Enemy ships spotted!

[SwedenJens]

Hi,

I have a question about the operational report. Some of the reports I get just doesn't seem right.
For example in my current scenario I get 2 japanese ships spotted outside Sydney. I have scouted this area
with several air groups, subs and destroyers but I'm not finding anything. It feels unlikely that 2 japanese ships
would operate in this area right now.

Another thing I've noticed sometimes is that up to 6-7 enemy ships can be spotted in the middle of no where and when
I'm trying to find them they're gone. Even though I put a lot of resources to this mission.

My questions are:
Q1 How reliable are these reports? If I'm getting a report about 6-7 ships spotted, can I be 100% sure that at least 1 Eship is in the area?

Q2 If the answer to Q1 is that the report is not always reliable, is there any realistic explaination on why someone would report 6 ships when there are none?

Q3 If I'm especially worried about a report and want more information, is there anything I can do besides sending Naval Search and subs?

I appreciate your help!

/Jens

[margeorg]

Hello Jens!

ORIGINAL: SwedenJens
My questions are:
Q1 How reliable are these reports? If I'm getting a report about 6-7 ships spotted, can I be 100% sure that at least 1 Eship is in the area?

This is called "FOW" (Fog of War). Your Recons are most likely reporting your own ships as hostiles ones. Especially at the outbreak of the war, when your crews are unexperienced, this will happen quite often. Serious sighting reports will show an anamy TF symbol on the map when the turn is completed. Anything else has to be viewed with all due reservation.

Q2 If the answer to Q1 is that the report is not always reliable, is there any realistic explaination on why someone would report 6 ships when there are none?

Yeah, because the recon has falsly reported own ships as hostiles, has greatly overexaggerated the number of ships, or made ofther mistakes.

Q3 If I'm especially worried about a report and want more information, is there anything I can do besides sending Naval Search and subs?

ASW Patrols (both air and naval) to detect subs, naval search missions to spot enemy TFs. But You should learn to live with about 30-50% false or misleading reports. C´est la guerre .

[wdolson]

Or turn off fog of war (can be done if playing against the AI). Training up pilots on the search mission should improve the number of false reports.

Bill

[SwedenJens]

Unexperienced pilots/crews reporting your own ships as hostile ones, that makes sence! Thank you

[CaptBeefheart]

I tend to ignore those reports of "8 ships by Isle of Pines" or whatever. Even the coastwatchers aren't necessarily accurate. Something tells me they had access to some wacky stuff back then.

Cheers,
CC

[AirGriff]

Typically, if you get the report plus an icon on the map, then something's there. What, is the question [:D] If you don't see an icon associated with the report, then it's likely your pilot is a little hung over from the night before. This little tidbit comes with the caution that your search may spot something in the AM phase and display the icon indicating a likely sighting, and then in the PM phase not pick it up and you won't see the icon during orders. And of course this comes with the large caution that your searches may not have picked up anything and there could still be something lurking out there.

[rockmedic109]

I've been getting daily coastwatcher reports of various ships from BB Mutsu to lowly Marus at Ferni Island. I've come to the conclusion that the coastwatcher team on Ferni has been captured and forced to feed false info back to me.

[Lokasenna]

It's likely that there's some kind of ship there, my guess would be some kind of tender if you're getting reports sometimes that it's a combat ship. AV is most likely, maybe even a CS.

[Q-Ball]

That brings up a point on Coastwatchers: I find them useless. Alot of the information is clearly wrong, certain ships in port, etc. Once intel gets lower than 60% accurate or so, it's no longer actionable. It's useless. This is where, I think, Coastwatchers are.

Not sure if that is other's experience......

[Quixote]

I tend to agree with Q-Ball, and I've played more WitPAE as Japan than as the Allies. For Japan, at least four out of five times my coast watchers are reporting something completely false. In original WitP I paid attention to what my coast watchers reported. Not so much any more with AE.

[CaptBeefheart]

Q-Ball: I read very little of the operational report, and definitely not the coastwatcher part of it. That said, I play against the AI and do several things to handicap myself in order to make it more of a challenge.

Cheers,
CC

[Alfred]

Coastwatchers are not necessarily giving false information. The issue is that they report on the situation as known to them before enemy ship movement occurs. By the time the human player regains access to the game to give orders the situation reported by the coastwatcher is no longer valid.

Alfred

[Quixote]

Alfred, while you are correct in some cases, try playing Japan in PBEM. After the 150th time your coast watchers tell you that there are Allied ships at Pakhoi, Wenchow, or both (when you know this to be false) you learn to ignore at least some of your coast watchers fairly quickly...

[jmalter]

I tend to discount Coastwatcher reports, even if it gives a specific ship-name. 'bout all you can be sure of, is that the enemy owns the base & has LCU there.

search-planes will often provide 'spurious' contacts, & will often mis-identify ship types (TKs reported as CVs or vice-versa). High-EXP pilots w/ 70+ NavS skill are more reliable, but are still able to get it wrong.

wrt "2 Japanese ships spotted near Sydney", this kind of info is most likely to mean "1 IJ submarine".

also you will occaisionally get an Intel report of an enemy fleet at sea, in an area where you have no air-search at all. these reports are often reliable!

[Czert]

ORIGINAL: margeorg


ASW Patrols (both air and naval) to detect subs, naval search missions to spot enemy TFs. But You should learn to live with about 30-50% false or misleading reports. C´est la guerre .

Are ships/planes send on asw patrol able to detect surface forces too ? Afterr all, they should see object on sea, whey they looking for things under sea.

[margeorg]

AFAIK yes, but with reduced success.

[Alfred]

Never set a squadron to ASW expecting it to find any surface TF. For game purposes a sub TF is not the same as any surface TF.

Alfred

[Justus2]

ORIGINAL: Quixote

Alfred, while you are correct in some cases, try playing Japan in PBEM. After the 150th time your coast watchers tell you that there are Allied ships at Pakhoi, Wenchow, or both (when you know this to be false) you learn to ignore at least some of your coast watchers fairly quickly...

You need to put more effort into training up your coastwatchers, maybe that will be a feature of the next edition! Tracking your coastwatchers by name, accuracy ratings, upgrading their binoculars... [;)]

[jmalter]

i'm up for that 'coastwatchers' patch, Justus2 - w/ linkage to SubTransportTF missions to provide them w/ binocs, radio parts, & the odd case of 'Olde Kentucky Home', on the return trip they bring back a few of those MIA pilots.