Split Task Force

[9th_cow]

out of curiousity what year did you encounter a carrier task force ?
im still in 41, and never saw one, im not claiming its not accurate, i dont know.
but i would like to encounter a carrier at least once

[Quillan]

July 1942 and November 1942, I encountered another one last night with 3 Hiryu class carriers. The first one was east of Kyushu and southeast of Shikoku, while the second was in the area between the Banda Sea and the Celebes Sea. The second one had three battleships in it as well.

[GnarPow]

I havnt gotten a carrier in visual range yet but I usually assume Im near one when I start getting about 3-8 planes at a time attacking me... they come in pairs of 2 and make it very hard for an end around once they have your position.

[9th_cow]

Originally Posted by Quillan

July 1942 and November 1942, I encountered another one last night with 3 Hiryu class carriers. The first one was east of Kyushu and southeast of Shikoku, while the second was in the area between the Banda Sea and the Celebes Sea. The second one had three battleships in it as well.

thanks will have a go at a 42 career.
i keep hoping that ill manage to get involved in the battle for midway, but always get retired before it happens.

[tater]

The air attacks from the CVs are pretty absurd, actually. CVs didn't just launch planes all the time, in order to do so the entire force would have to steam into the wind while they were conducting ops.

Maybe a handful of Zeros (no bombs, they virtually never carried bombs) as a CAP.

I'm seriously thinking about eliminating the air groups from the CVs, and replacing them with a single group of 1-3 zeros---it's not like they get in realistic battles anyway.

[Quillan]

Originally Posted by 9th_cow

i keep hoping that ill manage to get involved in the battle for midway, but always get retired before it happens.

Don't start with an old boat. Some people have reported that if they start the career with an old boat (probably S class), when the boats get retired so do they, even if they've since switched to a different boat. Starting in 1942 with a Gato based in Pearl will have you leaving port on June 12. I can't recall the precise dates I encountered these task forces, either.

However, I can give you some ideas. If you look at the map, you'll see a line of small islands trailing southwest from the Japanese home islands down towards Formosa (modern day Taiwan). Task forces run up and down the eastern side of these islands a lot. Many of them are small 4 ship groups, 3 destroyers and a liner carrying troops of some type, but the larger groups also run these routes. There's quite a few in the East China Sea as well. The presence of the merchant ships slows the task forces down. Auxiliary oilers in the big ones tend to limit the speed to about 12 knots, so it's possible to intercept if you're both close and ahead of them.