How to bolster Air Defense At Port Moresby

[s96825]

Playing Guadalcanal Scenario as Allies vs PC.

Supply ships getting wrecked in Port Moresby. My fighters put up a valiant effort but a few leakers get through and sink ships every turn offloading in port.

I Tried,

1. Sending over another flak unit from Australia.

Do Flak units not help protect harbors in same hex? (or do flak units only protect ground units?) Didn't see any improvement in defense after the 2nd flak unit arrived.

2. Swapped some bomber units in Moresby for fighter units. Should I try set my fighters to same altitude as enemy Bettys? I have the max altitude set where they have max maneuverability. Most are Air Cobras and P-40 Warhawks. Should I lower their altitude to try be co- altitude with the IJN bombers? I thought being higher gives them a kinetic advantage.

I also swapped leaders of the fighter units. I picked guys with higher Air and Aggression rating.

I am also trying to ship a HQ with a high air rating to bolster performance.

Any thing else? The ships are so slow to offload that eventually many sink during the offload.

[s96825]

5. I am sending a Cruiser with high AA to port to attach to any task force that is unloading.

[Platoonist]

If you haven't already, you may want to consider using long range cap (LRcap) to set your fighters to specifically protect the TF your supply ships are in. The term long range cap is a bit misleading as it can be used to fly cover for ships that are in the same hex as the fighters. Use the Select Target switch to pick the task force you want to protect. This type of CAP tends to be a lot tighter covering TFs than just the general CAP over an harbor. It can also fatigue pilots more if the TF is far away from the hex the fighter squadron is in, so you have to be careful when using it.

LR CAP.jpg (33.53 KiB) Viewed 1220 times

You should also be wary of setting all your fighters at a stratospheric altitude. If the enemy bombers come in at 5,000 while your fighters are at 20,000 they'll likely arrive too late to get many intercept passes or may not even spot them. A layered altitude defense is always best if you have the resources to do it. You can also divide a fighter squadron and set the divisions at staggered altitudes.

[RangerJoe]

Give your fighters a maximum of 5k feet altitude advantage over the enemy bombers. Too much higher and they may not have time to attack the bombers. Also, see if you have radar coverage at the base, the more the better.

[s96825]

Thanks, air defense has improved for the moment.

[Yaab]

Your supply ships spend too much time unloading supplies in Port Moresby.

If you unload supply only, consider switching to AVD or APD ships on Fast Transport missions to bring supplies. If no AVDs/APDs available, use xAK ships, but:

-load them in amphib mode (uses 80% supply capacity instead of 100% supply capacity)
-do not load ships to their full capacity (if an Amphib xAK can hold 2400 supplies, try to load i.e 1200 supplies for shorter unloading in Port Moresby)
-select those xAK ships that have good durability (do not use xAKL ships), use ships that have DP guns AND 20mm Oerlikon guns. If hit by a 250kg bomb, those ships will withsand a bomb hit

[RangerJoe]

If you have the carriers, protect them and then have them one hex away to provide air cover.

[Alpha77]

"Do Flak units not help protect harbors in same hex? (or do flak units only protect ground units?) Didn't see any improvement in defense after the 2nd flak unit arrived."

Flak at bases with ports does NOT protect ships in TFs loading or unloading.... BUT it will protect the port itself and ships that are disbanded into port (not in TF).