Solomon Campaign Briefs

Started by AH_DealnDave, March 29, 2017, 11:44:52 PM

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_AH_DarkWolf

Quote from: AH_DealnDave on April 19, 2017, 07:38:06 PM
Welcome aboard the USS Yorktown and USS Enterprise.

You mean Saratoga and Enterprise? The US had those two and Wasp in the area but Wasp went south to refuel and missed the battle.

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

_AH_Lippy

I thought that separate comms was out.

_AH_Bear

Quote from: _AH_Lippy on April 20, 2017, 12:53:45 AM
I thought that separate comms was out.

we just forgot.. it was ok tho i thought..

AH_DealnDave

Quote from: _AH_DarkWolf on April 19, 2017, 08:50:15 PM
Quote from: AH_DealnDave on April 19, 2017, 07:38:06 PM
Welcome aboard the USS Yorktown and USS Enterprise.

You mean Saratoga and Enterprise? The US had those two and Wasp in the area but Wasp went south to refuel and missed the battle.

DW
S~ All,

Tried to use the Saratoga but the aircraft set wouldn't fit.  So for most of this campaign I've had to use to the 42' Enterprise, Yorktown, and Lexington.  I wish The ship modelers would've taken aircraft size into consideration. The TBF and SBD takes up a lot of room on those decks.

I'm not really big on air-start missions except when an extended distance is an issue.
Salute,

AH_DealnDave

_AH_DarkWolf

Quote from: AH_DealnDave on April 20, 2017, 06:47:12 PM
Tried to use the Saratoga but the aircraft set wouldn't fit.  So for most of this campaign I've had to use to the 42' Enterprise, Yorktown, and Lexington.

Ah ok. Hmm, thats odd they will fit on the 42 Lexington but not on the others of the same class. Though I guess the 42 Lex is a modded carrier so maybe they tweaked it. Did you try adjusting the order of the various types to see if there was a way to make em fit?


On another topic, do we have any idea of the speed of the enemy vessels? Is that something you can give us even a ballpark indication of? I understand if its considered info we don't have. I was going to throw together a little torpedo practice room. Actually, maybe I'll build it into the warmup, lots of room there...

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

AH_DealnDave

S~ All,

Yeah I tried to mix and match, but kept getting aircraft blowing up on the deck of Saratoga.  That's why I went with the 42' era ships.

Updated the brief, see above for speed and heading.
Salute,

AH_DealnDave

_AH_DarkWolf

So it looks like you are leading the TBFs, Bear. 1st, HQ and any guests. Any thoughts or plans formulated yet?

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

_AH_Bear

My thoughts are...  Two groups, Ill lead one DW the other, once we hit our WP at CO25 I will travel west of the WP line about 5 K and DWs group stay on the east side of it... climbing to about 1500M or so.. once we spot the ships we can assess.  Your group take 1 carrier and mine the other... Carriers 1st others secondary IF we have the numbers. Secondary target will be the battleship.

What say you?

_AH_DarkWolf

Do we have any idea of the number of torpedoes it will take to down a carrier? I don't know off hand. Numbers wise we'll probobly have 4-5 from 1st plus 3 HQ plus 2-4 guests. So if we have 10-12 aircraft total, will 5-6 in each group be enough to kill a carrier? One is a CV, the other a CVL so presumably the CVL would be weaker...

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

AH_DealnDave

I believe that 4 torps will kill a fleet carrier and three for the light carrier.
Salute,

AH_DealnDave

_AH_DarkWolf

I did some testing, as few as 3 torpedoes will down a Shokaku CV, 2 will sink a Zuiho\Chitose CVL (they appear to be the same ship, just different skins) and 1-2 will sink a Hosho CVL. Keep in mind this is the # of torpedoes required striking the same spot.

I thought the way ship damage is modelled is that each ship is divided into 3 sections, the front third, the middle third and the rear third. One of those three sections has to be "destroyed" to sink a ship. Damage is not cumulative across sections, for example a Zuiho CVL can only take 2 torpedoes to one section to sink but she will survive if she takes one torpedo to each section even though its a total of 3. Testing against a moving Zuiho once resulted in an oddity though, I struck with 3 in the after half of the ship so two had to have hit one section but she stayed up. Perhaps it was a fluke, reading online seems to confirm the 3 hitbox damage modelling.

It may be difficult to score the required number of hits, 25 knots is a good clip. Its surprising how far the ship will move from release to impact. I've setup some moving carrier targets in the practice room for us to work on.

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

_AH_DarkWolf

Quote from: _AH_Bear on April 24, 2017, 10:59:14 PM
My thoughts are...  Two groups, Ill lead one DW the other, once we hit our WP at CO25 I will travel west of the WP line about 5 K and DWs group stay on the east side of it... climbing to about 1500M or so.. once we spot the ships we can assess.  Your group take 1 carrier and mine the other... Carriers 1st others secondary IF we have the numbers. Secondary target will be the battleship.

What say you?

As you say if we have the numbers we can split. If we don't we should consolidate and try to ensure we get at least one carrier. Practice in the warmup room will help indicate how feasible splitting up will be, we'll see how reliably a group of aircraft can sink these carriers. If we have trouble hitting\hitting enough in the same area we may need additional numbers to ensure success.

Looking at the waypoints, if the bomb icons represent roughly where the ships will be when we get there, splitting at CO-25 would work. But if that is the enemy ship's location at mission start and they are moving 140 degrees at 25 knots they are gonna be farther SE. We might spot the first group in like CP-24. So we should be prepared for things to happen a little faster.

If we split I assume we split the fighter squadrons as well? 2nd go with one group and 3rd with another?

Quote from: _AH_Bear on April 24, 2017, 10:59:14 PM
..once we spot the ships we can assess.

I think this is important, we should not go straight in once we sight them. Lets scope out the position of the escorts relative to the carriers and try and pick an approach that keeps the escorts at arms length as much as possible.

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

_AH_Bear

from what i recall of past waypoints with this author the bombing icons represent the path the fleet can be expected in... thinking the upper most one is the starting point i think they will be closest to there... my thoughts on splitting was keeping the AAA spread out giving someone a chance.. perhaps the fighters can skirt high on the sides as well going in a few KM early to attract some of that nastiness... as far as targets go if were low on pilots we can still attack 1 ship hopefully from either side?
~S~ Bear

_AH_Col._Hogan

Archie, can we start a few minutes later... Say around 15 or 20 past the hour???

Inspectors are crawling around my house and I just caught one going my undies drawer.

More to come in a few...

AH_DealnDave

#29
Excellent turn-out for mission - 03, we had 22 pilots altogether !!!  Here is the next briefing to be flown on next Tuesday - May 2nd.

"Solomon Islands Campaign"
Mission - 04 - Guadalcanal / 02
Date: August 26th, 1942

After Action Report:

Nice work hitting the enemy fleet. One of their primary carriers was heavily damaged and one of their light carriers was sunk. Our fighters also destroyed over 30 enemy fighters in a hotly contested dogfight. The Enterprise was also damaged, but she is still afloat. Her aircraft have been deployed to Guadalcanal.

Welcome back to Guadalcanal ... our hold on this island is getting stronger.  The Mud Marines have pushed our lines out as far as Pointe Cruz, Mt. Austen, and Koli Pointe.

Intelligence:

Radar reports large groups (two) of enemy aircraft approaching the Canal. They are flying towards Henderson from the north-west. We are not able to determine aircraft types, however a submarine near the Russell Islands reported that there are fighters, light bombers, and medium bombers within the groups.

The Mission:

Both F4F's and P-400's will fly to grid Ck-9, proceed on patrol to CI-11.



Engage and destroy enemy aircraft.

NOTAM's:

F4F's (1st Squad, seats 1-4, 9-12) - will use "red" comms
P-400's (2nd Squad, seats 5-8, 17-20) - will use "blue" comms
F4F's (3rd Squad, seats 13-16, 21-24) - will use main channel
P-400's (Spare's, HQ & Guests, seats 25-28) - will use "blue" comms, AIR-START, zero fuel at this time

Good Luck ...
Salute,

AH_DealnDave