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Nikademus -> Much better so far (12/1/2002 4:39:41 AM)
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I've only played the mini-Coral Sea battle so far, but from what i've seen, compared to the somewhat anemic 2.0, air to air combat just got alot more intense. I am seriously liking what i am seeing so far. My Coral Sea was downright vicious with many many individual plane attacks, claimed hits and damages.
Both sides did well and ironically, the battle was in many ways very close to the historical occurance. FlaK and heavy USN CAP took a nasty toll of Shokaku's air group, reducing total effectives to under half her original complement. Zuikaku fared better but recieved two 1000ILB'ers that badly damaged her flight deck and caused fires (small FLT damage whoo hoo! )
Shoho took one bomb that only appeared to cause SYS damage and a few fire levels....eventually put out but not immediately(whoo hoo x 2...like to see more of those hits on flight/armor decks/upper hull areas)
USN bombers suffered heavily, by my deliberate decision to hold back over 80% of my fighters for defence and the IJN CAP did well when they were in position to intercept. I like the flAk reduction too against bombers.....it had seemed a bit much even for light TF's in earlier incarnations but I'd kept silent on it as i wasn't sure it needed addressing.
Port Morosby.
Chiting may find this interesting. I had forgotton to turn FOW off, and i moved the Tainen Air group to Lae and set them to sweeping Port at 20000 feet, knowing that there were as of yet few P-40's and the rest Le' Iron Dogs.
The combat reports were rather stunning at first......the 39's appeared to more than hold their own and i was perplexed at first, as i'd rested Tainen as well as adjusted their attack altitude. This went on for three attacks.
However in reality instead of half a dozen Zero's shot down.....it appears only one fell as Tainen was reduced by only one plane from 24 to 23 and their were no pilot KILLED msgs. However the same could not be said for the brave Aussies who lost several good pilots killed including the SQD commander.
Anyway, thats my initial 2.10 experience so far and I have to say i am seriously liking it! Especially as it appears to have addressed my concerns regarding unescorted or very lightly escorted bombing groups not getting knocked around a bit by angry fighters. Heck i even saw a battle royal where equal escorts and CAP battled and then elements of the CAP (USN) were still able to take some licks at portions of the bombers.
All in all a very intense fight
Final result: Coral Sea ala 'Nik'
sunk (two days after action)
Yorktown (fuel explosions x 2 critical hit.)
CA Australia (torpedoes)
DD Phelps
damaged
CV Lexington (moderate)(one torpedo one bomb)
CA Chigago ( severe)two or three bombs AP
CA Portland one bomb (it said 60kg!!!! for some reason)
CV Zuikaku Heavy damage (two bomb hits, heavy fires, result 57% SYS after FLT contained and eliminated)
CVL Shoho....light damage one 1000ILB, one possible 250ILB from a Hudson
DD Oite sunk
7 Transports very badly damaged, 1 or 2 sunk, 1 Minelayer sunk
Note on plane losses. Part of the reason for the heavier IJN plane losses was the AI's continued facination with PM....It staged several attacks and took some light losses....but losses that added up once the carrier clash concluded.
One sad note:
The pilot bug continues to sprout.....VT-5 diverted to Buna after Yorktown's crippling. Initial status was 7 ready, 1 damaged.
As Buna had no air support i immediately transfered them before they all went inactive. The transfer was successful but 0 pilots went with the 7 TBD's! leaving 8 pilots and 1 damaged TBD at Buna to fall to the Japanese.
Thus the 7 veteran surviving TBD's at PM recieved 7 new un-bloodied pilot.
Dont know if this bug appeared because the base had 0 aviation support or not, but it should not have mattered since the planes obviously flew (and it wasn't by remote control) and they were not damaged.
Not jumping up and down about this...Matrix has long admited that this bug is just proving harder to kill than a cockroach. Just wanted to let em know that it's still popping up in hard to reach places.
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