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Well, I had a major carrier battle last night south of Rangoon. Ships involved: on my side, the fleet carrier Zuikaku, carrier Hiyo, light carrier Zuiho, escort carrier Unyo, escorted by battleship Yamato, battlecruisers Kongo and Hiei, five heavy cruisers and 12 destroyers.

I was opposed by two British fleet carriers...I know one was Formidable and I think the other was Illustrious, light carrier Hermes, battlecruiser Renown, and an unknown number of cruisers and destroyers.

The British launched an airstrike with 30 Fullmar fighters and 28 Swordfish torpedo planes. My cap hit them hard....14 Fullmars shot down, and 21 of the Swordfish were shot down by my Zeroes. But 7 Swordfish got through.....four were shot down by flak, but all three survivors successfully launched their torpedoes, all three hitting Zuikaku and causing massive damage.

My counterstrike landed three torpedoes and six bombs on Hermes, and three torpedoes on Formidable. I doubt Hermes will survive....not sure about Formidable, those are tough ships, although Indomitable was sunk last month by torpedo attack from Bettys based in Rangoon.

Both sides are heading back to harbor licking their wounds. My ships were there covering a large supply and troop convoy to Rangoon. The convoy got through without damage, which will help my ground force and supply situation in Burma greatly. But if I lose Zuikaku, I will have to count this battle as a defeat.

The key now is saving Zuikaku. She is leaking badly.....70% flotation damage. Four hexes away from harbor at Rangoon. If she makes it I'll patch her up then send her back to Japan for full repairs. But I'm afraid she is going to sink before she makes Rangoon. Can she make it?

It will be very iffy. 70% float damage is hard to overcome, even in a big port like Singapore. This may have been adjusted in the 1.3 patch though. The Japanese warships seem to battle float damage better now.

When the game first came out, I had Akagi get hit by 2 1000 lb bombs near PH. She had 12 flt damage and still sank before reaching a port. Now I have seen a Japanese CV take 35 float damage and still make port and live.

I was afraid of that....the damage being too great.

i've been lucky so far....it is July 42 and so far my carrier losses have just been Junyo, Taiyo, and Ryujo, in exchange for sinking all of the pre-war American carriers except Wasp, which hasn't shown up yet, plus Indomitable. I've lost only two heavy cruisers so far (Atago and Furataka) in exchange for 12 allied. I suppose it was time I lost an irreplacable unit.

Well, Zuikaku sank just short of Rangoon. Damn. Fortunately most of her planes did divert to Rangoon and Hiyo, so I didn't lose too many pilots. But my first fleet flattop loss is disappointing.

This being a test game to learn the system and not a "real" game, I set the computer for head-to-head and reloaded the file to see how badly I hurt the Allies. Hermes is at 70% flotation damage and limping at 4 knots...I assume she will sink. Illustrious and Formidable are both damaged, the former at 40% system damage and 30% flotation, the latter at 47% system damage. I expect both will survive but they will be out of action for awhile.

Even a Allied ship at 70% floatation is not a sure thing. Allied damage control is awesome.
She may well survive.

Shame you had to lose one of my favorite ships though.[:(]
Should have been Soryu or Hiryu. I send these 2 into harms way all the time. Not to get them deliberatly sunk, but I would rather risk them than my other 4 CV's in the first 6 months.

Never underestimate the damage potential of a baby KB using just the CVL's and CVE's. More than a match for a single US CV. With Junyo and her sister in the baby KB, they can overwhelm a 2 CV TF and inflict alot of damage or even sink them. Especially if you have the 2 CVE's loaded up with 54 Kates (27 each).

Sorry about that.....I like Zuikaku and Shokaku too.

Main KB is currently wrecking havoc with allied shipping between Pearl and Oz. The US has no carriers until Wasp arrives, and so far the AI has not done much with his land-based air. Main KB will head back to Tarawa soon for refuelling and resupply, then will be the main cover force for my invasion of Baker Island next month.

My 3 remaining carriers (my Baby KB) from the Rangoon battle are heading back to Singapore for refueling and replacements. Then they will head out for their own anti-shipping raids in the Indian Ocean, since now the RN has no operational carriers for a couple of weeks at least.

Let's see...where are my other carriers?

Shoho is in Hong Kong repairing bomb damage.

Shokaku is in Tokyo still repairing damage suffered two months ago in the Battle of Kwajelein....her planes and those from her sister sank Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet, and Saratoga, but she took some pretty bad damage and is still stuck at 32% system damage. I'm not sure where I will send her once repaired.

Ryuho is in Tokyo, having just come in the game. She is waiting for Chuyo to return from a "get experience" raid on Dutch Harbor. Ryuho and Chuyo will then be sent to Singapore to add strength to Baby KB.

Shoho is like a magnet. She always get pummeled in my games. She just sucks in the bombs.

Hosho makes a good decoy ship though.[:-] I have a habit of sticking her with Baby KB as an extra target. When she is not ferrying a/c around that is.

I worry about my CVE's more than anything (the ones without an air group). They are the most versatile CV's in the game. Not as many strike points as I would like though. But still 3 full strikes worth of points is enough I guess. But they really do not have the AA capability to defend themselves very good. But, once I have formed my true Baby KB using Junyo, her sister, 3 CVL's, 2-3 CVE's watch out Allies. If I use 3 CVE's, one will carry 27 Zeros. The other 2 will either carry Kates for naval strikes or Vals for ground support.

Yeah, Shoho has been bad luck in this game, too. She has spent most of her time at Hong Kong getting repaired.

She took a lucky bomb hit from a Dutch Martin bombing from 15,000 feet in early January. 30% system damage, had to go to Hong Kong for repairs.

I get her back in action in May, send her down to cover the invasion of Batavia, and the same thing happens....a Dutch Martin bombing from 15,000 feet lands bombs on her, this time three bombs. Almost sank her, but she limped into Singapore, got her floatation damaged patched up, and is now at Hong Kong for system repairs. I off-loaded her air group to help out at Singapore, so I'm not sure what I will do with her once she is fixed up again.

ORIGINAL: FDRLincoln

Yeah, Shoho has been bad luck in this game, too. She has spent most of her time at Hong Kong getting repaired.

She took a lucky bomb hit from a Dutch Martin bombing from 15,000 feet in early January. 30% system damage, had to go to Hong Kong for repairs.

I get her back in action in May, send her down to cover the invasion of Batavia, and the same thing happens....a Dutch Martin bombing from 15,000 feet lands bombs on her, this time three bombs. Almost sank her, but she limped into Singapore, got her floatation damaged patched up, and is now at Hong Kong for system repairs. I off-loaded her air group to help out at Singapore, so I'm not sure what I will do with her once she is fixed up again.

Maybe you can rent her to the Dutch Air Force for target practice?

Japanese intelligence has received confirmation (via the "ship sunk" screen) that Royal Navy carriers Formidable and Hermes both sank from damage suffered at the Battle of Rangoon. This leaves carrier Illustrious as the ONLY allied carrier known to be operational in the entire Pacific Ocean, although we believe that the American Wasp will be making an appearance soon.

This makes the loss of Zuikaku a bit more bearable.

In other news, the invasion of Baker Island was a stunning success. KB continues slaughtering allied shipping on its way to Oz, with no Allied carriers to stop us. Banzai!!