Naval bombardment, PT boats and mine.

[iley]

Situation :

A heavily defended hex containing PT boats and minefield.

Question:

What would be the appropriate settings to minimize mine damage, sink PT boats and damage base.

Resources:

Numerous aircraft, destroyers, cruisers, battleships and auxillary ships.

Have tried:

Reinforced minesweeping task force. Negative results.

Destroyer sweep. Significant damage from minnefield.

Cruisers and battleships set for long range. Some success but still taking losses from mines.


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Iley

[Oberst_Klink]

ORIGINAL: iley

Situation :

A heavily defended hex containing PT boats and minefield.

Question:

What would be the appropriate settings to minimize mine damage, sink PT boats and damage base.

Resources:

Numerous aircraft, destroyers, cruisers, battleships and auxillary ships.

Have tried:

Reinforced minesweeping task force. Negative results.

Destroyer sweep. Significant damage from minnefield.

Cruisers and battleships set for long range. Some success but still taking losses from mines.


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Iley

Well...

where's the base, what are your other resources? Surely you can cripple some of the PT from the air, no?
Regarding the mines... how many and what DMS are you using? In case you're playing a PBEM, you can PM the screenshot.

Klink, Oberst

[dr.hal]

Have you considered what the allies actually did; which was to isolate and bypass?

[iley]

Bypass:

Not an option. Late 1943. I am Japanese and it's way too close to the home islands.

I have air and naval superiority do not wish to throw it a way taking one island.


Air power:

What settings and type of aircraft would be best to attack PT boats. Not having much luck with low flying fighters.

Thankful for the replies.

Iley

[Lokasenna]

What about Nicks? Though I guess I'm not sure whether Strafing or LowN applies to fighters attacking small craft like that.

My first intuition would be to send in Minesweepers, repeatedly. What was the moonlight situation when you last did that?

I've also seen Netties land bombs on PT boats, one hit typically sinks them. Can you blockade with your air/naval superiority while waiting out the minefield? Set Netties (or other a/c) to attack the PT boats and whatever else is in the harbor daily, in case an ACM comes in...

[aphrochine]

Are the mines really that much of an issue. I've never had much success damaging Bombardment TFs by the use of mines.

[Captain Cruft]

Why do you have to bombard the base? Closing it from the air will probably be cheaper.

Where actually is it BTW?

[Saros]

If you have Air superiority try Nicks strafing at 100ft. The canons and bombs will work over PT's pretty well.

Are you using your DMS to sweep the mines? They usually have a couple of 12cm guns that will trash PT boats and they are manuverable enough to avoid torpedoes. CD guns will cause problems with this plan however.
You can also bombard with capital ships from long range (15+). This will minimise the chances of them hitting defensive minefields.

Also make sure to interdict fuel and supplies coming to the base. PT's need significant amounts of supplies to be created and rearmed.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: aphrochine

Are the mines really that much of an issue. I've never had much success damaging Bombardment TFs by the use of mines.

If there are enough mines there, then yes.

[iley]

First of like to thank everyone for taking the time to give me some advice.

I would also like to apologize for taking so long to get back. Still have to make a living and it does get in the way of my game playing.

I purposely made things somewhat vague for two reasons. Did not want to help my opponent. He's good enough and doesn't need any help. Secondly I felt a little guilty asking for advice. Making it vague made me feel a little more like I was getting some advice and not letting you make the move for me.

And update. The area has been blockaded now for about two weeks. The mine feels must be dispersing as am now able to run bombardment task force without losses to mines. The bombardment task force have solved the PT boat issue. We'll send in mine sweepers followed by an invasion force and the issue should be over.

Thank you again:

Iley