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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 9, 2020 9:29:45 GMT -6
This is going to be a small AAR. I want to do a bigger one with later versions of RtW2, when missile era happens Starting options: 1920, Super Large fleet size, Harsher peace deals, Treaty of Versailles, Washington Naval Treaty Those who know me know that I'm a big carrier warfare fan, so a late start is the closest position to the beginning of the carrier age. Technologies change so fast in this era, so WNT is helping to cruise through the earlier years without having to deal with a lot of design-related pressure and the battleship production arms race. My initial policy was to go non-interventionist. Minding my own business, without even having a single foreign intel effort going anywhere. Let's look at where it got me so far. It's now March, 1930. Prestige and naval budgets are at the lowest ever. That's the cost of being calm, isolationist "silent workhorse". WNT just expired, and I find myself unable to build much of anything new, while other countries start producing 38-39k ton battleships. I need to push for bigger budget ASAP. While still keeping keeping the world's tensions low. Somehow. Japan took over Borneo and Korea, though. I may, some day, stand up to such moves and confront the aggressors. USN's 15 battleships are moderately decent legacy battlewagons. Most are fit as "Standard-type", but 4 of them can go 27 knots, albeit short range only. Two out of four legacy BCs were converted to "golden but sour" carriers. Their price is crazy high, but they can only carry 46 a/c each and move at 28 knots tops. Remaining two will probably get scrapped, because I can't afford any more such pricey conversions. 10 heavy cruisers are paper thin (but proud!) 10k ton "treaty cruisers". I hate how thin they are, and can already hear their turrets getting wrecked and swallowed by the ocean after the first hit, but at least they're 32/33 knot fast, couple of knots above all their adversaries. 4 light cruisers are too lightly armed (5x 6 inchers) for the era and only good as scouts, but they mount 4 torp broadsides and can go 33 knots as well. The only CVL there is is a training one, to be able to run experiments and have research carried out at maximum speed. It won't see any combat, and will probably get mothballed or scrapped as soon as practical. There are two types of ships I excel at, however. DDs and the subs. 72 destroyers are all 1500 ton, 4x4 inch, 8 centerline torp, 35 knots. Very good for the era. At least I don't have to worry about them in the nearest future and focus on the bigger ships. Submarine force is also the largest currently in the world (74 subs), because I don't really like the idea of surface raiding. Plan for the next decade: 1. Push for a bigger budget while avoiding conflicts with other nations. 2. Construction priority: fast BBs, CA, CV, in that order. 3. Getting an alliance with Britain or France, if possible.
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 9, 2020 13:32:01 GMT -6
March 1934
German flying boats' transatlantic flight, Soviet battleships and my irresistible charm helped increase naval budget twofold. Given that I have good backup in terms of old battleships, I had to prioritize CA construction over new fast battleships. After much consideration, I've decided to go for quality over quantity, given that I'm unlikely to build significantly more CAs of lesser tonnage (10-12k) in following years. 15k tons is my current CA limit, and I barely able to squeeze in every feature I want. So far, it's been +5 new CAs for US Navy. British built 4 new fast fleet CVs, 52-58 a/c each. I had to counter with a set of my own. My Yorktowns will have 76 a/c, long range @ 32 kts at the beginning, and I hope to increase their carrying capacity with better technology over the coming years. My destroyers are slowly aging, becoming obsolete, but I'm yet to research 5in DP guns. I've increased AA research spending and now wait for the new 5/38s DPs to become DDs standard armament before building new generation destroyers.
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 10, 2020 14:13:25 GMT -6
April 1935The naval budget keeps rising, and so does the tension in the world. New 5 inch DP gun arrived! Just few months AFTER I've refit the entire USN legacy battleship fleet with all the latest equipment. Ugh..... All countries produce various modern 1500-1900t destroyers. Some even have 6 inch mounts. Scary! I went with 3x dual 5 in DPs instead of historical USN's 5x single 5 inchers of the era. Mostly because it's much more space efficient, allowing more topside space for additional equipment, like AA. Speed is 35 knots with Speed-tuned engines. Dirtside USN's air fleet is currently limited to 12 a/c squadrons of flying boats (currently 10 squadrons on duty). I'm building up additional runways for future use of shore based USMC squadrons that can be moved around as needed. In general, when it comes to a/c design requirements, my priorities are (primary / secondary / when deciding between prototypes ): Flying boats: Range, Range, Speed (for better area coverage) Fighters: Reliability, Speed, Toughness (CAP takeoffs and landings all day long require good reliability!) Dive bombers: Bomb load, Toughness, Speed (the heavier the hit the better) Torpedo bombers: Speed, Toughness, Range (being slow is death, see TBD Devastators) Float planes: Reliability, Speed, Range (better mission availability and quick scouting) With bigger budget comes great responsibility I thought about building fast BBs. But with current tech, I really don't like what I'm seeing. I'll have to compromise, cutting either speed, protection or armament, and I really don't want to do that. Maybe couple of years later, with better tech. Building up CAs is top priority for now. Speaking of cruisers. I really don't want to build light cruisers. In previous games, every time I used light cruisers, I wished I had a heavy one in its place instead. Scouting role is probably the only thing CLs can do that CAs can't in RtW2, so I may change my mind. We'll have to see.
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 11, 2020 13:09:10 GMT -6
War and PeaceNovember 1935
Well. The Soviets declared a war on me. I wasn't prepared much, even with strategic ship placement. Soviet battleships are pretty meh, but their 38kton BCs are super fast (32 kts) and I was really worried. But it turned out to be fine. I barely managed to redeploy some of my forces to the West Coast, while fighting small cruiser skirmishes in the Carribean, when they asked for peace. On the third month of the war! Do they have no shame? I was promised "some border territory", but got nothing in return. Ugh.. Over 3 months of the conflict, I sunk 1 old CL, heavily damaged another CL and annihilated 2 DDs in open combat. All done by my 10kton "heavy" treaty cruisers. And suffered no losses. Could've been worse, eh, Tolstoy? Off you go!
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 13, 2020 5:08:49 GMT -6
August 1936Really hung up on cruiser designs. Evaluated dozens of them. I know I said I don't want to build light cruisers, but I couldn't resist. But let's go from the beginning. Historical realities vs RtW2 are quite different. In reality, countries needed a lot of small cruisers (especially the Royal Navy) as cheapest ships capable of being long range escorts/combatants, for trade protection, scouting, non-fleet escort and whatnot. In RtW2 I can easily get away with not using CLs at all. Meaning I'll get to build a TON of general purpose cruisers, and in most situations, they will shine against whatever they'll face, because most of the time they'll see enemy CLs/DDs/older CAs/treaty CAs, and only a handful of modern CAs. But when you want to build a good, all-purpose heavy cruiser, you get into 15-20k ton range. And it's not as good in some of its roles as dedicated ships might be. You get to the point where they weight and cost like a half of an aircraft carrier. And that's a hard pill to swallow. So I came up with two CL designs and one newest CA. All 33 knots with speed-tuned engines. CLAA Atlanta, a really great fleet AA escort. CL Cincinnati for Trade Protection (fight off raiding CLs/DDs). CA Philadelphia, general purpose heavy cruiser, to fight other cruisers, mainly in fleet anti-surface/AA duty. However, now that I look at CA Philly, it looks bad in AA support role in comparison. Both CLs have greater HAA factor, thanks to their big 3 inch DP secondary batteries. And it costs too much for a mere 9x 8 inch carrying anti-surface ship. I guess I'll correct that later my swapping out medium AA for additional 5 in DPs. Not sure if I still want them armored, though.
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 13, 2020 14:07:10 GMT -6
January 1937Fleet Problem IYorktown TG - 1 CV 3 CA 5 DD versus Rochester TG - 2 CV 4 CA 9 DDYorktown class CV: 28F 36 DB 12 TB (76 a/c) Rochester class CV: 24F 12 DB 10 TB (46 x2 = 92 a/c) Battle log:17:41. Combat starts. 4 hours till sunset. Off to a bad start. First, I gave the wrong orders to the scout aircraft. Thinking I directed float planes on different search sector than the Yorktown's aircraft, in fact I was giving the orders to the whole Force air group. So the Yorktown's scouts flew into the opposite direction of where the most probable enemy location was. Second, Torpedo Bombers were selected. Of which Yorktown only has 12. I NEED MY TBS, damn it! Now I'm only down to 1.5 squadrons of DBs. 18:03. Snooper alert! We've been spotted! Heavy Cruiser division's AI doesn't want to follow the Yorktown and goes Independent instead. Nothing seems to help to force CAs follow the carrier. Switching to manual control for the time being. 19:02. Four CA moving ESE spotted by scouts, 50 nm NE off Yorktown's position. I have 15 fighters, 28 dive bombers and 3 torpedo bombers unready in hangars. 28 dive bombers ordered to ready with heavy bomb load, plus 6 fighters as escorts. 19:15. CIC gives me several reports of carriers with escorts (showing 1-2 CV 1-4 CA 7-9 DD), with the same general location (50 nm NE) but moving in different directions (SE/E/NE). DBs are still readying, and it's 2.5 hours till dusk. 19:21. CAP engages four enemy Torpedo Bombers. CA division is 12kyd away from the carrier. Desperately trying to regroup them all for combined AA protection. 19:26. Two nearby destroyers help out engaging torpedo planes with AAA, but none were destroyed before the bombers released their fish. Yorktown evades all torpedoes as I get a report that my strike package is ready to be launched. I re-confirm the target location and launch the planes in a coordinated strike, hoping I will survive long enough for it to form up. 19:55. As Yorktown launches its planes, new enemy strikes comes in. This one is bigger. I spot 10 TBs and 12 DBs, while CIC reports two groups of 12 DBs. Only 4 dive bombers attack the carrier. Other planes spread their wrath between the escorts. DD Dale is hit by torpedo. Yorktown remains untouched and sees its own strike group takeoff and depart northeastwards in a coordinated fashion. 20:19. DD Dale limits the flooding and detaches to go for safety, proceeding NE at 10 knots. Yorktown's group reassembles after the attack, moving SW. I receive word from my strike aircraft that they're engaged by enemy CAP and take losses. 3 of our fighters and 4 DBs go down, while shooting down 3 enemy fighters. 20:23. DBs report attacking enemy carrier, cruiser and... enemy battleship. Okay, folks, I get it, you're very excited. Two hits on CA reported in total. 20:47. 12 enemy dive bombers incoming, headed for Yorktown. One 800 lb bomb hits the carrier, but it's a dud! Still, somehow, fire starts! 20:50. Two more 800 lb bomb hits on Yorktown! Superstructure struck both times, with heavy damage. Fire keeps spreading. Friendly aircraft arrive but can't land! Also, somehow, flooding starts. 21:39. Fire on Yorktown extinguished. Slight flooding continues. Maximum speed limited to 27 knots. As the darkness reaches the task group, planes loitering nearby begin to land. Or so it seems. There's something wrong with that. Did they all ditch? 02:43. Yorktown limits flooding! At this point, there are no friendly aircraft left for me to continue this battle. End.
Comments:
Starting conditions weren't that good, but overall, I'm glad that Yorktown survived. No actual hits were scored by its bombers, though, which is really bad. I also may have to order manual searches now, probably, to avoid TBs being sent away instead of DBs.
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Post by generalvikus on Feb 14, 2020 22:32:10 GMT -6
Some comments for your consideration: As you've evidently run into the speed - wall, I'd highly recommend seawolf's Higher / Realistic speeds mod, which gives a much more historically accurate speed curve for ships up to 39 knots and 17,000 tons. Of course, this puts a 17,000 ton limit on your cruiser design, but as you've pointed out such ships are really prohibitively expensive anyway. I believe the mod is save compatible, though of course you should make a copy of the save to be sure, if you'd like to try it; I, for one, never load up the game without it. It's a shame the mod doesn't go all the way up the tonnage scale - I've been in precisely the same position you're now facing with fast battleship design, being unable to reconcile the requirements for protection and firepower with the prohibitive demands of speed. I find it's generally impossible to get a satisfactory battleship over 30 knots, though Hood managed 32 as early as 1920! Regarding the designs you've showed off so far - very nice! You'll find there's quite a different paradigm with the mod installed. The CLAA would be nice if we could designate ship roles, but no such luck, so far! As it is, I'm afraid you will find it more often than not hurled into cruiser battles it cannot fight, and there's nothing besides strategic positioning to guarantee that it'll accompany your carriers when you need it to, especially since you've given the battle generator an alternative light cruiser to work with. I personally don't use such ships, and prefer to make up for it with more heavily armed destroyers, and by providing other cruisers with greater anti aircraft firepower. Massed destroyers will show up and be useful for any occasion, save raider intercepts, and (again, with the mod enabled) replacing the cost of an extra cruiser hull by making all general purpose cruisers bigger to make up the difference in HAA firepower will make those cruisers more self - sufficient and give you much greater redundancy (by which I mean - you won't lose half the AA firepower protecting your carrier group to one lucky torpedo.) If you do want to experiment with this type, though, I'd advise you first of all to install the above mod, and to increase the speed (with speed focus, perhaps) so that it can comfortably escape all other cruisers. Second, ensure that any other CLs in the same strategic region as your carriers are assigned to TP, so as to force the battle generator to provide your AA cruisers in fleet engagements, as far as possible; those 5 inch guns are arguably worth their weight in 6 inchers for anti - DD work, and your heavier cruisers can engage enemy cruisers better than any CL. As it is, as I recall having two DP batteries gives a 60% penalty to HAA factor, (though it might only reduce the HAA factor of the secondary battery) meaning that personally I would remove the 3 inch battery and replace it with medium and light AA, which can be done by refit; that ship is expensive enough and important enough in battle that it needs to be able to protect itself as well as other ships, and in any case that 3 inch battery may well actually be decreasing your total HAA factor. In the same refit, I would also provide each turret with at least 2 inches of armour on the sides, to at least protect them from splinters; otherwise, they won't stand up very well against either shells or bombs. As for your other two cruisers, both are solid designs. I expect you'll find that replacing the 3 inch AA battery with a 5 inch one of equal weight will give you a higher HAA factor, but I'm not certain. Also, I find that for anything other than destroyers, it's better to have a slower ship with normal engines than a faster ship of equal tonnage and cost with speed focused engines, especially since Yorktown can only do 32.
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 15, 2020 13:04:49 GMT -6
Thank for the mod heads up! One of the goals I always have in mind when playing great games that are still in active development or have ongoing patch support is that I want to be able to post bug reports and provide feedback, based on my gameplay experience, to help make the games even better. Using mods goes against that goal, for obvious reasons. So I rarely use mods, unless I really have to. Also, I like the taste of vanilla Yeah, I had experience with CLs in my previous playthroughts. It sucked when 5 in CLAA was sometimes put into really tricky situations, including unreachable shore bombardment missions (and sometimes I ran out of ammo before being able to finish them), but that's the way it was before. I read the patch notes saying CLs should be mostly given roles of escorts, or something similar. Not sure if its to remedy this particular issue or what. But even then, CLAAs were historically put under various types of stresses and situations they weren't that good for. I planned to use CLs in TP mode, yes. But now I have these... Oh, okay, let's talk ships. May 1938I've never actually built any of those 3 cruiser designs shown earlier. I AM building 2 new fast battleships, of North Carolina class. Also, I have these old converted legacy BC-gone-CV Rochesters. They cost a lot to maintain, are slow and have small air complement. So I figured, I'd build a few CVLs to replace them. But it's not just that. Main role for the CVLs I'm building is to support BBs in Main Force, allowing big CVs to focus on their own stuff in Carrier Force. And to guard CVLs I think I actually need CLs. Because the game doesn't allow detaching ships into new divisions, and I may need to spread cruisers for different things in missions. North Carolina class is 56.000 tons, 28 knots fast battleship, and it's surprisingly normal by modern standards. Germans have FOUR 31 knotted 54k ton BCs with 8x 16 inch guns. Their belt is 13'', but I doubt their decks are as good as North Carolina's. British have one 50k ton 29 knot BB, with 12x 16 inch guns and 12.5'' belt. French are lighter with more numerous 40kton 31 kts 12'' designs. Soviets are building something that's 49k tons big. Japanese 42.6 k tons, and yet to make Yamato-style BB. Even Italians have 43k ton 29 kts 13'' belt battlewagon. I need battleships mainly to defend my other forces, and have ample supply of older BBs, so I think I'm okay with 28 knots for now. "The Speed Wall" should fall sooner or later, or at least get lower, and by that point, battleships won't matter much at all, mostly. One of the things I value in ships is range. Engine reliability is great, but goes secondary. Range gives them more availability in battles. And prevents them from frequently losing efficiency/crew experience when fighting around the world. And crew experience is kind of a big deal. Speaking of which, I must do another fleet exercise. Two North Carolina class BBs, four Independence class CVLs and two Chicago class CLs are currently in production. Sims class DD is a further iteration of Somers, but with normal engines and few more AA guns, while still capable of 35 knots.
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 15, 2020 16:48:25 GMT -6
June 1938Fleet Problem IIRed Force (me): 1 BB 4 DD + 2 CV 5 CA 9 DD (162 a/c) Blue Force: 1 BB 4 DD + 3 CV 5 CA 13 DD (170 a/c) Both BBs are Oregon class legacy BB (21 knots / 9x 16'', 12'' belt 4.5'' deck). My CVs are two Yorktowns - Yorktown and Enterprise (both 32 kts / 76 a/c). Enemy CVs are another Yorktown class (Hornet) and two Rochesters (46 a/c each). Mission start at 10:00 Zulu, with 14 hours of daylight remaining. This is gonna be a long day. Sent out several DBs for search, 200 nm out in front. Readied 5 F 18 DB 6 TB on Yorktown and 8 F 21 DB 11 TB on Enterprise, with heaviest load. Additional 5 F 18 DB 6 TB remaining on Yorktown as reserve for following strikes. CAP set to "light". All planes got readied on deck in 22 minutes. Very nice job! My battleship got spotted first, at 10:32, just as my own scouts barely took off. Wonder if readying strike package interfered with launching of scouts?! Oh, silly me, it surely must have been the reason for the delay! Setting CAP to "Medium" and ordering for CV division to provide some fighters to BB. 10:51. CA Frederick reports having problems with engines. Figures. But it's not that bad, only limiting its speed to 29 knots. Could've been worse. I hope I did not make mistake by making most of my cruisers with speed-focused engines! At 11:05 the first report of enemy ships comes in. 1 BB 4 DD 57-70 nm away from my force, due North. I hold off the attack until I get the word on enemy carriers. I confirm the presence of enemy carriers in the same general area 20 minutes later and send off two strike packages separately at the same target, prioritizing enemy CVs for targeting. My BatDiv 1 maneuvers south on different courses at maximum speed to get as much distance between us as possible. As both strikes depart, I ready the reserve one: 4 F 18 DB 6 TB, on Yorktown. I will send it out as soon as I get another report from the strikers. Or if the enemy bombers find me first. Whichever happens first. 12:30. Enemy DBs find and attack BB Oregon and its escorts. 8 bombers press their attack against Oregon, but no hits. 12:43. My strikers reach enemy ships. 2 bomb hits on "CL", 1 bomb hit on DD reported. 1 torpedo hit against an unknown ship also claimed. 12:49. My reserve strike is ready to be launched. I mark the area slightly north of the current air raid as target, 65 nm out. CVs are top priority, still. Few minutes later, escort fighters from the first strike confirm presence of 2 enemy carriers at that position. Wonder if they'll manage to hit them. 13:00. As the air raid continues, another torpedo hit against an unknown ship is reported. Then two more bomb hits on CA. 13:27. Single squadron of 13 unescorted enemy DBs approaches my CarDiv 1. By the time they attack one of CAs, it's just 10 of them left. Then they disappear, making no hits. 13:57. My reserve strike reaches the enemy. TBs report attacking enemy CV, but no hits. DBs claim three bomb hits on "CL", BB and DD. I wait for recon planes I sent out few hours ago to land, and for the strikers to calm down a bit, make quick repairs and reassemble before ordering a new strike. The weather is clear, but the sea state limits the ship speed somewhat. 14:21. Last strike is about to return. Yet, I do not think I managed to hit enemy carriers. Current range between us is 65-70 nm. I keep maneuvering south in different ways trying to shake them off. Most latest reports indicate enemy CVs moving SW, but that's hardly giving me anything. I do note that so far their strikes were small, unescorted and uncoordinated, which is strange, considering they have more carriers and aircraft than I have. 15:00. As of now, Enterprise has 4 F 22 DB 3 TB for the next strike. Yorktown can spare 8 F 23 DB 4 TB. Not bad! I'll start readying them all. Any damaged planes that are to be quickly repaired soon will have to wait for the next line up. 15:23. Well well, my boys are all ready again! Quick, I like it a lot! I'll send out strikes to slightly different areas, trying to bracket the enemy fleet. 15:30. 18 enemy dive bombers and 6 TBs find my battleship. There are only 4 fighters on CAP above the battlewagon, but they smash two DBs immediately and then go for TBs, downing one while losing two fighters to their defensive fire. DD Hull receives one bomb hit. No major damage, it seems. This is the first hit on my ships so far! 16:00. Both strikes depart. Wonder which one will actually find the enemy now. 16:15. I order heavy cruisers to launch float planes to search for possible detached damaged ships. 100-150 nm out, northern quadrant. At the same instant, 17 enemy DBs head for BB Oregon with no CAP left over it. 16:23. BB Oregon's deck hit with 1 800 lb bomb. Engine disabled but quickly repaired, speed dropping to 14 knots. Old DD Macdonough is also hit, with one turret blown off completely. But Macdonough stays in formation with speed limited to 33 knots. Amazing resilience for such an old tin can! 16:33. Enterprise's strikers report 1 BB 2 CV 5 CA 11 DD 68 nm NE off my carriers. 16:57. Attack commences on enemy force. 2 "CVL", 3 "CL", 2 DD bomb hits claimed. Two unidentified torpedo hits also. Sounds good! 18:03. There are still almost 6 hours of daylight left. Intel reports suggest the enemy force is split in two. Main group, 1 BB 2 CVs are on my tail, 65 nm NW. Smaller group, 1 CV is 145 nm North. A straggler? Let's try to finish it off, it it is one! I'll change course to move NE, evading perusing BB, while returning closer to the lone CV. If I get the picture right. Yorktown's strike is already started landing. Enterprise's is not that far behind. 18:08. Couple enemy DB and TB squadron make an uncoordinated attack on my ships, both BB group and CVs. No luck for them. 19:30. Enterprise spots unidentified ship 33 kyd on her port side, NW from the force. Oh-oh! There's actually three of them! And they're firing! 20:03. Five escorting CAs open fire on the enemy. Problem is, one of the enemies is identified as Oregon class BB. My own battleship is limping to help out at 14 knots maximum speed, 20 nm out. 20:21. BB Oregon comes into gun range with its sister ship and opens fire. I don't order any new flights off the carriers until we're clear away from the enemy surface force. 20:43. Two turrets disabled on my BB. Enemy battleship is barely touched, steaming along at 20 knots. 21:11. For the past half hour, BB Oregon got critically hit and completely lost power. Unable to move, it gets hammered by enemy 16'' shells. Enemy BB moved in closer to finish the job. Five friendly CAs detached from the carrier force and move up to try and do at least some damage to enemy battlewagon while it's focused on sinking my battleship. Also, I ordered flotilla attack. 21:37. Enemy air strike comes in. CV Enterprise receives two bomb hits and is on fire. 22:11. Fire is out. I'm trying to disengage and reassemble the force. It's hard due to all the damage and AI keeps reverting control to itself (I'm playing on default difficulty). 23:01. Local 18:01. I order the last strikes. Yorktown, who survived one 16'' shell hit to the superstructure, sends out 3 F, 23 DB, 6 TB, coordinated, 70 nm NW of my position, priority enemy BB. Both takeoff and landing will be in the dark, but what the hell. I don't think we're gonna get anywhere else today anyway. This is for the Oregon! Enterprise can only send 23 DBs and 2 TBs. Its strike will go further and focus on enemy CVs. If it finds any, in the dark. 23:20. Before the planes manage to take off, the Observers call the whole thing off. The exercise is over, they say. Let's look at the results, then. Comments:
I won! 5 CAs made 126 hits on BB Arkansas and it eventually sunk, after we disengaged. I also managed to sink enemy CV (converted BC of Rochester class) with 4 800 lb SAP bomb hits and 2 torpedo hits from Yorktown planes. Enemy Hornet received one torpedo from Enterprise's aircraft, but lived with light damage. Second converted carrier survived 2 penetrating bomb hits, one to the hull that started fire, and another to the superstructure that also caused damage to the aircraft on deck. The best part is, I managed to save the BB Oregon. After I drove the enemy away from its disabled hull, no one dared to re-attack it again, and it did not sink. The flooding was stopped. Good job DC teams! All right. That was much more fun than the last one!
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 16, 2020 13:15:31 GMT -6
August 1940Let's recap my goals for the 1930s: 1. Budget is 5 times bigger now, and there's only been one small 3 month long regional conflict with the Soviets. CHECK 2. No new BBs have entered service yet, but there are 6 ehm... moderately fast ones under construction. I did build 19 new heavy cruisers, and 4 CLs will join them shortly. My carrier force is doing okay-ish. Overall, I managed to regain parity with other world powers in all categories. CHECK. 3. I had a research agreements with both British and France, and recently made an actual alliance with the Britain. CHECK. So far, so good! Well, not exactly. Tensions with Japan have risen sharply over the recent months, currently at 11. War is very likely to happen soon. I've deployed Pacific fleet and checked status of Asiatic, North Pacific and The Caribbean squadrons. Let's look at what the Japanese have. Bases/invasion wise, they may attack Philippines and Guam. Their air component is twice bigger than mine, but most of them are probably stationed on Home Islands. Ship wise... 4 old 21-23 kts BBs. 4 moderately good but quick & scary BCs. Cruisers are mostly ~10k tonners, thinly armored treaty ships. 6 CVs in service are 22ktons, ~30 kts, ~ 58-60 a/c. I can counter that. They're building 5 more, meaning I have to step up my CV construction as well. Everything else looks as uge. That's it for today.
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Post by generalvikus on Feb 16, 2020 20:24:22 GMT -6
Remember when making your ships long ranged that when you're operating in a region where you have no friendly bases, a long ranged ship may be able to stay there longer before rotating back home, but may still be scuttled or interned if it's damaged because it has nowhere to repair.
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 17, 2020 15:59:28 GMT -6
September 12th 1940 / 16:31 Zulu, 5:31 local AIR RAID WARNING at Pearl Harbor. This is not a drill!USN OOB:
Main Force: 4 BB 9 CA 14 DD Carrier Force: 2 CV 2 CVL 2 CA 8 DD (104 F 72 DB 44 TB) Pearl Harbor AB: 32 F, 36 DB, 12 PB Weather: Partly cloudy, wind direction SE, light breeze. Daylight visibility: 21.5 kyd. Ships begun fleeing the harbor at 7:25. Main Force headed west to find the enemy ships. Carrier Force went north to avoid being sunk. 9:14. First strike against the Main Force is incoming. Several 8-ship squadrons of dive bombers take turns attacking my ships with small 300lb bombs. Two hits land on CA Huron and DD Ingraham, but cause little damage. Enemy TBs proceed to the harbor area but find no ships to strike and disappear. 9:33. So far, three enemy contact reports were made. 2 groups of CAs (may be the same one), 2 and 5 cruisers. Third report - 4 CVL 4 DD. Cruisers 120 nm west off my Carrier Force, CVLs 40 nm further, at ~160. My own CVLs ordered to launch strikes immediately to target the area where CAs were found, while Yorktown and Enterprise target enemy light carriers with larger coordinated strike groups. Yorktown sends 6 F 28 DB 10 TB. Enterprise 30 DB, 12 TB, but no fighters (all gone to CAP). Independence and Copahee send 4 F 9 TB and 2 F 9 TB respectively. All focused to strike CVs as highest priority, of course. Pearl Harbor launches 6 flying boats and 34 Marine dive bombers as well. 9:56. Oh damn! New report comes in, saying "1 BC 4 CV 1 CL 4 DD" found much much further NW from the first enemy contact. 190 nm out from the current position of my own carriers. That must be Japanese standalone fleet carrier force! A serious decision needs to be made. If there are so many enemy carriers in the area, my ships are in grave danger. There are still 7 hours of daylight left, and that's plenty for possible 300+ carrier-borne aircraft force to decimate anything. This is a surprise attack, so mission length is much shorter than usual, though. Only 100 minutes are left to play with. My Main Force is currently 70-100 nm away from Japanese scouts/CVLs (the advance group), but 160 nm away from big carriers. My own carriers are 115-150 nm away from the advance group, and 190 nm from enemy fleet carriers. The wind is SE, so they'll drift closer to Pearl each time they send or receive planes. My own carrier planes are mostly limited by the range of fighter escorts, which is 187-192 nm at most. Heaviest bomber loads are 183 and 219 nm for DBs and TBs respectively. So my strike range is 180 nm maximum. My four BBs and nine CAs can do a lot of damage to any force they encounter. But they are too vulnerable to air attacks. They MUST retreat. Enemy carrier force would be hard to damage from the air, thanks to their concentration of carriers. But.. I can't just run away. I WILL attack their main carrier group with my own carriers, if there's time. I must. And leave Pearl to deal with the advance force. Battleships will have to retreat, though. 10:47. Marine DBs from Pearl report hitting enemy CVL with bombs three times. 11:38. Three groups of 6 to 8 Japanese TBs find my carrier force! All spread their fire at various ships moving erratically in tight formation, but no hits scored. 12:10. My carrier strike groups report attacking enemy advance force. Dive bombers report 2 hist on CA, 1 hit on CVL. Then 3 more hits on "CV". I'm not sure there is one, probably just CVL. Good if true, regardless. 12:25. CAs in Carrier Force deploy 4 float planes to update position of enemy carriers. A very dangerous mission, but I must order them so. 13:00. My Carrier Force is stuck near Pearl, sending out and landing planes. Ugh! 14:23. Mission is still going. Yorktown readies 3 F 28 DB 11 TB, Enterprise 6 F 25 DB 11 TB for a strike on the enemy main carrier group. CVLs give additional 12 F and 10 TB to the mix. 15:00. Pearl Harbor reports attack on its shore installations, including the airfield. 17:29. None of my planes seemed to find enemy carriers. But neither did the enemy target my carriers again. Mission is over. Comments:
Oh, I won! Okay, that was unfortunate for the Japanese. Losing 1 CV and 2 CVL in an unsuccessful Pearl Harbor attack is crazy. I got lucky. This could've ended SO MUCH worse! Planes from Pearl managed to find and sink 1 enemy CV and damage another one! Good job! Enterprise's dive bombers credited with sinking 2 CVLs and damaging the 3rd. Alright, it's 1 am here, gotta go.
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 19, 2020 1:35:45 GMT -6
February 1941There were a couple of smaller engagements, but none are really worth mentioning. In the first six months of the war, USN's losses are as follows: one heavy cruiser and two destroyers. Japanese managed to lose one battleship, two cruisers, one fleet and two light carriers, and three smaller ships. The enemy still has three old battlewagons, three modern fast battlecruisers (some of which have almost caught all my Pacific carriers at night near Tarawa), forty two cruisers and fifty four destoyers. They've managed to finish construction of three new fleet carriers, now having a total of eight CVs at their disposal and outnumber me four to one in the PTO. And they still have two more building up, with one finishing really soon, I think. Their CVL force also outnumbers mine almost two to one. My current legacy battleship force requires too much escorts, but their protection isn't really up to modern requirements (mostly deck armor). Which makes them a big, slow, costly liability, with all the enemy carriers surfing around. I've decided to move all the old Pacific battlewagons back to West Coast and put them either in reserve or to Trade Protection duty. Similar stance is put on the East Coast. I'm almost finished constructing two new fast BBs of North Carolina class. But the doctrine (Fleet tactics tech) is not there yet. I won't be able to use battleships as carrier escorts for at least another year. And I'm somewhat scared to use fast BBs as an offensive force during carrier engagements. The further they move away from friendly carriers (and CVLs were almost always put into Carrier force, and not Main Force in previous battles, despite me thinking they'll be cruising with the battlewagons), the longer it takes for CAP to reach them. Or, maybe, that's even better than if they were there up close, I dunno... I'll have to try and see.. Carrier-wise, there is one Yorktown-class and two Rochester-class carriers on the East Coast (plus two CVLs). Problem is, Rochesters cost a whole ton of money to run, even more than Yorktowns, but bring almost twice less amount of aircraft to the table and have lower speed of 28 knots. Which also makes them a big slow pricey liability, just like my legacy BBs. So I've put Rochesters into reserve as well, hoping they'll be used as last resort in the event if East Coast gets attacked (this happened to me before in previous games, so I think it can work). But so far, Japanese keep to Pacific/Asia. Which makes me want to shift forces from the Atlantic a bit. Three fleet carriers of the new Fly-class (which I made up to compensate for the lack of proper Lexington/Ranger/Wasp class ships) will begin arriving in five months, so the Atlantic can hold up until then, I guess? Now, to operational problems. I managed to fight the Japanese off in the CenPac. But they've invaded the Philippines and dominate the area by sheer force of numbers. I can transfer Hornet and two Independence-class to CenPac right away, and then move all three Yorktowns and four Indies together if the Manila hasn't fallen by then. Sounds about right.
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Post by generalvikus on Feb 19, 2020 6:51:41 GMT -6
For protecting your carrier force, you can always just sail the main force to rendezvous with it if you need to - that's what I always did anyway, before carrier battles were added.
I've got to say, as for the Rochesters - I'd bring them along and ditch them if necessary in the unlikely (though already precedented, apparently!) event the carriers are caught out by surface ships - in any other situation, there's not much to choose between 28 and 31 knots, and the Kido Butai itself was slowerat this time IIRC. In the end, the number of aircraft you can bring to bear matters a whole lot more than speed, in my opinion, and the situation seems desperate enough that this is not the time for penny pinching.
I'm not sure if BBs do anything on TP; I tested it in an earlier version of the game, and I think that I've seen BCs thwart and generate intercepts before, but not BBs, which doesn't make any sense since it ought to be the perfect task for old battleships, and was an important function they fulfilled during the war. If you're going to leave them on TP anyway, I'd still send them to the Pacific - even if you don't want to throw them away, it's unlikely they would be dragged into ordinary combat in the TP role, and never more than a couple at once, so it's relatively safe, if it works at all. If it doesn't work, I'd send them straight to Manilla, where they may find an honourable death, at the very least, charging into the middle of some Japanese troop convoy.
In the meantime, I'd concentrate the carrier force in the Central Pacific - no need to rush, since it's not necessary to hold the Philippines, except for the conveniently located airbases - and then send them all together to Southeast Asia. And I'd transfer some more squadrons to that theatre, while you're at it - especially to the Philippines, which they can quickly reinforce. You can steal some from the carriers while they're transiting to the AO, if necessary.
If the Japanese have only a relatively small force in Northeast Asia, I think it would be worth sending a squadron there to protect Wehewei from invasion - it could be very useful later, and they really should have targeted it first; but of course you must retreat if faced with an overwhelming response.
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Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Feb 19, 2020 11:01:14 GMT -6
For protecting your carrier force, you can always just sail the main force to rendezvous with it if you need to - that's what I always did anyway, before carrier battles were added. I've got to say, as for the Rochesters - I'd bring them along and ditch them if necessary in the unlikely (though already precedented, apparently!) event the carriers are caught out by surface ships - in any other situation, there's not much to choose between 28 and 31 knots, and the Kido Butai itself was slowerat this time IIRC. In the end, the number of aircraft you can bring to bear matters a whole lot more than speed, in my opinion, and the situation seems desperate enough that this is not the time for penny pinching. I'm not sure if BBs do anything on TP; I tested it in an earlier version of the game, and I think that I've seen BCs thwart and generate intercepts before, but not BBs, which doesn't make any sense since it ought to be the perfect task for old battleships, and was an important function they fulfilled during the war. If you're going to leave them on TP anyway, I'd still send them to the Pacific - even if you don't want to throw them away, it's unlikely they would be dragged into ordinary combat in the TP role, and never more than a couple at once, so it's relatively safe, if it works at all. If it doesn't work, I'd send them straight to Manilla, where they may find an honourable death, at the very least, charging into the middle of some Japanese troop convoy. In the meantime, I'd concentrate the carrier force in the Central Pacific - no need to rush, since it's not necessary to hold the Philippines, except for the conveniently located airbases - and then send them all together to Southeast Asia. And I'd transfer some more squadrons to that theatre, while you're at it - especially to the Philippines, which they can quickly reinforce. You can steal some from the carriers while they're transiting to the AO, if necessary. If the Japanese have only a relatively small force in Northeast Asia, I think it would be worth sending a squadron there to protect Wehewei from invasion - it could be very useful later, and they really should have targeted it first; but of course you must retreat if faced with an overwhelming response. Re: positioning Yeah, that sounds quite historical. I've already moved my carriers to Southeast Asia however, because I was afraid Philippines would fall. I put my ships there against superior enemy numbers and... well.. You'll soon hear what happened Re: BBs on TP duty Yeah, I had similar experience in earlier versions of the game. BBs/BCs do appear in raider interception battles. Having good speed, long range, good engines and float planes equipped also helps AFAIK. But at this point I just hope they'd be put away from the front line. No need to give the enemy such juicy targets for little gain. I've already lost one CA to night torpedo attack during convoy defense mission, actually. Oh, I actually do not really intend to fight in away zones where I don't have bases that much. For now at least. And certainly not without my force being superior. I think I've read somewhere around here before that longer range, along with better quality engines, in general provides higher chance of a ship appearing in battles. Not sure if it's actually true, but I hope it is!
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