For the most part, liking what i am seeing. Havnt seen too drastic a change in level bombers of course because since i'm playing the AI, it never resorted to the constant low level bombing runs that players complained about in PBEMs though i have noticed a lesser tendancy for the bombs to hit (the string of bombs fix per heavy bomber) very nice
I have noticed a greater chance for small penny packet heavy and medium bomber groups being hurt by large and medium CAP patrols though more often than not, they continue to get through alot but at least with the new flak and disruption improvements, they often dont hit anything. I even had the pleasure of seeing a strong A6M group sock it to a couple small B-26 raids, not only driving them off but shooting down (reportedly, not verified
) several.
B-17's continue to be a bit uber......"Not" in terms of being hard to shoot down but in that they keep shooting down more zeros than the escorts half the time
One thing that came to mind to me over the weekend was i'm wondering if the the game accounts for vulnerable hits on big bombers or if it just factors the durability rating. Head on passes for example should be far more dangerous for even Fortresses vs attacks from other quarters due to cannon and MG fire pouring into exposed engines and cockpit/pilot areas.
I was concerned about the possibility of a bug concerning large LBA's conducting mass operations against land and especially sea targets. Had been seeing alot of penny packet attacks against located sea targets in spite of ample supplies and low fatique (good morale too). So much that i decided to test it by doing something stupid.....i.e. sending in a two regiment invasion TF and a strong surface TF to the western tip of New Calodonia to see if one, the AI would react to it (it had been somewhat placid in my campaign vs Luganville, even factoring in the ship losses) and more importantly to see if the airforce would come out in force or attack in penny packets. Didn't yet have enough air power in place to make this a wise decision but what the hell....BANZAI
A good test considering Normura by 12/15/42 is a hornet's nest of Allied power......no less than 200 fighters and 250 bombers if my J1N1's are not smoking something they shouldn't be (confirmed by a peek since the game is close to ending)
At first it seemed to confirm my fears, as through a combination of bad weather and such, there were either no raids and when a launch was made it was a 10-20 plane group, easily repulsed., i was able to put ashore both regiments in 2-3 turns time and take the base.
The rosy picture changed when the weather cleared though and i was hit by two 250+ plane raids from Normura which devastated my surface TF (because half of those bombers were SBD dive bombers lugging 1000ILBers!)
At the same time my four Beatty squads, ordered to hit the airfield in a daylight op, also attacked en-masse leading to one of the most intense fights yet seen over a base as 35 Zeros tangled with 55 F4F's , 20 P-39's and 10 P-40E's. The resultant strike made little impression on the airbase due to the disruption as expected
Needless to say though my zeros put up a good fight they were overwelmed by the defence losing 15 of their number and 20 of 53 Beattys in trade for 10 P-39's and 2-3 F4F's (and numerous damages)
Despite the pounding i took i was happy to see that if there's a bug going on somewhere in the air code, it isnt chronic to the point where powerful and rested airbases wont launch. If anything it almost seems to be the weather routine which often cancels air missions "due to poor weather" regardless of the gravity of the situation, the realism of which i suppose is debatable so i wont take a stand on that for the time being.
The only poor part was again in the uber-preformance of the bombs. Naturally my three battleships (two Kongo and one Nagato) attracted much of the attention of the SBD's. Hits were not proliferent as my AA was strong and the land based SBD's were quite green, most newly arrived from the States and not as proficient as their carrier based compatriots. Only about half a dozen hits all told on each one through two raids. However because of the overpenetrative qualities of the bombs, every one penetrated the deck armors to cause serious damage.....such that one battleship sank (no torp hits were scored.....only bombs) and the other two were crippled.
Naturally if this could happen to the thick skinned BB's the other ships had no chance either and more damages were dolled out to various CA and CL's.
Hopefully the bomb rating issue will be addressed for 1.21 but at least air bases are working better than i thought. I may just have to sit tight and wait for victory despite the tempting sight of those two undefended New Calodonia bases next to Normura
Not so sure about longer range attacks though......Rabaul for example has yet to send out a full or near full strength raid against AI AK incursions well north of Gili Gili despite having two to three squads of torp carrying level bombers. Often just 10 planes of a single squadron get sent out.
AV float plane problem continues. They wont operate, either on Naval search or ASW missions, whether in port (but undocked) or at sea. Only surface combat and air combat TF's operate their float planes. this has been going on since 1.10)
In general.......1.20 is a peach, and UV only gets better with each patch (though i miss not seeing the names of ships in surface combat resolutions.....more exciting when you see who's who doing what and it doesn't seem to me a big FOW violation in terms of what a player can do with the info anymore than knowing which FG names are dueling in the air)
One suggestion.....i noticed that even if set to "defensive" that both sides ground pounders always bombard automatically. This can be inconvienient if the supply situation is critical and i'm wondering if this should not be changed so that a force can remain static in order to conserve supply points against future assaults. Not sure if this is a big deal as it still took me weeks to drain the enemy troops of supply points but figured i would throw this one out for opinions and comment
Great job guys , keep it up
) ....if not it would seem that you guys need a Bigger Hammer to fix this ...
