Fghtrs vs Cap. Ships

I have a duplicate of the Hood, Richelue, and the Baltimore.

want a Ark royal for your Baltimore?

Gentlemen as far as AA potential of ships, I don’t think there was a great difference.  Unless you count the fact the late war Japanese had much more limited ammo.  As far as actual weapons and mounts, I think the Type 96 (25mm) was compareble to our 28mm.  And I believe we both had the DP 5" guns, I think the only edge we had going for us was when we started mounting the 40mm, though I’d have to research it a little more to be sure.  Let me also put forth the fact that after the losses at Midway, most Japanese pilots were newbs, and couldn’t really compare to the US pilots in training and flight time.  Aslo take into consideration that US plane types kept getting better and better, as well as maintaining a high degree of ruggedness.

In short, I feel better aircraft, with more highly trained pilots on the US side, would be more effective when compared against post midway ‘newb pilots’ on the Japanese side, in lightly or unarmoured Japanese aircraft.  The American planes and pilots were better, and were ever increasing in number, that is what I think accounts for their better performance historicaly.  As far as I can tell, it seems that the AA potential between US and Japan in WW2 wasn’t all that different for the majority of the war, apart from what’s noted above.  For A&A game purposes I would definently rate them close.  Including CAP and the overwhelming carrier and aircraft forces of the late war US is a different matter all thogether.

Cheers!

Well, I actually got my buddy over and played 5 games yesterday.  He took the Italian carrier with american planes, cruisers and destroyers.  I have to say that in game the Americans have a clear advantage in Anti-Aircraft fire.  Not only do the Ami destroyers have a better AA value than the Kaigun destroyers, a lot of them had the Heavy AA ability, which devastated my torpedo bombers every game.  The american light cruisers also have an AA attack value better than my cruisers, the Soryu or the Haruna, and his 2 cruisers also have heavy anit-air ability, so when he uses his ‘floatila’ strategy as he calls it (putting his carrier with one destroyer then sticking the AA CL and the heavy AA/radar picket DD in the space next to it, as well as on the first turn his other AA CL is also on the other side of the carrier), my planes are cut to ribbons.  In 5 games I was able to attempt an airial torpedo attack about 2 or 3 times max, and one of those was on a lone DD because I was tired of loosing planes and having them aborted.

The Americans AA is actually quite a deal better in game already.  It’s base value is usually better, especailly on DDs and CLs, and they have neat AA abilities like heavy AA and other radar direction stuff.  They diffinently don’t need an AA buff.  While the Japanese AA is worse than the Americans, I still find it playable.  Although it’s quite difficult to chase off 2 squadrons of Hell Divers.  They usually can sink the Soryu by reaching critical armor value by the 2nd turn when they concentrate with land based fighter support.  Still, good times.  I love the game.

Fighters dont even DENT Battleships :-D, but they can do little damage to carriers. :mrgreen:

@empireman:

Fighters dont even DENT Battleships :-D, but they can do little damage to carriers. :mrgreen:

well technically ur wrong. Most battleships u are right but the Kongo class could be hurt by a straffeing fighter. Its armour is 6 and some allied fighters have 3 gunnery die. so if a straffeing fighter rolls 3 6’s, it could damage a BB

I am a newb, but seeing the Jap force I think their strength is in their destroyers torpedo ability. Put one carrier down, and then only fighters on it to protect your dd’s and carrier. Run your dd’s and maybe the OI paired with one of them and kill his carriers and BB’s

Yes LL and the 6 hull BB’s are Japans strength, you want to avoid air attacking a prepared USN player probably the worst matchup (air against USN) for any nation.

If your versing newer USN players you can use 3 escorted type 97’s with carrier hunter, ExpTorps, Chikuma,Emily, Kaga buffs in the sector then Jills with Emily and Kaga buffs harrassing from a distance.

Against carriers the 97’s will be rolling 7-8 dice and the Jills 2-3 from 1 sector away and as long as you land 2-3 hits your sinking any USN ship WITHOUT TD.

@Deaths:

@empireman:

Fighters dont even DENT Battleships :-D, but they can do little damage to carriers. :mrgreen:

well technically ur wrong. Most battleships u are right but the Kongo class could be hurt by a straffeing fighter. Its armour is 6 and some allied fighters have 3 gunnery die. so if a straffeing fighter rolls 3 6’s, it could damage a BB

Some would say that the Kongo is a Battlecruiser… like the Hood, Moltke, &c. But you could also say that the Corsairs 5 dice Strafe, or Beaufighter’s strafe + Spotting could yield enough hits to damage even some of the best BB’s! :D

How could I beat a good US opponet with Japan? What should I bring to bear in a 250 point game?

@theROCmonster:

How could I beat a good US opponet with Japan? What should I bring to bear in a 250 point game?

6 hull BB’s (sho go yamato + musashi)
LL torpedoes
Air defense (carriers like soryu loaded with base set zekes or elite zero’s to protect your ships)

I-19’s are alright in moderation

So do I let my BB’s and LL ships kill his ships? Keep my carriers back and protect my ships with my fighters?

Yes 6 hull BB’s and LL’s attack and grab the objectives, the carriers stay back and the fighters on them protect against air.

If your not playing objectives it gets more complicated and becomes more air battle centric.  In air vs air if Japan is up against a good USN player it rarely wins.  If he has attack ships that are coming towards you then you can still do 6 hull BB’s and LL with air defence support.  If he is sitting back you might have to drop the LL’s since they will be dead by the time you get to him and perhaps use infiltrate SA subs and some attack bombers utilizing more air and carriers.  But the 6 hull BB’s are always a good choice.

Thanks Azrael. Helps a lot.