Matrix Games Forums

Are we susposed to get a message when new ships arive in the area? I'e never seen any as both sides, and it would be nice to be reminded when a new battleship or aircraft carrier shows up.

Also, I can't understand the logic the AI uses for new squadrons of planes sometimes. I just had show up in Brisbane two squadrons of B-17's -- one with one plane and the other with none! Why make new squadrons when I have a few B-17's groups allready needing planes?

Finally, my PBEM foe has both the Yamato and Musashi at his use. What have other players experiences been fighting these monster ships as the Allies? What would I need in both sea and air forces to sink them? I don't think he's going to risk them during the day due to my bases, but they could easily come down the Slot at night and do major damage.

Hi Soul
for the 2 B-17's squadrons, are you sure those are new units and not disbanded or withdrawn units ?, new squadrons normally come in with a set amount of planes

the big boys ?, Mines, subs, engine hits and getting caught in the open by planes

HARD_Sarge

I don't know how we can tell if they are new units or disbanded/withdrawn ones. I don't recall giving any D/W orders to any of those planes. I'm going to just have to move them to the base where my squadrons are and merge them.

Air attacks won't work, as I just said, he's not stupid enough to risk them to my 350+ planes on Lunga.

(It's early December 1942)

And subs -- well, I have them sitting off ports, but any group with those monsters is sure to be well protected also.

Mines? Don't have anything that can lay them.

Engine hits? Huh?

The good news is that as in real life, those super BB's are fuel hogs. They have realatively short endurances and use up tons of fuel, making them hard to base near the battlefield (it takes a lot of tankers to bring their fuel to the front).

Well the two big Japanese Battleships are imposing but I think that historically a modern American fast BB would be a suitable match. The guns on the Yamato were bigger but the American BBs had better gunnery radar, better trained radar technicians, better quality steel and more reliable ammo. Biggest advantage was damage control. Match them up with an American BB, they will pound each other for sure, but the American BB has a better chance of getting home and when it does will repair a lot faster.

Im not an expert here. Anybody else want to chime in?

i had a 5BB TF headed for LUnga bombardment mission with both the Yamato and Musashi. Ran into 10 PTs at Tulagi(trying to catch a TF there) and Musashi got a torpedo which put her out of the action. I continued to Lunga with my 4 BBs,2CAs and 4 DDs. there I met the Washington with some Cls and lots of DDs. My 4 BBs weren't worth much in that engagement. I sent Washinton back to Noumea but I had 2 BBs out of action for the duration- not to mention 2 CAs. Those 18" guns don't help in tight quarters- only in bombardment.

Well, uh, Drex....

(Looks around nervously)

I decided to leave the ship on station till help comes....she actually was'nt that badly hurt once the floats and fire damage was out.

(No, I did'nt lie -- I think many people WOULD send her back with 39 system damage, but I need the ship too badly)

And I still am amazed at the results of that naval battle.

adequate job, in my opinion, of modeling surface combat is the old, and I mean, Oulde, Action Stations. In that game, it's about 60/40 in favor of the Yamato if she runs into a North Carolina without some major help, like the other NC and one of the SD class. - that is for mission kill. For outright sinking, that beast is going to take a lot of pounding, and unfortunately the 16"45" Mk II round hasn't got the umph at short range to punch through the Yamato's side armor, and the range for long distance penetration is very narrow for a 16"45 cal. weapon. In the meantime, since the No Carolina was only designed to stand up to 14" shells, for which she was originally intended, that ship is not going to stand up too well against 18.1's given any "normal" hit distribution.

The Iowa's on the other hand, used the 16"50 Cal Mk 7 gun - which was a very near match in most ways for the 18.1/47. That Gun was not on the NoCarolina or So Dak., and is not modeled in UV - too bad, because I would be really tempted to see if the editor program would let me modify something into a Montana. That that would be a donnybrook. That also is the only real. problem I found with Action Stations is that they modeled the Montana's with the 16"45 and not the 16"50.

Actually the Yamato sustained only 5 hits and only had 8 sys damage and no flotation damage so she stood up real well. It was the older BBs: Nagato and Hiei that took the real punishment. funny that Washington didn't get hurt that bad- all the BBs would have been aiming their primary guns at her.

After a few runs down the slot those big guys have enough system wear and tear that they have to get pretty close to do a bombardment run. Then is when you can hit them with a few dive bombers.

(P.S. the dive boombers don't do much damage, but it makes you feel like you are doing something.):D

Sonny: I had to pull the Musashi (Yamato's sister ship) out of the battleline after one torpedo from a PT boat! Go figure.

Originally posted by Drex
Actually the Yamato sustained only 5 hits and only had 8 sys damage and no flotation damage so she stood up real well. It was the older BBs: Nagato and Hiei that took the real punishment. funny that Washington didn't get hurt that bad- all the BBs would have been aiming their primary guns at her.

Night engagements can be greatly confusing, and having pat results with regards to targeting would in itself be unrealistic.

The thing I like is when a ship catches fire, it gets hammered. That is realistic for a night engagement.

Originally posted by denisonh
Night engagements can be greatly confusing, and having pat results with regards to targeting would in itself be unrealistic.

The thing I like is when a ship catches fire, it gets hammered. That is realistic for a night engagement.

Specially when they get caught by surprise and they all get lit up.

Yea,

that last one we had was the ugliest I had seen to date. And we have had a ton of surface engagements:) .

Hi Soul
engines hits, well what I mean is if it gets into a fight and you can score one or more hits into the engine space (luck) you will slow it down enough that it will not get away during the night, and then the Planes got a chance to do some more damage to it

and while you don't really plan on much, you may get lucky and knock out a turret or put another Trop into her

if you can sucker them into a mine field, you got a chance to stop the raid and also maybe catch them in the open, the big boys do take work to take out, vs the AI, you may get it to put them into port at Shortland and then you can hammer on them day in and day out, but don't think a human would leave them there

nothing that can lay mines ?, no subs ??, DM's can make some fast runs in (all kinds of nice little trap areas you can put them if you can slip them in)

{LOL one of my games, I plotted a Mine field, and the BB group made it into the battle from another hex, took a pounding, then as it turned to leave, ran into the new mine field, and then Lunga went to work, SWEET when it works }

HARD_Sarge

What a fantastic game, even if the graphics were 19th century.

Originally posted by denisonh
Yea,

that last one we had was the ugliest I had seen to date. And we have had a ton of surface engagements:) .

Ugly? For me it was ugly. Your guys hardly had a scratch on them!:(

You need torpedo hits to sink the Yamato! It hold up real well against other weapons including 1000# bombs.

That's a flaw. Yam's deck armor was poorly parceled out. She was basically sunk twice. Once by the second bomb that hit her (started a fire in her 6" magazine forward that could not be contained... this fire spread to he main mag because Yamato had poor magazine compartmentalization and Yamato eventually blew up). And again by the other bomb and torpedo hits.

The non-penetrating bombs were especially effective at eliminating all vestiges of fire control for her AAA and secondary batteries, and cut her air-search radar out via concussion.

I would agree that a flaw. 1000 pound bombs should do a lot of damage