Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: moore4807

vontiger - any secrets you can share on how you are getting at least one SS encounter (and good hits) nearly every turn? I am most impressed!

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Moo, you should ask instead how I successfully place targets dead ahead of vontiger, daring him to fire his torpedoes. I am the impressive one. Now, I would like to know from your own AAR where you placed those mines, how many and when. I wish to learn from you.

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

The prohibition on single ship TFs is only when you use them for certain purposes, such as using AKLs and AKs to screen your CV TFs from air attack especially.  As long as you do not have sin in your heart it's perfectly ok.  If you want to have a convoy scatter in the face of air attack or surface attack, I think that's an ok tactic, but it doesn't always work very well.  Support ships such as ADs AVPs AVDs ARs etc. are often alone.  Some of those can't defend against enemy subs though. 

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Yes, agreed, those support ships are very valuable, but the allies (especially the Brits) have very few escorts initially.  The Japanese are loaded with PBs and Es and SCs for freighters and tankers, but they have way too few DDs to escort their CVs.  Some of those AMs you have are very good but their range is inadequate and they really weren't meant for the high seas.  Go ahead and send them with the support ships to any small base you want them at, use an AK if need be to refuel them, and then have the AM(s) patrol that port.  Also, when desperate, I don't worry about the AKLs, the allies have gobs of them and they're expendable. Also you can escort AKs and AKLs out of port and well out to sea, then send the escorts home. The subs will usually cluster around ports and your chances are good once you're clear of them. When they're approaching their port of call, send escorts out from there to bring them in. Try not to use predictable shipping lanes. Anything with troops or planes on them I always escort everywhere, though. TKs and AOs too. Now that I've told you some stuff you already knew, you may wake up now.

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Anyone who disagrees with or wishes to amend any advice I give, please please please bust in and give it.

Moo - yes exactly, just form a new TF say for surface combat and then have them return to base.  It's not a matter of turns really, but where you suspect or know enemy subs lurk.  However, to use your analogy, I think 2 days to or from Australia will usually work, and 3 days to or from the west coast.  Mathematically, the odds of his subs being in the right place plunge dramatically, unless he has intelligence about a choke point or some other fixed point where your TFs assemble or pass through.  Just be careful about being predictable.  When you need stuff (in LA say) that happens to be in Panama without escorts, just order them to a spot in the ocean well south of LA and to remain on station.  As soon as they are on map, send an escort to meet and merge while ordering the TF to go to LA or return to base (LA).  On ASW, in the early going almost nobody is good at it.  There are a few exceptions among the AMs and YPs.  No matter what, patrol your major ports especially if you have TFs not disbanded in those ports.  A prudent enemy will test you there, and may deliver mines as well, so it's a good idea to have some minesweepers as well. I find if you put out say DDs DMs or DMSs with an ASW value of 2 on patrols outside of port, the subs actually have a better chance of sinking them than the other way 'round.  Patrol outside the port only for special occasions (you fill in the blank) until they are upgraded to 4. Once trained, your ASW aircraft will be much more effective at beating up his subs, not to mention your search planes (which will attack almost anything they see).  Make sure all the DDs etc. due upgrades are in port and disbanded so they will.  It's really important they get the better ASDIC ASAP.  Slow down your operations as needed to accomplish this.  Also, I generally like to have ASW TFs of at least 2 ships, so when the sub torpedoes one ship the other has at least a chance of retaliation.  Once your ASW rating on your DDs etc. is 6 or 8, life on those subs is pretty difficult.  The sub tactics will have to change. 

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

One more thing, engineers, engineers, engineers. They fight the war and will win it, clause edited out as it was offensive to many who certainly do not deserve such offense. The Brits and Commonwealth troops are woefully short of them and will remain so. Be generous to them (from the American point of view) because the USA will be turning out engineers like cuckoo clocks. Send them units with bulldozers, such as EABs and construction regiments. However, I say never send Marines to the Indian Ocean. Also, the Brits badly need fighters and can use some of those Aviation battalions with aviation support. Those can be transferred by air to China from Burma if and when it seems appropriate. When considering what fighter squadrons to send the Brits, I like to send that P-40 group and perhaps a bit more, but there's another consideration as well. The British carriers are generally short on aircraft, and they would be a lot more effective if they had full complements, especially including US naval aircraft which are generally superior to what they have. Ask yourself this question, in consideration of your general game strategy, would it be better to ship some Wildcats and Dauntlesses to Cape Town or to ship them west to meet up with the Brit carriers in the Coral Sea region? Though the Brit carriers are smaller, with the right planes and crews they can be a powerful supplement to the US CV force.

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ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Not to try to barge into Crackace's answer, but first for fortifying.  The Japanese are liable to hit you like a load of bricks somewhere.  Second, for building the airfields you will need when you go on the offensive, all the way down to Singapore and beyond.  There's no such thing as too many engineers.

The addition of US engineers will turn the Brit/Ind/Aus army from a second rate one to a first rate one and believe me, the US will have more than adequate supplies of engineers in the SW Pacific.