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Post by Sven on Jun 3, 2015 10:16:58 GMT -6
Several questions. 1. How do you do it? Tried it under daytime or early morning once and succeeded, tried it at night the next time and saw my transports getting shot to bits after getting into position. They never had a chance to scuttle themselves. 2. Is it normal that it takes forever till the transports scuttle even if they reach the red circle? 3. Does it have an effect if I bombard the coastal guns with my battleships ? What damage will be sufficient to get the transports to their target alive? 4. If 3 has an effect, does it help bombarding the guns at daylight and moving in with the transports at night? Will the coastal guns still be damaged?
last but not least, I loose two transports every time I try the mission. There is an interesting mission later on where you have to escort 4 transports to Northern Korea. What if you do not have 4 transports left, for example after trying the block ship mission 3 times. You can get auxiliary minelayers. Can you also get new transports?
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Post by randomizer on Jun 3, 2015 10:50:31 GMT -6
You have already done it so you know how but some other input might help.
1. Approach the enemy shore at nighttime only, preferably in bad weather or limited visibility - fog or mist is great. Close the objective in line ahead then at the limits of visibility, switch to line abreast by turning in succession perpendicular to your approach and then turning together back onto the approach course. This places all block ships bow on while also potentially providing more targets than the defence can engage at once and should put all of the transports into the area at the same time to trigger the scuttling event sooner. Once that victory condition fires it is irrelevant how long it actually takes the ship to sink. (your point-2)
3. Not really, in good visibility the bigger guns will probably try to engage the higher value units in range but there are plenty of lighter guns at PA that will attack the transports and in this era you ultimately lose in ship vs. fort actions. Forts should probably be avoided rather than attacked and poor visibility facilitates this.
4. You should receive free replacement transports for those expended on block ship missions.
Historically no blockship events in either the Spanish-American or Russo-Japanese Wars actually succeeded in closing the target port so don't feel too bad. As an aside I have increased the speed of all merchants from 5-kts to 8-kts using the ship design utility that ships with the game. It speeds up the block ship missions a bit.
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Post by rodmod on Jun 3, 2015 14:02:28 GMT -6
Blockship missions are TOUGH, as they were historically. I've attempted it on PA four times and only really succeededed once; every time I used a full division of four transports in the hope that at least two would make it. Sneaking them in by night or in poor vis in line abreast is definitely best. I did tecnhically succeed another time as well, but it cost me Chinyen and Mastushima (the first and last time I pit 3rd fleet against PA), and extensive damage to the other ships involved. The net result was a major Russian victory. The shore batteries around PA are nasty and tough to silence.
In my experience the main culprits for the IJN in the RJW campaign are "indirect": Russian mines and shore batteries, and to a lesser extent torpedo boats, while for the Russian ships the primary bane are the guns of Japanese Bs and CAs. Yesterday I trounced the PA squadron of 6 Bs and 1 CA off Dalny with 3 Bs and 4 CAs. I was able to sandwich the Russians between my ships and the coast. To boot I had the wind in my favor, and boy did my well-drilled crews deliver. The sneaky AI did manage to drag my force accross a minefield, and it cost me Kasuga and Nisshin in short order. However, it was not enough to save the Russian squadron. One B escaped back to PA, but after the smoke cleared the Russians had lost 4 Bs sunk and 1 B sinking as well as 4 DDs, to my two CAs lost to those pesky mines. A great and tense way to spend an afternoon. :-)
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Post by Sven on Jun 6, 2015 13:34:19 GMT -6
Thanks for the explicit answers to my questions. I will try it with four transports. Might just work. Thought that the chances are low. Actually hanging around Port Arthur with the Japanese navy is the best way to loose your ships ( to mines or coastal artillery). So the transports will have to do it on their own with only (very) distant support by the combined fleet. 3rd fleet, well, I really do not know what to do with these guys, except the minelayers or the transports, of course. The ships in 3rd fleet are hopelessly obsolete. Might get interesting if combined fleet and 2nd fleet are under repair, but otherwise the are only good for guarding ports and scaring Korean civilians.
I said it the first time I posted here and I gladly say it again. Steam and Iron is one of the best games I have played in a long time, The missions in the campaigns are logical, the AI is really good, and the game is, most of all, fun. It is, just like rodmod said, a great and tense way to spend an afternoon. My thanks to the developers. I really look forward to Rule the Waves. Purchase is guaranteed.
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Post by Sven on Jun 6, 2015 16:46:55 GMT -6
Success! My transports got through. Also got 2 Russian DDs which ran across my battleship line. One got around 9 hits in about one salvo. Ouch.
Great mission. Great game!
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Post by rodmod on Jun 7, 2015 1:47:04 GMT -6
I agree that the AI is quite good. The only quirk I noticed is its tendency to sometimes send ships into inlets or along the shoreline where they just mill aorund, often steaming in circles, where they can be picked off either by the player's ships to seaward or by shore batteries. I've had this happen several times at least playing against the Russians in the the RJW campaign. When there is an obvious enemy AI glitch like that I usually ignore the force in question and let it go, since it would be like shooting fish in a barrel, and ahistorically stupid on the enemy's part.
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