Surface combat luck

[Spikeosx]

Trying to finally play this game after many years since I recently got it working on my Mac (with wineskin). Playing Scenario #1 as IJ on hard difficulty. Using v1108r9 which is the latest right? My first game and the strike on PH did not sink a single ship and a 2nd one on 8 Dec only sunk one CL.

Everything in the combat report with Hiei is below. It left BB Hiei with 23 sys, 7 Flt, 17 Eng, 0 fire damage. I have to assume the reported number of hits must be direct hits only and there were many more other types. Is the Hard difficulty causing luck to be so bad? It seems hard to believe 2 shell hits from a 5" could do so much damage.

Update if it makes a difference, it is still Dec 1941.

[font="Courier New"]Night Time Surface Combat, near San Jose at 77,83, Range 8,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, Shell hits 2, on fire
BB Kirishima, Shell hits 1
CA Tone
CL Abukuma
DD Akigumo
DD Kagero, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Isokaze
DD Amagiri
DD Akebono
DD Sazanami
DD Ushio

Allied Ships
DD John D. Ford, Shell hits 3, on fire
AS Holland
AS Otus, Shell hits 2




Maximum visibility in Overcast Conditions and 67% moonlight: 8,000 yards
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
Range closes to 10,000 yards...
Range closes to 9,000 yards...
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 8,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 8,000 yards
BB Kirishima engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
BB Hiei engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
BB Kirishima engages AS Holland at 8,000 yards
DD Kagero engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
Range increases to 9,000 yards
BB Kirishima engages DD John D. Ford at 9,000 yards
BB Hiei engages DD John D. Ford at 9,000 yards
DD Isokaze engages DD John D. Ford at 9,000 yards
Range closes to 8,000 yards
DD Kagero engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
BB Hiei engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
CA Tone engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
Range closes to 5,000 yards
DD John D. Ford engages DD Kagero at 5,000 yards
DD Kagero engages AS Otus at 5,000 yards
CA Tone engages DD John D. Ford at 5,000 yards
CL Abukuma engages DD John D. Ford at 5,000 yards
DD Ushio engages DD John D. Ford at 5,000 yards
Range increases to 6,000 yards
BB Kirishima engages DD John D. Ford at 6,000 yards
BB Hiei engages DD John D. Ford at 6,000 yards
CA Tone engages DD John D. Ford at 6,000 yards
CL Abukuma engages DD John D. Ford at 6,000 yards
DD Isokaze engages DD John D. Ford at 6,000 yards
DD Kagero engages AS Otus at 6,000 yards
Range increases to 8,000 yards
BB Kirishima engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
DD Kagero engages AS Otus at 8,000 yards
Allied Task Force Manages to Escape
Task forces break off...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Iloilo at 78,82, Range 8,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, on fire
BB Kirishima
CA Tone, Shell hits 1
CL Abukuma
DD Akigumo
DD Kagero, heavy fires
DD Isokaze
DD Amagiri
DD Akebono
DD Sazanami
DD Ushio

Allied Ships
DD John D. Ford, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
AS Holland, Shell hits 3, on fire
AS Otus, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage




Maximum visibility in Overcast Conditions and 67% moonlight: 8,000 yards
Range closes to 10,000 yards...
Range closes to 9,000 yards...
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 8,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 8,000 yards
BB Kirishima engages AS Holland at 8,000 yards
BB Hiei engages AS Otus at 8,000 yards
CA Tone engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
DD Amagiri engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
DD Kagero engages AS Otus at 8,000 yards
DD Akigumo engages DD John D. Ford at 8,000 yards
Range increases to 9,000 yards
Magazine explodes on DD John D. Ford
DD John D. Ford sunk by BB Kirishima at 9,000 yards
BB Kirishima engages AS Otus at 9,000 yards
Range closes to 8,000 yards
DD Kagero engages AS Otus at 8,000 yards
DD Kagero engages AS Holland at 8,000 yards
CA Tone engages AS Otus at 8,000 yards
DD Kagero engages AS Holland at 8,000 yards
DD Akigumo engages AS Otus at 8,000 yards
Range closes to 7,000 yards
BB Kirishima engages AS Otus at 7,000 yards
BB Hiei engages AS Otus at 7,000 yards
CL Abukuma engages AS Holland at 7,000 yards
Range increases to 8,000 yards
BB Kirishima engages AS Otus at 8,000 yards
DD Kagero engages AS Holland at 8,000 yards
DD Ushio engages AS Otus at 8,000 yards
Allied Task Force Manages to Escape
Task forces break off...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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[dcpollay]

2 x 5" hits would be a hard one to swallow, all right. Were there any ammo storage explosions, or anything like that?

Any chance she was already damaged before the battle? You do have a sizeable task force there. Check your operations report to see if Hiei had any collisions with other ships. Did any other ships also have serious damage?

[Spikeosx]

Thanks for the suggestions. I searched both the Combat_Events and joperationsreport and Hiei was not found.
Before and after:

[Lokasenna]

My first guess was that the two ships collided, but I don't see anything to that effect in the action reports...although I think it can happen without a combat happening, and you wouldn't really know about it.

Also, it's entirely possible that the combat report shows an incorrect number of hits, even against your own ship. What does the ship information screen say Hiei and Kagero were last damaged by?

What is the naval skill of the ships' captains? In my own game, CA Tone had a craptacular captain (Naval 44) and I didn't notice until the second time she collided with a CV...

[Spikeosx]

Hiei has her starting captain CPT Nishida, Masao with 71/64 leadership/Inspiration.
It says last hit by a "4in/50 Mk 9 Gun" which Kagero says too. An inch less than I thought makes me wonder even more.

[dcpollay]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

My first guess was that the two ships collided, but I don't see anything to that effect in the action reports...although I think it can happen without a combat happening, and you wouldn't really know about it.

Also, it's entirely possible that the combat report shows an incorrect number of hits, even against your own ship. What does the ship information screen say Hiei and Kagero were last damaged by?

What is the naval skill of the ships' captains? In my own game, CA Tone had a craptacular captain (Naval 44) and I didn't notice until the second time she collided with a CV...

It can happen outside of combat, during movement phase, but I would think it would show up in the Ops report in that case. In any event, I agree with the original question - it wasn't a 4" gun that did this. Something else took place.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Colonel Mustard

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

My first guess was that the two ships collided, but I don't see anything to that effect in the action reports...although I think it can happen without a combat happening, and you wouldn't really know about it.

Also, it's entirely possible that the combat report shows an incorrect number of hits, even against your own ship. What does the ship information screen say Hiei and Kagero were last damaged by?

What is the naval skill of the ships' captains? In my own game, CA Tone had a craptacular captain (Naval 44) and I didn't notice until the second time she collided with a CV...

It can happen outside of combat, during movement phase, but I would think it would show up in the Ops report in that case. In any event, I agree with the original question - it wasn't a 4" gun that did this. Something else took place.

That does look like collision damage to me.

For what it's worth, I've seen ships not display what they were last hit by in some cases. Sometimes it will say nothing at all in that spot. If whatever conditions cause that to happen occurred here to "mask" a collision as the source of damage... *shrug*

I'm unsure if collisions outside of combat are noted in the ops report. Does anybody have an example? Some people seem to have noticed collisions in their large off-map-to-on-map convoys...