CyrusSpitama
Posts: 213
Joined: 2/21/2011
From: Naw'lins, Luzianna
Status: offline
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Love your Bill Kelso avatar dennis :) Banzai !
quote:
ORIGINAL: obvert
Hey,
The ASW has been a pet project of mine. I've so far limited hits to big TKs by subs to under 20, and current number of Allied subs sunk is somewhere between 115-125 by 1/45 if reports are close to correct.
Firstly, all of what I learned started with rader in his match with GJ and an earlier one with Jzanes. I've probably done a few things differently as I learned more, but some of it is still a mystery as we never really now what hit a sub (or what was dropped) from the air since there is not indication in the reports.
1) I don't use search arcs, at all. When I've done some limited tests the planes performed better in ASW without search arcs. I only use them for some search if I want to restrict search from an area due to CAP. I use a lot of night search. It brings DL up in that phase making sub attacks less effective at night and ASW TFs find and hit them more often. It may keep some DL in to the day phase but I've never been sure about that. So each area will have a night search Jake group, usually 6-9planes, and each AV moving with big TK convoys will have Jakes night searching also. This is critical so I convert some of the Kyushu and other big fast xAK to AV as soon as possible. The Husimi can work too, but then it's only really small 4 plane groups.
1a) All Jake pilots have 60-70 search, 60-70 ASW and 60-70 low naval. Their bombs do make the subs go home which is nearly as good as killing them. In the beginning they train in groups while flying the ASW mission. So ASW mission at 40% ASW, 40% train, 20% rest at 1k altitude at 8 hex max. Later I'll switch the mission to naval bombing which will train in low naval even though they're still running ASW. Most already have search as this is trained in the first months.
Night search is usually 50% search, 20% rest and 8 hexes, but 10 will be used if needed, especially in the area South of the HI with those big open deep water sections of sea.
Then there are some big training groups (usually flying my surplus crap Dave, Glen and Alf planes) in the first year getting a pool of these pilots. Later they're used to train fighter, bomber and recon pilots.
2) The IJAAF 2E groups are my main killer ASW platforms. When I put 25-50 planes in an area Allied subs usually go away after a few turns, which lets me know it's having an effect. These train in exactly the same manner as the Jakes, but they have to of course finish China first, so in the beginning it's a lot of smaller groups of 9-12, and they're not really effective until mid-late 42. All restricted 1E IJAAF planes will train low naval and ASW in the first few months, and some non-restricted. A few Anns might also be used in a pinch to fly ASW missions. if you keep all of the IJAAF pilots in the planes that are 60 exp and good at ground bombing, they'll still train up as ASW pilots over time set on the 40/40/20 system at 1k, usually max normal range distance. Makes them multi-use, but does take longer than starting from scratch. I do a bit of both.
For the IJNAF the Kate is the best platform, and all KB TB pilots get ASW training when waiting to strike, also bringing their experience and defensive skills up. By the end of 42 nearly every LBA and KB Kate pilots will have at least 60 ASW skill and 65-70 search skills, and these fly at 2k to use their good naval bombing (not low naval) skill. Later I still produce the Kate as it has MAD which helps in 44 when it starts working.
I will use the IJN 2E planes occasionally, but mostly to search a broad area for subs to get the other more well trained units into the right places and to send in the ASW surface forces.
3) The ASW surface forces will have as good commanders as I can afford for the ships, which then function as TF leaders as well. High naval skill and aggressiveness. At first we have to use the crap SC and SC CHa ships a lot, then relegate them to escort and close to port defenses due to their range. The E and DMS ships are good early, but the DMS are also precious for minesweeping with combat and amphib TFs. I use older DDs and even first line modern DDs in critical areas like off of Balikpapan. If I use good DDs I'll step up night search as well, to help protect them.
I don't use the PB much in ASW TFs. Sometimes you have to though.
All surface ASW will be patrolling some needed area and move according to sightings. I may also use them to move with a TF on follow to shepherd it into a port. Usually just patrolling the route slightly ahead works well too.
It's a fun part of the game and can really frustrate the Allied player who of course think it's their right to dominate the sub war, as that's what happened in the war. 
I agree the Japanese couldn't have been this good, but they could have been a bit better.
I have yet to try training low nav for my ASW assets. Is this a common training skill?
I have used Anns to good effect early in the war while my *proper* ASW assets get their ASW skill to a decently trained level. Decent sized bomb and fair range. My tactic was to change a few Sonia Lily squadrons to this plane and produce them for the first couple of months. I never thought to mix actual missions with training early on because it seems newly assigned pilots with low experience train far better than the older pilots with higher experience. Having them do missions while training seems that it might push their experience much higher and therefore slow down my focused training. This means of course I have a number of Jake/Emily/Betty/Nell squadrons out of action with their new replacement pilots learning the new *tactics* for Imperial ASW efforts. Note: I have been training my ASW assets for both naval search and ASW for dual roles. Once the Betty/Nell squadrons have at least low 60s in both search and ASW they focus on naval torpedo training as well. Perhaps this might be a bit much, that is, three primary duties?
I have yet to thoroughly assign *good* commanders to my ASW ships. So far, these efforts have been limited to only my best ASW assets. Which ships do you recommend spending these PPs for?
_____________________________
"I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here." - Arthur C. Clarke
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