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Any suggestions on how to stop the Jap AG's making runs down from Shortland to Vila. I have a base at Munda and Lamberti with lots of firepower but there seems to be no effective way to bomb, strafe, or mine those crazy colliers. I've tried fighters at 100 ft., PT boats, and mines but they still get away... Has anyone had any luck on killing them? 06/04/43: IJN Fleet Carrier Skokaku with Captain Joe Hazelwood commanding drives to within four hexes of Munda only to have his ship blown out of the water by USMC LBA. What was the AI thinking? Outlook for success is good....

LOL. If you figure it out, let me know.

As you said: Straifing? No. Bobming? No. Intercept wit Surface TF? Limited.

Best I have been able to do is park a sub or six in a hex where they hang out. That way, you sink two or three a turn. Except that eventually, they appear to get lucky on their ASW die rolls and attack the subs instead! So far in my AI game, I have lost more subs to barges then to Japanese war ships!

And even if you manage to intercept 10 or 15 of them with a PT or DD TF, you can usually only get three or so before they run away.

All and all, very frustrating . . . . . . .

I've had good success using fighter-bombers set at 1000ft altitude, and in most cases even one 250lb GP bomb hit was enough to sink these small vessels.
There may of course be other factors (weather in general, clouds, fatigue) which can affect the overall performance,
but at least you won't have to worry too much about defensive AA fire.
I tried to prevent the upgrade of my P-39 squads to keep using them for this task.

Shortlands to Vila? Of course thats going to be hard to intercept. Surface TFs are going to be your best bet I think.

Depending on LBA, could you have a couple TFs of CLs/DDs rotate out of Vila set to patrol/react to enemy?

You could park PT boats on patrol/react on the path between Shortlands and Vila, and then the barges would probably suffer on every single hex.

But overall, I think the best idea is to neutralize Shortlands as an effective base.

In my games, P-39 were quite useful against AG ... (100' attack)

XPav,

PT boats won't follow the barges or attempt to attack them if they're not in the same hex. You will also have to fuel them (the PT boats) a lot.
I've used them only during my own landing operations to interdict supply shipping at that time, and taking advantage of enough CAP and fuel being available.

Originally posted by Bernd Hesberg
XPav,

PT boats won't follow the barges or attempt to attack them if they're not in the same hex. You will also have to fuel them (the PT boats) a lot.
I've used them only during my own landing operations to interdict supply shipping at that time, and taking advantage of enough CAP and fuel being available.

I had a bunch of PT's go absolutely berserk - like the Russians in Squad Leader. They were patrolling off Vella LaVella - and a group of AG's showed up in Shortland - and this bunch of maniacs charged INTO Shortland, shot the AG's up, and managed to make it out only slightly mangled, and almost completely out of fuel. Turns out I had them set to React to Enemy. Boy, did they ever!

"You will also have to fuel them (the PT boats) a lot."

This may be a minor bug but I have found PT boats only consume fuel when they move. So for example if I own Lae and I want to "Blockade" Finschafen I can fuel the PT boats at Lae (US base) from the Port, send them to Finschafen (IJ base) and then they can sit at Finschafen for turn after turn after turn without their fuel going down any further.

To the Matrix Staff:

This seems an abuse. Shouldn't ships burn fuel (a little) each day even if they don't move?

Rick,

that's good news indeed. So the next thing I have to do is to check the ratings of the PT commanders. I suppose I will have to find a more aggressive leader.

Parking them in the hexes that the AGs are trying to get to works for me. As stated above, they just sit there floating along using no fuel until someone sails into the hex.

Besides, if you're one hex away, you ain't going to need much fuel.

Besides, if you're one hex away, you ain't going to need much fuel.

That's right. You'll need the fuel after almost each engagement, when the PTs have hurried home with max speed to resupply on ammo.
This will be triggered e.g. when some of them have used their torps (what a waste ...).

Moved two squads of P-39's to Lambeti and they are putting a whipping on those AG's now... Wish my P-38s or F4-us would unleash their guns... oh well waiting on the patch Thanks for all the reply's!!!

Like RevRick, I've have a good deal of success with multiple PT TFs. When set to react, they certainly do!