S3 Series

Last night the Frame started a little bit on the down side for me. I thought when I had seen the ack bursts over our CV's and we hadn't located theirs yet, it was going to end bad for us.

They had struck first by sinking our lead CV but then our cap was able to defend against the initial scouts. Soon after we had found their fleet and were able to continue assaults until all four CV's went down.

Our cap was eventually grounded or destroyed and the enemy was able to take out one more CV and by T+160 we still had two remaining KAGA's.

I want to thank LF6 for finding the ships as fast as you could and sinking 2 of the four. I also want to thank SWEDE for taking lead of the strike group when it launched and taking out the remaining 2 carriers. The strike group, ( the 23rd, LF-6, RCAF & 8th ) You all worked well together and outperformed my expectations for the night. Job well done !!

I also would like the thank the 4th for the job they did protecting our CV's from what I thought was the inevitable. You guys did awesome. I am not sure what your total outcome for the night was but the sacrifices your group made probably if not definitely saved our fleet from a total loss.

I appreciate all of you guys and you are what makes this still an enjoyable game for me.

Thanks to JABO ..... Roan who? and phenix for the stats..... We gotta have the stats.

I must say the last two frames the IJN strike has been amazing. Coordinated and effective with no dedicated strike pilots and pilots actually returning to the carriers. Unheard of.

Not sure how much is good planning or just plain luck!

Not sure luck or great planning have anything to do with it. Lack of a significant CAP over the fleet plays into it more then anything. Series past, we had more squads, hence dedicated cap with one or two squads composed of 10 or 20 planes circling and responding to threats. Last frame we had one pilot shot down not by a wildcat but a returning SBD...
The same applies to the IJN side, lack of zeros in the skies over the fleet has about the same result, no way should a few B25s have the opportunity to not only loiter forever over the fleet but strafing a CV should have resulted in an immediate pounce by 3 or 4 zekes. Don't get me wrong it was really nice to fly a Kate of all things into and enemy CV group and return home, a real confidence booster...

<S>

Swede-

Its a sheer numbers thing. With 2 steps of cap ( 12 planes) against a strike force of 6 vals and 4 kates plus scouts that are now striking equals 40 plus planes in the sky. some high, some low and divided between 4 carriers that puts 10 plus strikes per CV against 3 cap per CV.
The attack from two different directions, hi strike hitting dar, low strike diff direction under dar presented a 3 d attack from different points of compass, ack going off all over the place over entire fleet helped mask strikers......divide and conquer and overwhelm.
I would wish to add the only reason our last 2 CV survived was unopposed b-25's not being able to hit targets.......IF surviving strike pilots could cycle back into zekes for CV cap.....woulda helped........returning vals and kates attacking b-25's ? ummmmmmm. dat would be plum crazy......
Scouts did a good job of messing em up real good before strike arrived and drawing em low on alt and ammo.