Motor boats

[gmtello]

What is the best way to destroy allied motor boats like ml or pt . Have tryed with tb Dd and pb and none work

[Rusty1961]

Straf them with cannon armed planes like the Zero and Nick.

[geofflambert]

I mostly ignore them. It's not worth an IJN pilot's life strafing anything. IJA pilots, ok.

[Lokasenna]

Nicks, or your own small craft (nothing larger than a DD).

[geofflambert]

Something to mention. Your Naval Search planes will attack MLs and so forth when they see them, and they can usually really f up a plywood boat.

[Yaab]

geofflambert is right - don't waste your pilots chasing motor boats or PTs.

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[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: gmtello

What is the best way to destroy allied motor boats like ml or pt . Have tried with tb Dd and pb and none work

Maybe it's your ship commanders. Destroyers should do it.

The original name was "Torpedo Boat Destroyer" as that was their designed mission.
Shorten to "Destroyer"

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: gmtello

What is the best way to destroy allied motor boats like ml or pt . Have tryed with tb Dd and pb and none work

Those other guys are making it too hard!
Just make yourself the Allied player and sent the PTs to attack warships! [;)]

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

ORIGINAL: gmtello

What is the best way to destroy allied motor boats like ml or pt . Have tried with tb Dd and pb and none work

Maybe it's your ship commanders. Destroyers should do it.

The original name was "Torpedo Boat Destroyer" as that was their designed mission.
Shorten to "Destroyer"

Yes, but the Torpedo Boats Torpedo Boat Destroyers were originally designed to destroy was actually a class of small fast ships, not the Patrol Torpedo Boats in question here.
I believe the Japanese side has some of this ship class, at least in the mods I play.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

ORIGINAL: gmtello

What is the best way to destroy allied motor boats like ml or pt . Have tried with tb Dd and pb and none work

Maybe it's your ship commanders. Destroyers should do it.

The original name was "Torpedo Boat Destroyer" as that was their designed mission.
Shorten to "Destroyer"

Yes, but the Torpedo Boats Torpedo Boat Destroyers were originally designed to destroy was actually a class of small fast ships, not the Patrol Torpedo Boats in question here.
I believe the Japanese side has some of this ship class, at least in the mods I play.

Hans, the TBs you refer to were later evolutions of the original TBs. On the first ones the torpedo (Civil war name for what we would call a mine) was an explosive charge on a long pole attached to the bow of the attacking TB. That was US Civil War era and the motor boats being used were not so fast, so there was no need for a specialized Torpedo Boat Destroyer to keep them away from important ships.

In the late 1800s Alfred North Whitehead invented the "automobile torpedo" which meant the attacking TB did not have to run right up to the target vessel, and now there was a danger they could score a hit before defensive fire obliterated the TB. So in the late 1890s, early 1900s the TB Destroyer was built as a fast vessel with rapid firing guns to catch and sink TBs before they could deliver their torpedoes to the battle line.

But by WWI someone had figured out that, since the TB Destroyer was the fastest seagoing ship around, they could arm it with torpedoes as well as rapid-firing guns - making it a dual purpose vessel. The TBs that existed were still used (one sank Austro-Hungarian BB Svent Istvan) but not many more were built as pure TBs because the DD overtook the role.

Germany and Japan did later build some vessels called Torpedo Boats, but they were really more akin to small DDs than the original TB (which had little gun armament).

[spence]

As an Allied Player I find that PTs and MLs only constitute an easy way for the IJN Player to gain some VPs. A CL with some DD escorts move in and the PTs either die or move out. And in fact they will often move out of a hex without attacking even when set to Absolute Threat Tolerance and challenged only by an xAK which remains in the hex and unloads its troops (huh?)

IRL the reefs and shallow water constituted a far greater challenge to PTs than the IJN which only sank 7 or so of them during the entire war. But also in real life the PTs torpedoed and/or sank only 1 CL and a couple of DDs during the entire war. IRL the Japanese were loathe to risk their heavy ships in the restricted waters that frequented by PTs (the force that was bombarding Henderson Field on the night of 13-14 November 42 (4 CAs a CL and an assortment of DDs) cut short its bombardment and retreated when 4 PTs attacked). The game promotes IJN aggressiveness in the face of PTs which are pretty much nerfed.

[m10bob]

As mentioned above...in WWI, the original name of "tincans" was Torpedo Boat Destroyer"...DD and DE types are the best to eliminate those coastal irritants.

Of course, PT's just thrive on AK's and the like.

[spence]

Like I said before, PT boats and their kin are completely nerfed in the game. They are always detected before they put a "fish" into a major IJN warship (I have only seen torpedo hits on DDs, PCs, PBs and xAKs). The default commander is always "the dullest tool in the shed". They almost never even cause a bombardment force to cancel its bombardment. If the Allied commaner expects anything from his PTs he expects too much.

[witpqs]

I don't think they are nerfed. As far as I remember earlier discussions here they don'y perform too differently from their historical record.

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

I don't think they are nerfed. As far as I remember earlier discussions here they don'y perform too differently from their historical record.

I have been able to use PT's very effectively in defense.
If the game engine could be improved regards those small mosquito boats,(IMHO), it would be to prevent detection till they are close, especially at night.
It might depend on the white wakes of speeding boats and the amount of moonlight, but (again IMHO) they should never be detected at CA extreme range.[:)]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: spence

Like I said before, PT boats and their kin are completely nerfed in the game. They are always detected before they put a "fish" into a major IJN warship (I have only seen torpedo hits on DDs, PCs, PBs and xAKs). The default commander is always "the dullest tool in the shed". They almost never even cause a bombardment force to cancel its bombardment. If the Allied commaner expects anything from his PTs he expects too much.

Dig out Greyjoy's old AARs. In one of them a PT boat sank Yamato with one torp in the magazine.
Like any other vessel, they perform better with good leaders and experienced crews, but a good measure of luck is still involved in great achievements.

[spence]

Dig out Greyjoy's old AARs. In one of them a PT boat sank Yamato with one torp in the magazine.

In my games (both PBEM and AI) the PTs have never achieved much of anything but I suppose in some other games they have done something worthwhile. They certainly seem to get detected first in all cases. I suppose the thing that really gets my goat is the fact that they retreat following combat even when their "opponent" is an xAK

[BBfanboy]

One thing I forgot to mention - the guys who seem to have good luck with the PTs keep them parked when the moonlight level is high and only send them on missions when the level is 14% or less. At these levels they get within torpedo range before they are even spotted. Whether they actually fire their torpedoes and whether they hit something and whether the target is worthwhile are all in the hands of the die gods!

[MakeeLearn]

moonlight level

A secret ingredient to many things in WitPAE.

[decourcy2]

I am going to design a new class of torpedo boat destroyer destroyer to stop the torpedo boat destroyers that are targeting my torpedo boats.