Rasputitsa
Posts: 2903
Joined: 6/30/2001
From: Bedfordshire UK
Status: offline
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Playing a Coral Sea #mystery scenario, playing USN, as the first experience with this game.
First morning of the scenario, reports come in of up the 3 IJN CVs to the North at extreme range, I don’t know if the reports are correct and the scenario has opened with ‘Yorktown’ and ‘Hornet’ closer to the Japanese island bases than I would like.
Strategy option 1 - turn South make 30 Kts and run for it, get away from the spotting planes from the islands and get the benefit of aircraft out of Australian bases to improve my chances in the next round. The Port Moresby invasion fleet is slow moving and there is time to wait for a better opportunity.
The range is too far for a cohesive strike by the whole airgroup, as the TBDs can’t reach that far, so alternatively I could choose:
Strategy option 2 - head North to close the range for a co-ordinated cohesive strike by the whole Task Group, knowing that there will inevitably be a retaliatory strike, but Japan cannot afford to lose CVs.
Strategy option 3 - send one squadron of SBD dive bombers from each carrier for a quick strike. Which is what I chose and caught the IJN CVs with aircraft on deck, presumably in the act of launching a strike at me.
‘Shokaku’ and ‘Zuikaku’ hit several times and reported sinking, ‘Hiyo’ escaped attack, but are the reports true ?
I could have chosen Strategy option 4 - send the strike, then head South at 30Kts, expect to lose the planes, but avoid what happened next with option 3. The IJN CVs had got enough aircraft airborne to hit me with 113 planes, just as the sun was setting. They could not get back to their carriers in daylight and if the sinking reports were true, would they have carriers to land on, either way, ‘Hornet’ was lost immediately, ‘Yorktown’ looked like it might survive, but the fires took hold and she sank later that night.
Now I only have ‘Lexington’ left and I can’t be sure what the IJN has out there, can I believe the reports and it’s only the first day.
I could have taken another option of getting a strike airborne to a holding position near the Task Group, or in the direction I expect to find the enemy, using a artificial sighting report as a target. I can then re-direct the strike when a real sighting report comes in, with the advantage of having got them airborne early. If no sighting reports come in then they will have to come back and then the decks will be crowded with aircraft, but strategy is about taking calculated risks and difficult decisions.
Any game that can do this and keep it simple, must be a good game.
So plenty of strategy in this game and although I never played 'Carriers at War' first time around, I am very pleased to have it on the HDD now.
< Message edited by Rasputitsa -- 9/14/2016 5:20:29 PM >
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and played it like crazy back in the day. 
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