Bradley7735
Posts: 2073
Joined: 7/12/2004 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: brian800000 quote:
ORIGINAL: Bradley7735 quote:
ORIGINAL: brian800000 In my game against the AI, I'm moving into February 1942. I'm a bit interested in what is going to happen: I've sunk 150+ Japanese ships, probably 120 or so are Aks or Akls. I haven't done any real damage to the combat ships of Japan, but I'm curious as to the breaking point for Japanese cargo ships. I've counted the number they get and they are not going to have any left in another year and a half if they don't slow down their loss rate. Is this the normal way to cripple AI Japan? Also, I've taken on a few battleships and those things seem to be invincible. In a surface engagement I hit one 59 times (the largest shell was 8 in). Another BB I hit with 9 1000 lb bombs from Dive Bombers. Both stayed afloat. What do you need to do to sink these things, sans torpedo? Was I at least in the ballpark? BB's in general won't sink to bombs or gun hits smaller than 14". Yes, you can sink them with smaller weapons, but you need a lot of hits. I think 150 hits from smaller guns will do the job, and I sank a Japanese BB with about 20 to 24 1,000 lb bomb hits. If you don't have the luxury of dropping massive numbers of bombs on a single BB, then you need torpedoes or BB caliber guns. You already know that USN torpedoes are not really up to the job in 42. Brit torpedoes can do the job fairly well. The only other option is to take them on in a BB vs BB fight. In my experience, Taking on the IJN BB's in 42 (or any other year) with Allied BB's is a bad idea. I've had a lot of fights with 3-1 odds and came out significantly the loser. I've had some fights with 1-1 odds and came out with total losses. I only engage Japanese BB's if they are solo and are already damaged via air attack. Wow--good to know and suprising. I was shocked that after 50+ hits from CAs, CLs, and DDs it didn't sink. I guess I wasn't even close. To sink a ship, you have to get it to 100 float damage. To do that quickly, you have to penetrate the belt. None of those guns can penetrate the belt. Only Torpedoes or BB main guns can penetrate a BB belt armor. You can sink a BB by continued hits to the superstructure, though. The superstructure is unarmored, so even a 20mm hit can, in theory, damage a BB. The more superstructure hits you get, the more fire damage that accumulates. If you get the fire level high enough, the ship will start taking float damage. Out of 150 hits, approx 1/3 of them will hit the superstructure. 50 hits to the superstructure can sink a BB through the fire damage. Unfortunately, bombs dropped from planes can not target superstructure on ships. It's belt or deck only. And, bombs don't have the penetration to get through the armor. But, bombs do cause some fire damage, even if they don't penetrate. Enough bombs, and the fire gets high enough to sink it. Against a human, I wouldn't expect you to get 20+ hits with bombs on one BB. That takes 2-3 days and a human will race it out of danger, or ambush you with his carriers.
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The older I get, the better I was.
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