At a loss to explain this........

[Miller]

I will keep this as brief as possible.....

Basically, whole KB in position to attack a large Allied invasion, numerous transport, surface combat and carrier groups in range to be attacked. KB has roughly 850 a/c, half fighters half DB/TB.

Playing two day turns,

Day 1 attacks: About 70 fighters and and a similar number of strike a/c launched in one attack, no other attacks at all.

Day 2 attacks: Many small, unescorted attacks by DB/TB into a 300 a/c CAP, I lose about 200 a/c. Not a single Zero flies an escort mission, no "Escort losses contact with raid, returning to base" messages.

I had 400 Zeros all set to escort, none on CAP (I was LRCAP my carriers from a base 2 hexes away). Why did they not fly?

I have checked:

Weather - May have explained Day 1, but Day 2 was clear.

Range of a/c - Treble checked max range of all units, all set to the same.

Ops points/Sorties left - All very high

Morale/Fatigue - Just about all 99/0 across the board

My opponent says he thinks he has an idea why they did not fly, but I'm damned if I can figure it out. A similar thing happened a few weeks earlier in the game, only 10% of my strike a/c flying at a large target with no reason I could see for the rest to stay behind.

Any explination I may have overlooked? If it is "Bad dice rolls" I must have rolled a 1 about ten times in a row..........

Edit: Forgot to mention also, I had my carriers split into 5 seperate TFs, so every single TF had less than 200 a/c in total to avoid the co-ordination penalty.

[Canoerebel]

I thought it might have been a case of too many targets at too long range.  There were big transport and combat TFs parked at Lautem (and well-protected by LRCAP from nearby carriers).  The carriers and other large combat TFs were two or three hexes east of Lautem.  Also, the Allies have big airbases at Babar and Saumlaki.  Sometimes it seems like so many targets - especially at a longer range - can really throw off a strike. I think your carriers were about nine hexes from Lautem? 
 
That's my best guess as to what happened.  I could be wrong, but I think at close range it might have been a different matter entirely.  (Not that I want you to be able to attack me.)   

[LoBaron]

Hm I think Canorebels explanation could be the only reason but then it really a bit on the tough side.

I have one feeling that adds to it but Im not totally sure yet:

The game probably calculates the required escorts for a target based on air superiority and doesn´t include LRCAP
into the air sup equatation.
Since you cannot assign a target for the escorting fighters on naval this could lead to the required number of escorts being 0
or at least much less than would be required counting the LRCAP.
Wonder if this is right, if yes then this could be a bug.

[Q-Ball]

Cuttlefish just had 60 Netties fly into my Carriers from Soerbaya, and he said he had plenty of fighters at the base, well within range, etc.

I have had strikes go awry as well for seemingly no reason

It would be helpful to know if that's part of the game. I can understand sometimes strikes get lost and don't attack anything, but there should be a message or something that relates the problem (Strikes is lost, or weather, or something).

[LoBaron]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Cuttlefish just had 60 Netties fly into my Carriers from Soerbaya, and he said he had plenty of fighters at the base, well within range, etc.

I have had strikes go awry as well for seemingly no reason

It would be helpful to know if that's part of the game. I can understand sometimes strikes get lost and don't attack anything, but there should be a message or something that relates the problem (Strikes is lost, or weather, or something).

Most Japanese players like to put 75 - 90+ aggression rating commanders in their Betty squads (easy to do as Japanese because the less aggressive usually have also worse
other stats). If that is the case I wouldn´t be surprized if those squads attack CV´s unescorted.
I posted the dice rolls that influence the strike coordination in the war room, maybe one of these rolls hit him bad...

Also did he make the same checks as Miller did? Range settings etc.?

[SeethingErmine]

Are the escorts set to an altitude at or near the bombers? (I expect this was already checked, but it wasn't mentioned.)

In my game, I see reasonable coordination with Kates @ 5k, Vals @ 10k, and Zeroes @ 10k, but I recall some issues when I tried pushing the Zeroes up to 15k. (The Kates especially would end up on their own.)

[Panther Bait]

Did you set the fighter squadrons to 100%? Does that still automatically switch them to LRCAP instead of escort like in WITP?

[Miller]

The fighters were set to the same Alt as the DB, 5k feet above the TB, and Escort with 0% CAP or LRCAP, so no error there. Besides it is not a co-ordination issue, its the fact they did not fly full-stop.

Really annoying to say the least as it was the last time I could hope to match him in aircraft numbers in a carrier vs carrier encounter, which is out of the question now.

[Mynok]

How many task forces was KB in? That's too many planes for one not to have coordination penalties. And I don't think not flying at all necessarily indicates that it wasn't a coordination problem.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Miller

I will keep this as brief as possible.....

Basically, whole KB in position to attack a large Allied invasion, numerous transport, surface combat and carrier groups in range to be attacked. KB has roughly 850 a/c, half fighters half DB/TB.

Playing two day turns,

Day 1 attacks: About 70 fighters and and a similar number of strike a/c launched in one attack, no other attacks at all.

Day 2 attacks: Many small, unescorted attacks by DB/TB into a 300 a/c CAP, I lose about 200 a/c. Not a single Zero flies an escort mission, no "Escort losses contact with raid, returning to base" messages.

I had 400 Zeros all set to escort, none on CAP (I was LRCAP my carriers from a base 2 hexes away). Why did they not fly?

I have checked:

Weather - May have explained Day 1, but Day 2 was clear.

Range of a/c - Treble checked max range of all units, all set to the same.

Ops points/Sorties left - All very high

Morale/Fatigue - Just about all 99/0 across the board

My opponent says he thinks he has an idea why they did not fly, but I'm damned if I can figure it out. A similar thing happened a few weeks earlier in the game, only 10% of my strike a/c flying at a large target with no reason I could see for the rest to stay behind.

Any explination I may have overlooked? If it is "Bad dice rolls" I must have rolled a 1 about ten times in a row..........

Edit: Forgot to mention also, I had my carriers split into 5 seperate TFs, so every single TF had less than 200 a/c in total to avoid the co-ordination penalty.

Miller,

What altitude were your escorts set for? What altitude were your attack aircraft set for? By the book, you can 'escort' at 30,000 feet and have your strike a/c go in at 5,000 and they *should* coordinate. Usually they seem to do that. However, I wonder if there's some formula that makes it more likely that they separate or mis-coordinate their efforts if you separate the altitude. That's what it feels like, but I could be totally off base.

ETA: Never mind, you answered this response further in the thread.

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: Miller

I will keep this as brief as possible.....

Basically, whole KB in position to attack a large Allied invasion, numerous transport, surface combat and carrier groups in range to be attacked. KB has roughly 850 a/c, half fighters half DB/TB.

Playing two day turns,

Day 1 attacks: About 70 fighters and and a similar number of strike a/c launched in one attack, no other attacks at all.

Day 2 attacks: Many small, unescorted attacks by DB/TB into a 300 a/c CAP, I lose about 200 a/c. Not a single Zero flies an escort mission, no "Escort losses contact with raid, returning to base" messages.

I had 400 Zeros all set to escort, none on CAP (I was LRCAP my carriers from a base 2 hexes away). Why did they not fly?

I have checked:

Weather - May have explained Day 1, but Day 2 was clear.

Range of a/c - Treble checked max range of all units, all set to the same.

Ops points/Sorties left - All very high

Morale/Fatigue - Just about all 99/0 across the board

My opponent says he thinks he has an idea why they did not fly, but I'm damned if I can figure it out. A similar thing happened a few weeks earlier in the game, only 10% of my strike a/c flying at a large target with no reason I could see for the rest to stay behind.

Any explination I may have overlooked? If it is "Bad dice rolls" I must have rolled a 1 about ten times in a row..........

Edit: Forgot to mention also, I had my carriers split into 5 seperate TFs, so every single TF had less than 200 a/c in total to avoid the co-ordination penalty.

that´s easily explained, you took some of my bad energy with you after our PBEM [;)] so things like this just have to happen.

Seriously, guess there were too many targets and this screwed up the engine.