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Keep the carrier fleet and battleships together to focus AA power and fight together.

3 (60%)

Divide the carriers and BB's into individual task forces to better avoid detection.

2 (40%)

Total Members Voted: 5

[Goron]

Can I captain the destroyer Asagumo?

Asagumo (朝雲?, "Morning Clouds") was a Asashio-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Completed on 31 March 1938 at Kawasaki Heavy Industries' Kobe, Japan shipyard, she was the fifth destroyer of her class to be built. At the commencement of World War II, she was assigned to the 9th Destroyer Division to take part in various operations. During 1942 Asagumo participated in the battles of Badung Strait and Midway, after which she headed to reinforce the Japanese force at Solomon Islands. During August, Asagumo saw engagement in the Japanese Guadalcanal reinforcement operation and in November, she was made the flagship of the 4th Torpedo Squadron. This squadron was to enter the 3rd Solomon Battle during February the following year and engage in action in the Bismarck Sea during March. Also during 1943, Asagumo was involved in the Japanese retreat from Kiska Island in July. Asagumo spent her final hours assigned to Vice Admiral Nishimura's fleet. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Asagumo was torpedoed in Surigao Strait by USS McDermut (DD-677) and subsequently sunk (01°59′S 104°56′ECoordinates: 01°59′S 104°56′E).

I randomly picked it form the list- let's hope I fare better than the actual ship...

[Erkki]

Cool, I have Kongo in the other thread. Let's see which one sinks first!

Sadly I dont forsee Yamato providing anything but AA support for the Carrier group. If I can I will get Yamato to Saipan when the inevitable US landings take place. However she would probably not come back from such a mission. Way too many Yanks about
This was how Yamato was sunk in reality. I think it was at Leyte Gulf too Okinawa, Yamato was sent on a suicide mission to try and attack the American carriers, she was spotted and sunk before getting anywhere near.

Actually, it was only semi-suicidal. They tried to run the Yamato aground, beaching it next to the invasion shores to provide the defenders some REAL heavy fire support. And well armoured. Kind of naval equivalent of the Banzai charge, where everyone expects to die, but dont wish it, as opposed to a successful kamikaze where the committing man always dies.

Good luck against the Yanks, you dont WANT to know what you're up against.  Is it against AI or a pbem?

Edit: in that Zuikaku photo, its listed "only" around 30 degrees. Flight deck at the right.

[Deadmeat1471]

Cool, I have Kongo in the other thread. Let's see which one sinks first!

Sadly I dont forsee Yamato providing anything but AA support for the Carrier group. If I can I will get Yamato to Saipan when the inevitable US landings take place. However she would probably not come back from such a mission. Way too many Yanks about
This was how Yamato was sunk in reality. I think it was at Leyte Gulf too Okinawa, Yamato was sent on a suicide mission to try and attack the American carriers, she was spotted and sunk before getting anywhere near.

Actually, it was only semi-suicidal. They tried to run the Yamato aground, beaching it next to the invasion shores to provide the defenders some REAL heavy fire support. And well armoured. Kind of naval equivalent of the Banzai charge, where everyone expects to die, but dont wish it, as opposed to a successful kamikaze where the committing man always dies.

Good luck against the Yanks, you dont WANT to know what you're up against.  Is it against AI or a pbem?

Edit: in that Zuikaku photo, its listed "only" around 30 degrees. Flight deck at the right.

Agreed on all counts, was late at night, didn't explain very well
By suicide I meant it was a one way trip, not that they packed it with explosives and used it as a fireship

Is against the AI.

*about Zuikaku, I believe youre wrong. You can see the barnicals on the bottom of the ship on the right. And the masts on the left, it is listing alot more than 30 degrees . Thats not the flight deck its the side!

[Deadmeat1471]

Can I captain the destroyer Asagumo?

Asagumo (朝雲?, "Morning Clouds") was a Asashio-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Completed on 31 March 1938 at Kawasaki Heavy Industries' Kobe, Japan shipyard, she was the fifth destroyer of her class to be built. At the commencement of World War II, she was assigned to the 9th Destroyer Division to take part in various operations. During 1942 Asagumo participated in the battles of Badung Strait and Midway, after which she headed to reinforce the Japanese force at Solomon Islands. During August, Asagumo saw engagement in the Japanese Guadalcanal reinforcement operation and in November, she was made the flagship of the 4th Torpedo Squadron. This squadron was to enter the 3rd Solomon Battle during February the following year and engage in action in the Bismarck Sea during March. Also during 1943, Asagumo was involved in the Japanese retreat from Kiska Island in July. Asagumo spent her final hours assigned to Vice Admiral Nishimura's fleet. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Asagumo was torpedoed in Surigao Strait by USS McDermut (DD-677) and subsequently sunk (01°59′S 104°56′ECoordinates: 01°59′S 104°56′E).

I randomly picked it form the list- let's hope I fare better than the actual ship...

Added

[Erkki]

Whats your plans, are you going to have the carrier TF duel against the mighty 58?

If that, I probably wouldnt take it directly. Maybe lurk further, wait for them to start pounding the islands and hit & run? If you can get other units or island-based search planes to spot them(you'll need to sacrifice a lot of search planes, though) and hope for them to not spot KB, but instead launch another strike to the islands.

If you're lucky some bombers might even get through, and they will only strike back with the 250 or so Avengers. 


edit: it is flight deck at the right. See this:



Those antennas are turned down 90 degrees when the ship is launching or receiving aircraft... The side also has massive amounts of AAA batteries in 2 stories - it cant possibly be at the right in the first picture.

[Deadmeat1471]

Must be the flight deck then. Apparently it rolled entirely over though, and sank head first. I remember reading about people jumping down the side of it to get  off, only to smash into the side 5 feet under water

[Deadmeat1471]

Ekki, got any tips? you seem like a knowledgable WiTP player 

For example.

I was never sure how to use the % of stuff.
For example if training is 40% and everything else 0, does it use 100% of time on training?

[Erkki]

Played only since November actually. But more than enough of knowledge on the aircraft, battles, persons and military history in general... Especially the aircraft.

If a unit is 40% train, 60% will rest, unless there is a mission.

If a unit is 30% CAP then 20-30% are airborne during the daylight and the rest sitting on ground, more or less ready to take off, unless there is a mission.

You can force a rest, but if you dont want some unit to fly an escort sortie, it might be a better idea to just limit their max range and set 40-50% CAP.

It can be tempting to set 60-70% CAP and let your fighters slaughter the enemy before you strike back, but the CAP is "leaky", with big enough numbers someone will always get through, and might do big damage. Best to CAP max 50%. Escorting against enemy carriers, the fighter's only task, really, is to die instead of the bombers. A defending fighter usually kills 1 bomber, but only 0,3-0,5 fighters, too. You want their carriers dead, not their aircraft, because once you've shut down a carrier deck the airborne planes will have to divert, and if there are no decks to divert, they are lost. And all aboard a sunk carrier are also lost. Also, if the planes divert to other carriers so that they become over crowded, their repair times skyrocket and they can only launch I think on average 30% of aircraft they otherwise would.

[Deadmeat1471]

Played only since November actually. But more than enough of knowledge on the aircraft, battles, persons and military history in general... Especially the aircraft.

I know a fair deal too, I'm a history student and have read alot on the Pacific war. But I never could get into WiTP easily due to its slow pace.

If a unit is 40% train, 60% will rest, unless there is a mission.

If a unit is 30% CAP then 20-30% are airborne during the daylight and the rest sitting on ground, more or less ready to take off, unless there is a mission.

You can force a rest, but if you dont want some unit to fly an escort sortie, it might be a better idea to just limit their max range and set 40-50% CAP.

It can be tempting to set 60-70% CAP and let your fighters slaughter the enemy before you strike back, but the CAP is "leaky", with big enough numbers someone will always get through, and might do big damage. Best to CAP max 50%. Escorting against enemy carriers, the fighter's only task, really, is to die instead of the bombers. A defending fighter usually kills 1 bomber, but only 0,3-0,5 fighters, too. You want their carriers dead, not their aircraft, because once you've shut down a carrier deck the airborne planes will have to divert, and if there are no decks to divert, they are lost. And all aboard a sunk carrier are also lost. Also, if the planes divert to other carriers so that they become over crowded, their repair times skyrocket and they can only launch I think on average 30% of aircraft they otherwise would.

Ah its the NUMBER not the time spent. I get it now.

Yeah i've found CAPs to be leaky too. I see your point about fighters, but some islands need to be defended with fighters, such islands as Saipan . I do plan however to try and keep my planes back from saipan mostly. I think ill spread them along the island chain to Tinian etc aswell. *which they already are. That way any pre-landing strike wont destroy all my fighters!

Just looking at the map...

[Deadmeat1471]

Added note: fighters dont have drop tanks, so defending Saipan from itself and neighboring islands is essential.

Guam and Saipan can service the most planes.


Strategy possibility - Moving the 23rd special base force from Iwo Jima to Saipan to stop the yanks there. It contains Japanese marines crewing, heavy machineguns, coastal defence guns, AA guns, Howitzers, and support engineers, logistics and aviation support.
The con to this is If Saipan falls, Iwojima wont have many fixed fortifications left to defend itself with.

(My vote is yes.)

[Erkki]

If you spread them too thin, a squad or two each day has to face massive odds, while the others just sit on their thumbs. I havent played the Philippines Sea scenario myself, but dont think you have anything on the islands that can give them back. Might be better to mass land fighters in as few bases as possible, within stacking limits and available aviation support. You could overuse aviation support, too, as after the first battle theres considerably less aircraft to maintenance. 

If they're already spread out, yeah, not much you can do... Saipan might be just in range of the Ki-61s from Guam, so you could try LRCAP to get better use of the little numbers you have.

[Erkki]

If you still have time to move any AAA units, mass them. You are not going to bleed them out of bombers, but you can try to reduce their number some to give Kido Butai better chance.

[Deadmeat1471]

I'll have a look around for AA batteries.

[Deadmeat1471]

There is a 'spare' base force on Peleliu.

I think I will send Iwo's one to Saipan and Peleliu's one to Guam to reinforce land defenses. They also have AA guns.
Medium level bombers from Peleliu can reach Saipan, just. Everything else will have to remain on Guam and Saipan itself.
Dive bombers can use drop tanks from peleliu. I think it would be wise to relocate as many DB's there as possible to maintain their safety for a counterstrike on the invasion force.

*Subs will fan out east of Saipan to detect incoming ships.

[Erkki]

What are the bombers, G4Ms? Dont move them they need the torpedo ordnance only the air HQ on the island will provide.

They'll most likely go Saipan first, if you can, locate the dive bombers on Guam, so they can support KB once the carrier duel begins. With some luck, they will go first, get eaten by the CAP but all fighters than took part to the fight will land for refueling and armament.

If you were thinking about giving squads diff planes, dont change them on the islands you were thinking about fighting for. The upgrade eats supplies, as does repairing the new planes...

KB's fighter force is mainly A6M5, or 5b, right?