wdolson
Posts: 10398
Joined: 6/28/2006
From: Near Portland, OR
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quote:
ORIGINAL: cavalry
I just got my new just painted Yamato in both my PBEM games - and set sail for a cruise toward a forward base.
My question is how did you lose this iconic ship?
I was playing Allies vs the AI in the original WitP and one of the British CVs with a single Swordfish squadron blundered in 1 hex from the Yamato. The RN TF launched two waves of stringbags. The second wave returned to the carrier without finding anything because the first wave sank it.
That was probably one of the luckiest battles I ever fought in any of the WitP family games.
quote:
Also what is the best use to you for her and her sister?
the performance of all Jap BB so far has been disappointing except the fast BC. BB in AE seem a little disappointing generally. the JAP CA are the number one surface asset. bearing in mind the poor performance of all BB I would rather face the slow allied bb with these ca.
Cav
The Japanese didn't use any of the BBs except the Kongos until their back was against the wall. Big gun ships were pretty much obsolete by late 1941 except for bombardment. The Kongos had the speed to be used like super cruisers and were more expendable than the Yamatos which were too expensive to lose. The rest of the BB fleet was too slow to operate safely anywhere near Allied carriers, so they spent most of the war rusting in the SRA. It's also a reason the 3rd Yamato was changed to a carrier during construction and the 4th was canceled to make room for carriers.
American BBs are almost as useless. The newer ones were fast enough to operate with the carriers, but only two US fast BBs ever got a chance to shoot at an enemy ships in anger and that was only because there were virtually no cruisers left in service. The only other time US BBs got to shoot at enemy ships was a Surgio Strait where the old BBs got to finish off the Southern Force which had been pretty much mauled to death already by all the other surface assets in the area.
The Iowas for all their power and advanced systems were essentially glorified flak platforms. They would have been more useful if the 16 inch turrets were pulled and more AA guns put in their place. Two Iowas were launched incomplete and never finished to make room for more Essex class carriers. (Though the Iowas could have had their moment in the sun at Leyte Gulf if they had been in the right place at the right time.)
Even today people get worked up about the power of BBs and they do look cool and are the epitome of naval surface combat, make a big boom when they fire etc., but air trumped them. By the end of 1941, it was pretty clear to anyone who had any ounce of realism that the day of the BB was finished just as thoroughly as the days of the ship of the line were finished. They took up a huge complement of men, cost a tremendous amount to build, and were really only suited to secondary roles by that time.
The WitP games are essentially air centric games. It isn't so much the game engine, but the type of combat that was the decisive element in naval combat by the time period of the game. War Plan Orange is based on the same engine, but takes place in the 1920s. There the big guns are the deciding factors. Some gamers who are fans of the "gun club" like that game a fair bit.
Bill
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WitP AE - Test team lead, programmer  |
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How did you lose your Yamato - 
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