Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Vlad
Something I've been wondering, and the last bomber attack reminded me of it; can you tell bombers, when attacking a fixed target to go for certain facilities, such as fuel storage, airfield buildings, shipyard repair stuff, etc? And how much control do you have over when attacks are launched?
IE: if I had a whole bunch of bombers, like three times as many as CCIP hit Rabaul with, could I have them with different TOTs over the course of a day, and have the first wave hit the airfield, with the next going after the ships, and the last the fuel tanks, or whatever?
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Bombers can be directed on Ground, Port, Naval or Airfield strikes, but what they actually hit can't be controlled. For example, bombers on a port strike will hit the dock facilities, shipyards, supply and fuel storage or - as happened against my carriers - ships at anchor, but you don't get any say over exactly what you will hit. I imagine there is a scale of importance with the biggest ships being the most important and supply being at the bottom (I think.)
If you did fly a huge formation, the chances are that, if you didn't get mauled by CAP or flak, you would probably pound everything in sight. As ever with the air algorithms, getting all those bombers on to the target at the same time is subject to all sorts of stuff to do with weather, coordinations, crew experience and so on. Nothing in WiTP is ever easy...
16th/17th Nov
CCIP seems to have suspended strikes against Rabaul, thank goodness. Mind you, there is nothing worth bombing there at the moment. My CVs are almost back at Truk. Ryujo, with 30 SYS damage and 10 FLOOD is probably going to remain here. Zuikaku is...ok...I think. (15 minor SYS and 10 FLOOD - She's ok for what I have planned I think.)
Everything else is OK. It was just unfortunate that the carriers took the most hits. It leaves me with a dilemma, though, because I now have almost enough fuel and supplies to launch my invasion except I have no ships at Rabaul...oy....This is what I get for hanging around so much and waiting for my build up to be complete. I'm still trying to work out exactly where his strikes came from. Townsville, perhaps? I think B-24Ds have a max range of 20 hexes which would mean they would probably have to come from Cooktown, wouldn't they? Unless he based some at Moresby or Milne, which I don't think he did.
OK, My plan is to give it a couple of days to give the carriers a one over at Truk and then get everything down to Kavieng whilst I get the transports into load up. After that I'll get a move on to Milne and we'll see what happens. Subs are already moving into position.
I'm less confident than I was before two turns ago but I'm still reasonably happy. Milne should be easy enough, I think, But I fear torpedo and dive bombers. It will be interesting to see what CCIP counters with.
What ever happens in the game, I'm glad to have had a glimpse of what the Japanese are capable of. Several things threw me out, but I think I'm getting a handle on them. It's strange to feel like a noob again after playing the game for a long time. It's also interesting to play against a human for this long. Who knows what the game against Happy Times would have taught me - Juha was shaping up to be a pretty aggressive player, and I think we would have ended up with a major naval confrontation quite quickly. I've been impressed with how quickly CCIP has got a lot of mechanics down and he's really only made the one mistake and even then a single dice roll could have put me in the same position. He's a bright guy. Me, I mostly enjoy moving my carriers around whilst making airplane noises!
Oh, the other news today is some ASW ships finally managed to land more than a single depth charge on a US sub - they got 4 blows on Flying Fish. Worryingly, Flying Fish is my current ride in SH4 - Typical!
Turns might be a bit irregular over the next few days (until Monday, probably,) as I have a few things on I need to see to.