The All-Terrain Task Force

[Crannogman]

Are you running mods? What island do you mean when you say "Indonesia" (there is no such island) - perhaps Sulawesi or Borneo? I presume it is late '41 or early '42

[Crannogman]

The stock game includes a Japanese fleet & escort carrier group with a few cruisers and some tankers that departs Taiwan in mid Dec '41, passes down the East coast of Philippines, then transits the Celebes Sea, Makassar Strait, and Java Sea before arriving Sarawak shortly after New Year's Day. This battle group enters the Celebes Sea north of Sangir Island, approaching from either side of Karekelong Island. It stays well north of Sulawesi until entering the Makassar Strait. My guess is that this the group you encountered, but that it was actually paralleling your course to the north.

[lukterran]

Originally Posted by Crannogman

Are you running mods? What island do you mean when you say "Indonesia" (there is no such island) - perhaps Sulawesi or Borneo? I presume it is late '41 or early '42

Sulawesi is what I was talking about.

I traveled between just south of Pulau Biaro and North of Talisei and Pulau Bangka.

That is the correct time frame

[Crannogman]

Originally Posted by lukterran

Sulawesi is what I was talking about.

I traveled between just south of Pulau Biaro and North of Talisei and Pulau Bangka.

That is the correct time frame

Is that where you encountered the task force? So far as I can tell, no warships should be in that strait. However, that task force would be expected to cross your path from a northeasterly direction at the north entrance of the Makassar Strait

[lukterran]

Originally Posted by Crannogman

Is that where you encountered the task force? So far as I can tell, no warships should be in that strait. However, that task force would be expected to cross your path from a northeasterly direction at the north entrance of the Makassar Strait

This is an actual screen image.

But is a pretty good approximation of the route the carrier group was heading with I encountered them and the path I took and where I encountered them again.

Green/Blue is my route back to Java base and Red is the TF direction of travel.


https://gyazo.com/69ea7e538b5ef3da685e31791424e4df

[Crannogman]

Regardless of your sub class, the possibility of you keeping pace with a CVBG while ducking its aircraft is pretty remote. My guess is that the same group ran around your northern flank, allowing them to get ahead of you in the strait. I can't prove this, of course, but it seems more likely than the game spawning a new group in front of you because you're out of torpedoes.

In some cases, some shipping routes are inexplicably routed through land. My understanding is that the game only spawns actual ships when within a certain range of you; the rest of the time they are an abstract group tracked but not bound by the laws of physics. I checked stock and RSRDC but found no such groups in your reported location in time-space

[lukterran]

I will look tonight at my captains log and find out when the kills happened. To give you a good time and date for the group. I didn't realize that the groups were all prescript. I assumed it was more random than that.

[Crannogman]

The short answer is that most are but some may not be