42 Dec 6 Turn
Kido showed up. One more turn and I would have been back in Pearl Harbor.
China - Rain and no activity.
India - Still rebuilding.
Production
US builds a Strategic Bomber
Convoys - Unchanged
Pacific
I resupply units not currently blockaded using Trucks (must be amphibious ones).
As mentioned Kido Butai showed up and moved adjacent to my Carrier fleet.
As usual this triggers my Carrier's to make a surprise attack. As shown in the screenshot they do very little damage but the Colorado is sunk and two of my CV's take heavy damage. This of course forces me to withdraw all my naval forces but a few subs back to Pearl.
What is interesting about this is the type of combat it supposedly is and how poorly it goes considering what it is suppose to be representing.
It is called a Carrier Interdiction
The heading says the "Axis Attacking"
Now the Axis side was the moving player and had to use all its action points to even reach the US Carriers. They moved adjacent which should make them and easy target.
Now the next question is who actually attacked and who defended and what was their state.
The Combat logs says the Attacking Carriers were the US ones. This implies they launched planes and attacked the Japanese Fleet. The Japanese having no action points left would I assume launch fighters and defend themselves.
The log dialog also says "Defending Carriers -
AMBUSH"
I am not clear who is being Ambushed. It would be logical to assume that the Ambushers would be the US that sent an air attack against a moving fleet that had used maximum movement to get there. So they would be the Ambushed.
{Edit: I did find "Ambush" in the manual. The side marked with "Ambush" is the one who achieved surprise attack on the other side. No info on what that actually does. I assume it explains why the interdicted fleet was able to attack the Attacker.}
But then you look at the casualties.
The Defending fleet loss Air to Air and AA Guns plus three hits to CV's. That is reasonable for an Interdiction attack by the enemy but probably low for a "Ambush" if that occurred.
Then you look at the Attackers Loses.
9 Air to Air, 3 AA Guns, 5 hits to Carriers, a battleship sunk, two more hits to surface vessels.
These losses look more like the US fleet was ambushed by a massive Carrier Attack.
So the question is: What really happened in this battle?
Are the labels wrong or I am just misinterpreting what the labeling says?
Interdiction isn't what I think an interdiction is?
Who was actually ambushed?
Shouldn't an "interdiction" battle be just an air strike in one direction not two?
Or does "interdiction" mean something else.
