Did Allied Level Bombers Get a Boost in v2.0?

[joviel]

I'm not the grognard many of you are, but I've played several dozen games aginst the AI as both sides and I'm now involved in my first PBEM game.

Its May 42 and I just rolled into Luganville as the Jap with all three carriers escorting an invasion force. Three (three!) unescorted B-17's attack from Nomea, thread themselves thru 23 zeros and land two bombs on the Shokaku from 6,000 feet.

This happened immediately after I upgraded to 2.0. Has anyone else seen this or am I just jinxed?

Scott

[mogami]

Hi, No it's been there forever. Zeros have a hard time with B-17s and the fortress seem to have Shokaku and Zuikakus number.
In another thread an allied player has been asking if they were tuned down. I can not think of a single PBEM game I have played as Japan where Zuikaku was not hit by a B-17 (or Hudson)
(Shoho too always seems to attract bombs from these two types)

As a side question, in PBEM games how often do you manage to capture L'ville in May 42. I wish some enterprising Japanese player would try that in one of my games.

[joviel]

I'm playing my first (well, second, but my first opponent stopped responding after I threw his Jap butt off Buna and Dobradura in the initial May, 42 landings) PBEM game so I can't claim a track record here. My remaining foe is one of your grognards here and has been very civil in mentoring me about strategy (but after I screw up mightily, of course).

This gent has explained that U.S. land-based air is a wee bit ahistorically strong in the game, but I never noticed it in my games against the AI since it doesn't tend to throw unescorted b17's against carrier TFs. Since I wouldn't have learned this unless playing against another real human being, this is a benefit of playing against a human with Petabytes of organic RAM instead of a computer with a few Megs of SDRAM.

I've been gaming WWII Pacific War games since 1970. I love this game but hate some of the glaring anomalities. In my current game I've had an American submarine sitting in Rabaul harbor for six days sinking ships. I've got mines, three DDs and every bomber on ASW, and he still sits there and pops ships. And Matrix just reduced Jap ASW by 50%? What are they smoking???

I'm sure that the Jap has just as many ahistorical game angles to play as the American, I just haven't found them. But tricks make up a game, not a simulation.

And BTW, in May of 42 I am limping away from a Jap owned Luganville with the Shoho sunk, the other two Jap carriers at 60% damage and the American carriers in hot pursuit. I'll be lucky to get either to Truk. In the words of Phyrrus, "Another such victory and I will be undone".

Thanks for the feedback,

Scott Uhrick
Danbury, CT

[mogami]

Hi, Yep Jap ASW was turned down 50 percent. Last turn in one PBEM game I lost 2 S-boats off Gili. Both prosecuted and sank by a single IJN DD. (That makes 3 subs in 2 days I have lost).

Jap held L'ville and USN CV in pursuit means L'ville will be back in allied hands before too long. I love playing the Japanese and as I post over and over believe Port Moresby to be the place to go in May. (but I recommend waiting till late June early July before actually sending the transports) If it can't be supplied there is no reason to go and the amount of troops needed to hold L'ville (and keep it repaired and airgroups flying ) would consume between 5-7k supply per day. Let me know how things work out sounds interesting.

[Luskan]

Are you kidding? I've had 150+well supplied bombers at cairns and cooktown presented with loads of clear weather, and a plethora of targets you just wouldn't believe - every hex from cairns to Gili Gili had something Japanese in it - most or all were damaged, only one had CAP (apparently) and that was the big cv group. There were several smaller cvs groups, surgface task force groups, and a stream of smacked up ships limping back to GG.

You know what my bombers decide? Instead of attacking any one of a billion of Doomed Mantis' ships - they'd prefer to fly all the way to port Moresby or Gili Gili (straight over the top of all of them) to take on CAPs unescorted to drop bombs at transports. For little or not effect I might add.

I'm blaming V.2 for my bombers poor performance, the drought in australia and the wiggles. Besides, doomed had already culled most fo my subs before the patch so that doesn't help either!
<whinge>

[ADavidB]

I don't know if the tac bomber performance in v2.0 has been tweeked for either side, but I sure got a nasty surprise when I started up a new scenario 16 against the AI. Usually in previous versions there were a couple of weeks early in June where in both sides could sail "anything to anywhere" and be fairly immune to LBA due to weather effects. So I went ahead and sent some transports up to Gili-Gili and Rossel to place some troops. They were spotted by recon, but the weather was bad, so I figured I was safe.

Huh! - Day after day, thunderstorms or rain, the **** Japanese tac bombers flew out of Raboul to plaster my ships. I got most of my troops ashore, but at a much higher cost than I expected, or had experienced in previous versions.

Back to the strategy drawing boards...

Dave Baranyi

[Erik Rutins]

As far as I know, bomber performance was not in any way improved for 2.0. It's common for folks to:

1. Look much more closely at the game after they've just patched.
2. See things they haven't noticed before and assume that they're new or tweaked.

Every time a patch is released, there's a pretty definite wave of posts regarding balance adjustments. If it's not on the list, there's about a 99% chance that it wasn't changed, accounting for human error. That 1% is still there, so keeping your eyes open is always helpful, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with bombers.

Regards,

- Erik