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Drongo -> Night Cats rule!!! (5/5/2003 10:35:54 AM)
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Posted by Full Moon
[QUOTE]Do bombers ever attack ships at night? Even if I set bombers for night time naval attack, they never do it.[/QUOTE]
Do you mean something like this?
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AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/12/43
Weather: Clear
Sub attack near Momote at 10,23
Japanese Ships
BB Ise
Allied Ships
SS Greenling
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Air attack on Momote , at 10,23
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 3
Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 14
no losses
no losses
Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 20
Runway hits 2
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Air attack on TF, near Momote at 10,23
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 3
Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 20
P-70A Havoc x 7
no losses
Allied aircraft losses
PBY Catalina x 2 destroyed
PBY Catalina x 18 damaged
P-70A Havoc x 3 damaged
Japanese Ships
BB Ise, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Yamashiro, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
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These attacks all occured during the turn's night phase. A Jap surface combat force were spotted in Momote harbour the day before. 3 elite (80+ exp) Catalina squadrons were shifted to allied held Madang and dutifully attacked during the night phase.
One squadron was used as a "pathfinder" for the other 2 by making an attack against the port. When they made the port attack, they sighted the IJN ships which was enough to trigger the night naval attack by the other 2 Catalina squadrons during the same phase. So yes, they can attack. You just have to set up the proper conditions. The P-70s just came along for the ride, as usual (they are not needed for the attack to work, the Catalinas on there own will do the trick despite not having radar).
Couple of things to note for night naval attack success -
1) Do not waste your time expecting to attack enemy TFs other than those that are at a base.
2) Slipping a sub into the same port as an enemy TF will help trigger a night naval air strike (sub acts as a spotter).
3) Despite the resetting of the DLs to 0 before a night phase, prior daylight air recon missions of the enemy port will help keep up the MDL of any enemy TF sitting at the location. While it wont trigger a night air attack, it does help the strike in finding and hitting the enemy TF. Heavy use of daylight naval search missions on the prior turn will also benefit your attack.
4) The closer your strike base is to the enemy TF, the better.
5) Finally (and most important of all), have at least one other friendly squadron from the same friendly base (as the squadrons on night naval strike) set to make a night port attack on the enemy base containing the enemy TF. This one is critical as, if the squadron attacking the port is experienced, its sighting report will have a good chance of triggering the night naval strike.
As expected, to have a good chance to deliver an effective night attack, use aircraft with an experience of at least 75, preferably a lot more. The "Night Cats" from the AAR all had experience in the 80's to 90's (after about 6 months of game play, most Catalina squadrons should have sufficient experience for night attacks, even if they had spent the whole time just doing naval search).
The allies also get an extra advantage in the form of Coastwatchers. Their sightings (increase target DL) will occur at the start of the night phase, increasing the chance of a naval strike occuring during the night air phase.
I have had a fair amount of success with the Jap night naval strikes as well. In a PBEM game, the allies were operating a large number of TFs out of Luganville (which was protected by heavy CAP). My LBA (Bettys and Nells) were based at Lunga. The distance between the 2 bases made triggering a night naval strike difficult but by setting some of my squadrons to port attack and slipping subs into Luganville harbour, I managed to get off about 1 (large) naval strike a week for about a month. The results were not as spectacular as those that can be gained in daylight but losses to AA was far less than a daylight mission and his night CAP failed to cause any real casualties. Non combat operational losses from night missions, however, must be taken into consideration when planning operations under the current 2.3 version of UV.
Hope this helps.
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