AFB questions....Intel useless?

[Rusty1961]

Honestly, in most of the three games I've played, fewer than 1% of my intel reports have been related to Japanese Naval Movement. Only once, once I say have I gotten a report on a ship larger than a DD. One game is in nearly September of '42, one ended in August of '42 and another one is nearly in February of '42.

I find very, very little useful information in the intel screen.

My question is this: is there some trick the Japanese can do to make sure combined fleet movements don't show up in my intel screen?

[crsutton]

It is just very rare. The Japanese player need not use any tricks. Once in a while you will get a nugget but that is about it. Other indicators are high radio traffic notices at a base.

[BigBadWolf]

You should try Japanese side and see what useless intel really is.

"Heavy radio traffic in Pearl Harbor"
Really?

[Thayne]

I find the Intel useful, but it takes a lot of work.

I save all of my Intel reports. I get news that a particular Japanes unit is planning for an attack on a particular base. I then do a search through the past records. I may discover its original location. I may discover that it loaded onto a ship. I had a couple of units preparing for an attack on New Zealand - where searching other reports revealed that the units were locked deep in the heart of Manchuria.

When I prepare to attack a base, I peform a search of past reports to discover what I know of that base - a history of number of troops, units at the base. units moving to the base. If I have reports of a unit at the base, I search for the unit - did it recently leave the base and show up someplace else?

It's useful . . . but it takes some work.

[Rusty1961]

Ahistorically rare, apparently.

[Canoerebel]

I can only tell you that the SigInt that the Allies receive is incredibly helpful. I did not think so early in my career as a player of WitP and AE, but I came to realize that eventually.  There is a TON of information there if you know how to compile and then interpret it.
 
Delving more into the nitty gritty, I only rarely receive SigInt about specific capital ships, but it does happen on occasion and can be devastatingly powerful.
 
The game provides the Allies less SigInt than they got in the war, but combined with other stuff we get that the real Allies didn't get (mouseover intel, "gurgling" noises when enemy ships go under, discolsures from the opponent via email, etc., I think we actually do pretty good.
 
There is one important way in which we suffer though. Since the game is committed to one day turns, you cannot recall your capital ships from danger like a real commander would.  The KB can suddenly show up five hexes away, when in the real war the Allies generally had a very good idea of where the KB was - or at least where it almost certainly wasn't - so that the Allies could often move about with a bit of impunity - especially later in the war.  This lack of info, combined with an inability to recall ships in a timely fashion due to the game's 24-hour turn cycle, make it necessary (IMHO) to make liberal use of picket ships.  Doing so helps create a much mroe realistic overall situation. 

[vettim89]

My PBEM opponent can tell you they are not useless as he lost all the ships in an AMPH TF to a RN rader TF that sortied to Sibolga based on a SigInt report of "144th Inf RGT is on an xAP bound for Sibolga". So yes, they do occasionally give you a little nugget but it is rare you can do anything about it.

[lazydawg]

WITP-Tracker does a respectable job tracking intelligence reports; however, I still miss Bodhi's old WITP utility.

[JeffroK]

Tracker can help sort this out for you, you can search by unit or location. (Funny, Tracker wasnt working under beta, tried it under official patch and its OK!)

As mentioned you get a bit of information, but IMHO, not as much as received IRL.

But the japanese get scraps, you might worry about KB turning up unannounced, how about 3rd Fleet and an amphib force carrying 3 Marine Divs surfacing off Saipan.
(At least their LR Nav search gives them warning.)

[denisonh]

CombatReport also works well to organize op and intel data.

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: ncdawg

WITP-Tracker does a respectable job tracking intelligence reports; however, I still miss Bodhi's old WITP utility.

I agree! Bodhi's utility was fantastic for compiling all of the intel for specific hexes over many days, or intel about ships over time.

[aphrochine]

I'm a bit lazy and do not read my SigInt daily, due to the difficulty in extrapolating anything useful 99.8% of the time from those snapshots of intel. However, I do look over reports from Tracker and/or Reporter in compiled format every few turns. This is how you get good information and allow you to build a better idea of what your opponent is doing.

If you are a bit more nerdy [8D], you can use Notepad++ to search for various texts through multiple files (SigInt) at once.

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: denisonh

CombatReport also works well to organize op and intel data.

Reporter is very good for organizing the ops and intel report data, but it doesn't compile them over time like Bodhi's utility for WitP did.

[CV 2]

ORIGINAL: vettim89

My PBEM opponent can tell you they are not useless as he lost all the ships in an AMPH TF to a RN rader TF that sortied to Sibolga based on a SigInt report of "144th Inf RGT is on an xAP bound for Sibolga". So yes, they do occasionally give you a little nugget but it is rare you can do anything about it.

Must be a reasonably new Jap player. Most of us that have been around a while know about these types of intel reports and will plot a TF to a nearby hex within a days movement of the target to keep these reports from revealing the target.

[denisonh]

So unfortunately true.

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: denisonh

CombatReport also works well to organize op and intel data.

Reporter is very good for organizing the ops and intel report data, but it doesn't compile them over time like Bodhi's utility for WitP did.

[msieving1]

The only sigint about ships that I have ever seen is a notice every once in awhile about a land unit loaded on a transport.   Reports that a unit is planning an attack on a particular location usually refer to a unit that's already at that location.  Sometimes I get one or two days advance notice.  Lots of times, no attack comes at all.  I don't think I have seen any actionable intelligence from sigint.

[crsutton]

I have had Japanese carriers spotted about 4 our five times in 2 and a half years of war. Sometimes they are noted in port and sometimes headed for a hex. I averted a major disaster off of Port Headland when intel told me that a Japanese carrier was headed there. Of course all of his buddies were with him....It is pretty rare though.

[Itdepends]

About a week ago in my PBEM I had a large amount of radio tranmissions sig int message at Kendari (I'm allied). I vectored some subs into the area and sent a long range recon flight over which spotted a CVE in the base (it was actually one or more CV's). The next turn my opponent sortied (realising he had been seen) and one of my subs put a couple of torpoedoes into a fleet carrier. I don't think it sank but still, I'm smiling.

[cantona2]

http://bytesanddice.wordpress.com/2012/ ... s-herb-15/

Can be very useful!

[AcePylut]

In my PBEM against PZ Hort - he had sent the Soryu and Hiryu raiding the US West Coast.  All my CV's were in Nomeua.  I sent all my CV's to PH (it was time for them to upgrade anyways).

Well, low and behind, I got a "radio transmissions detected at xx,yy" sigint (where xx,yy was some location between PH and SanFran)- and I didn't have any ships in the area.
 
I sent my 4 CV's toward this location (as by that time, they were just south of Pearl) to see if I could get lucky.

I did.  A couple of combat results later, and the Wasp had taken 50sys and ~20 float damage from a torp... but both Japanese carriers and all their escorts were turned into artificial reefs 10,000 feet below sea level.
 
You may have 5000 pieces of worthless sigint, but every now and then you strike gold.  Read them all.  Trust me.