Lokasenna
Posts: 9297
Joined: 3/3/2012 From: Iowan in MD/DC Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: AW1Steve So if I understand the early use of American "death stars" , since your fighters and control is weak, you can use them provided you supplement them with heavy LBA , follow them around with a even bigger "Supply Star", and use MPA and sub support. Roving ASW patrols breaking trail are a good thing too. Does this work? It sound like this leviathan , at least in the early part of the war, by virtue of it staying with supporting forces and LBA , would be relatively slow , at least when compared with late war CVTF's. So provided that fuel's not an issue , how about surrounding the CV's with old BB's? You have enough of them , your probably not doing many invasions in the war , they certainly can soak up torpedoes and you'll get more training by steaming around then sitting in harbor. I know this is the opposite of "fast carrier raids" , but would these Ponderous juggernauts "doing the baby elephant walk" give even the KB a run for it's money? especially with LBA , ASW , and submarine support? On the last point, I doubt it. At least from a VP perspective. The IJN just has so many more torpedo bombers. Assuming you had some BBs in the Allied TF to soak bombs, they might die to torpedoes. Or get picked off by subs. And that's a lot of VPs that you don't really need to lose. Once the Allied CV TF has comparable aircraft numbers... maybe. So sometime in the summer of '42, especially if the Brits come along.
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