Completely stucked on Japanese Campaign - Java mission

[TDefender]

Please any help would be really appreciate " the week, outdated enemy fleet" as described on scenario briefing is instead an overwhelming fleet when just a destroyer can do 3 damages per hit to my cruisers, plus enemy mines, subs and bombers... Can't simply survive 30 turns to protect (in vain) my cargo ships. Fulfilling any secondary objectives also looks simply impossible to me.

[TDefender]

Nothing?

[adherbal]

This is the first naval battle of the Japanese mission so you have a carte blanche as far as fleet purchases are concerned. What kind if ships have you been purchasing?

[TDefender]

Just a value of 640 about I can take 4 cruisers and a fighter to face enemy bombers but in the last part of the scenario tons of enemy destroyers and 6-7 cruiser (with at least one heavy cruisers?) and my fleet is not longer at 100% health and I see my cruisers doing 2 hp damages max even vs simply destroyers...

[adherbal]

A healthy amount of destroyers is essential in a fleet. Cruisers and Battleships may look powerful but without DDs to prevent enemy torpedo attacks they won't last long.

I can't remember the exact numbers but IIRC I usualy got either 2 cruisers or 1 battleships and spent the remaining resources on destroyers.

I think as a sort of fleet balance rule you should have 2 DDs for every CA, or 3 DDs for every BB. At least until you get up to a total of 8-10 DD's which should be enough to shield against even the largest enemy fleets.

[Longasc]

Hi TDefender, I am not playing Japan yet, so ignored this buuut...

... I think you have a general problem with naval combat.

Pages 41-43 of your PDF manual teach you the "trick" to naval combat. Besides the right mix of Destroyers and other ships it states:

When engaged in combat, ships would face their sides to the
enemy to allow all guns to aim at the enemy and deliver maximum
broadside fire. This meant that – once they got in firing range
fleets would generally sail parallel to the enemy, not toward
them. In the game this is simulated with the following mechanic:
When ships increase or decrease the distance toward a specific
target before firing, its attack capability will be decreased.

In the example above the Japanese cruiser does two damage
to the enemy ship from a distance of five hexes. If it chooses
to move upward to a hex that is still five hexes away from the
enemy, the combat prognosis does not change. If instead it
moves toward the enemy – thus changing the distance from five
to two hexes – the predicted damage output will decrease to 0+.
In addition to this, the combat calculation also takes into
account that firing accuracy decreases over range:
Damage caused by ships decreases if the target is further than
1/3rd of the ship’s range + 1 hex. So for example a three range
Destroyer will deal maximum damage at any target within a range
of two hexes (three range / 3 + 1 hex), while a six range Cruiser
can hit targets up to three hexes away with maximum accuracy.
Targets further away will take less damage when fired upon as
illustrated in the screenshot above.

Please take a look at the images in the manual, it explains much better than I could how it works: Try to keep a distance to the enemy and pummel them, don't move forward/backward, rather keep a distance and formation. Good luck!

[stragen]

I hope you bought 2 Tac Bombers in the earlier missions. Place same in the northeast and place a cruiser to the 3 ship fleet in the northeast. Then it's up to your amount of resources. If you have enough buy 2 battleships and 2 destroy for the fleet in the south. If you have not enough buy a mix of cruiser and destroyer. Attack the 6 ships in northeast with the bombers and the northeast fleet. After that pull the bomber back out of the map and place them at the airfield in the south, that should have been ready now. If you have a fighter you can place him on the airfield and attack the two bombers, that are coming at you in the south. Watch out for the mine in the near of the small islands. You can time the arrival from both fleets to meet the enemy fleet in the same or almost the same turn. When the ships in the north of the map arrive you can buy an additional cruiser and drive to the meeting point. There are 2 subs in the starting region of both fleets. So watch out.

[Erik2]

Select your naval unit. Move the cursor to different possible movement locations.
Note that the odds against various enemy ships will go up/down.
Sometimes you can move your unit 1 hex and thus increase the odds by one.
Its quite subtle but effective if you can constantly improve your odds a bit.
I think naval combat is challenging in a nice way now.

[simcc]

Cruisers is very tricky to use without DD support so get some DD and also move around the range and enemy movement last turn will have different results. Get 3 kagero 1 tone and 1 mogami for that scenario, later you can get another tone and I deploy my mogami south

[TDefender]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions, finally I got it Another mistake I made was wasting money for just one sub, totally unuseful, at least for that scenario.

[Blathergut]

Many of the scenarios need several attempts before you figure out a winning strategy. I found the scenarios much more interesting and challenging in that sense than most of the PC scenarios where you basically lined up and just kept moving/attacking.

[stragen]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions, finally I got it Another mistake I made was wasting money for just one sub, totally unuseful, at least for that scenario.

Not useful in any other scenario either.

[calmhatchery]

Please any help would be really appreciate " the week, outdated enemy fleet" as described on scenario briefing is instead an overwhelming fleet when just a destroyer can do 3 damages per hit to my cruisers, plus enemy mines, subs and bombers... Can't simply survive 30 turns to protect (in vain) my cargo ships. Fulfilling any secondary objectives also looks simply impossible to me.

I have alternative:
1. You can buy a little carrier for 120 and you can put two TACTICAL bombers, ONE BATTLESHIP YAMATO (amazing powerfull ship ) and for the rest of money I bought the destroyers!!!
2. When you get a airport on the south on map. (I don't rememeber which turn) you can add one airplne more for example : fighter or TORPEDO BOMBER. I chose TORPEDO BOMBER and what is important RECON PLANE !!!! (be carefully by Us fighter)
3. By torpedo bomber you support the japanese shps on the south
4. By TACTICAL bobmers you suppoert the ships on the north of map
and for sure you can CRASH ABDA fleet imidietely with no casualties!!! I made it yesterday evening!!!
cheers Peter

[Longasc]

Dammit I just reached the Java Sea and reading this thread is scary!

[calmhatchery]

haha dont be scary..It is not scary scenario...like for example GUADALCANAL belive me

[simcc]

Getting a Yamato is always a good idea, I have 3 Yamato in total all 5 stars experience they absolutely dominate naval warfare and they knock out cruisers in 2 shots and on kamikaze difficulty you need 3 Yamato to 1 shot a cruiser as they are strenght 13. Also note that Yamato don't get much damage from torpedoes but beware of strengh 13 DD which can take away 2-3 strenght using torpedoes. A combination of 1 Yamato with 3 Kagero is great at fighting any allied ship. Also I usually use 2 Kanbaku and a kanko to help out.

In coral I remember bringing a Yamato, a tone, 2 kagero and a ryujo IIRC and this combo work well with 2 kanbaku and later I get another kanko at turn 5 after land field avail. I send auxiliary DD to soak up and lure enemy ship while my ship hang behind