Late game strikes against Allied CVTFs

[GuyTipton]

Hi Folks, I looked around for a while, but with over a millions posts for WitPAE it's hard to find the gems.

Stock quiet China, using the old beta.

My esteemed Japanese opponent was remarking that in late '44 Allied CVTFs with 200 fighters (1) on CAP seem invulnerable to heavily escorted strikes with 300 escorts and 50 strike a/c. Usually we see one shot on goal for 100 a/c expended. Is this due to thing like proximity shells and CICs that are modeled inside the game engine (based on date)? Do other players see this? Do Kami's fix this for the Japanese? Thanx for your responses.

(1) Mainly Corsairs with 70-80 experience squadrons.

Ps. This is our third complete email campaign, which means we've seen a lot, but surely have missed many things as well. As shown by the recent 3-hex CAP bleed thread.

[BBfanboy]

Solinvictus202 had the opposite result in his "Hurt But Not Beaten!" AAR. From the long report on page 5, in January 1945:

3) KB ATTACKS: KB or what remains of it, launched one strike in the afternoon - which got me once again annoyed with the engine. the strike saw some 250 Sams escort 140 Judies and 80 Graces or smth like that. I had over 800 planes on CAP.
The 100 Fire passes kicked in and only the Sams were engaged with not a single plane getting to the point of attacking the bombers in any way.
Pissed me off real good - but what can you do - anyone playing this game in 44 or 45 expects this pain and is annoyed that nothing will (or in fact can) be done about it.

May be you could compare CAP settings with him?

[RangerJoe]

It may also depend upon which updates are being used. Greyjoy had problems with his epic game and the game was modified to allow very large air combats instead of limiting the total number of passes.

[GuyTipton]

It may also depend upon which updates are being used. Greyjoy had problems with his epic game and the game was modified to allow very large air combats instead of limiting the total number of passes.

Hi RangerJoe, I understand this to mean that a fix was applied to in the official Beta?

[RangerJoe]

That was done before I even joined the forum. There was a limit of something like 200 intercepts, then the bombers attacked. There were much larger air battles going on especially after Hokkaido was invaded in 1944.

[Nomad]

This was in the 1124 patch notes

3. Increased number of air combat rounds are a factor of total aircraft involved

[LargeSlowTarget]

Late game you need MASSIVE numbers to overwhelm the CAP of Allied CVTFs (and run them out of AA ammo).

In my AAR https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 0#p4591000 I managed to sink 5 USN CVs in 09/44 by hurling almost 5000 aircraft - mix of Kamikaze, conventional naval attack and lots of escorts - against the Allied Death Star.

Allied perspective is here: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 2#p4598902

[GuyTipton]

Wow, That super strike is awesome and scary. Do you think it would have helped the allies to have smaller but more numerous CVTFs? To spread the love as it were. Or maybe more fighters on CAP but at a lower CAP percentage? Would that give the CAP higher persistence?

[CaptBeefheart]

I've played late game against Ironman Nasty Japan and the computer still has thousands of kamis to throw at you when you get close to the Home Islands. I've had 1,500 Hellcats and Corsairs on CAP and will still lose a few CVEs and one or two CVs, and get numerous CVEs and a few CVs dinged up. The invasion shipping will also get beaten up. One thing I do is set CAP at 100% at zero range and layer it from 3,000 feet up to 20,000. You'll get a lot of newly minted USN aces, as I've seen more than 2,000 kills in one turn.

Bottom line is the IJ can still get some licks in, even if you have all CVEs and CVs in one hex and all fighters set to CAP.

Cheers,
CB