayed away from islands to avoid coast watchers.
I varied CAP levels and the "patrol"/"react to enemy" settings. I also varied the altitude for the bombers and torp planes.
I always had a good range (the American carriers were always too far away to use torp planes.

Still, from 10/10, my best result was all carriers heavily damaged, while the Lex and Yorktown were barely scratched. Overall, my zeros seemed to be no match for the wildcats (why?). On one try, the American CAP shot down a whole strike coming in of 20 vals and 5 Kates while the Zeros seemed to just stand by and watch.
The AA of the Americans seem to be much better than mine, too.
What I really do not understand, though, is why I seem to not be able to
score a number of hits even remotely comparable to what the Dauntlesses score.

So, here´s where you guys come in:
PLEASE TELL ME, WHAT THE HECK DO I DO WRONG???

Thanks in advance,

Hartmann

Edit: I´m not a total newbie to this genre. E.g. I played Carrier Strike and Carriers at War for a long long time, and my results were really not that bad.

[Hartmann]

Some things I forgot:

- while docking, I made sure to get the best TF commanders there are.
- I set the naval search of the bombers to zero. But I had Mavis groups in LAE and a seaplane tender plus mavis at shortland. I had excellent sightings all the time. My guys always found their target.
- The enemy was mostly in strike range of Rabaul, too. Though all the planes were set to naval, these strikes never scored anything either (despite varying altitudes)
- There was one engagement several days before the carrier engagement, where I pounded an allied CA TF with about 6 ships hard with my carriers. I believe they all sank. Surely, the fagitue of my pilots went up a bit, but I did not exceed 35%, and this was only with the fighters.

Hartmann


Edit: so many people already read that thread, but no reply? Mogami, dgaad, matrix crew - no suggestions? Can it really be that I just ran into a streak of bad luck?

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

I read your situation very carefully. You just had bad, bad luck. The Japanese carriers usually tromp the Allied carriers in the early days of the long campaign. You seemed to have done everything correctly. It just didn't work.

You could start over?

Michael Wood

[dgaad]

Vals are not that effective because of the low bombload. The Kates are a much greater threat. A single hit with a Kate can sink a carrier. Also the Kate pilots on the four fleet carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Zuikaku, Shokaku) are excellent. Believe me, as one who plays exclusively American, I hate seeing the Kates come in, even just a few of the. Any Kate that makes it through the flak is a potential carrier sinker.

My question is why were there only 5 Kates in that one strike?

You should have sufficient escort with your strikes so that some Kates can get through.

[mogami]

Greetings, sounds aweful, who did you say was commanding your carriers? and how many days did your cap fly 60 percent before the battles. Your escort screen seems a little light (only 2 CA)

[Rob Roberson]

To semi-quote Chuck Heston...we were **** lucky that day. Sounds like you were just unlucky. Press on...its very interesting to play when you have screwed something up (like I did in my AAR) and try to solve it. Good drama .

[Hartmann]

Thanks guys.

Mike: good to hear I did nothing wrong essentially. Well, in the end it seems like I really just had a streak of tough luck. Reminds us all of the fact that carrier battles are the least predictable battles there are. You can do everything right and still loose it all against a foe who has just his lucky day. I willl still try a few variations of that particular save game to set my mind at rest.

Mogami: the Commander of the carrier TF was T.Yamaguchi (I do not recall the exact values, but he´s rated very good for a carrier fleet commander).
The fatigue level of the bombers was excellent, but the Zeros actually ranged from 3-51 fatigue, the average was not above 30, though.

dgaad: sorry, I was being imprecise. The occasion where the 20 Val and 5 Kate were shot down was not the entire strike, but only one of several groups of the strike showing up at target at the same time. The other Kates were there, too, but in other groups.
There were only 2CA and 6 or so destroyers screening, but there was also a second TF of heavy CA´s and DDs in the hex additionally.

Rob: I will play on, but I think the chances for the Japanese are very slim if they get creamed like this in the first carrier battle. Unlike the Allies, they will not get a big boost later to compensate for that early loss of initiative.

Hartmann

[Griffin]

I played "Coral Sea" as Japanese the first time 0200 today. I have barely managed a few Marginal as Allied yesterday, in sorta gamely manner, so I decided to switch. Guess what, I got Tuliga, Lunga, Gila Glia, Buna and loaded over 10,000 troops on Port Morseby. Also, I added 2 American flat tops to the bottom of South Pacific for artifical coral reef and fish breeders -- along with 8 other vessels including a DD and a SS. This was achieved with no losses on Japanese side, they just managed to break a few systems but everything was operational. I guess I was just very lucky.

[mogami]

Yamaguchi is the best carrier commander for Japan (in my opinion)
I would be very sad if that happened to me. I don't mind the carriers being damaged in the first battle (not sank) but they have to at least knock out Lexington and Yorktown so I am free to carry out operations without fear of them showing up. (Junyo shows up very soon-she is not a good CV to fight american fleet carriers with but her and Shoho can support transport TF's very well.)