Slitherine

Hi -

I am a new user of this game. I have the latest version w/Morning Sun & Battle of Britain.

I went through the Boot Camp Scenarios rather well, and then tried the campaign as the US.

Pearl Harbor & the two battles for the Philippines I was able to get past. Now, I am STUCK in the naval/air battle of the Coral Sea.

I have played that thing about 5 or 6 times, adjusting my strategy each time. I absolutely cannot seem to get past it. Either that is the last battle of the campaign or I really suck at this. I think it's the latter. Are there battles after this one? Or, is that what the upcoming Marines add-on will cover? I am confused. I think I'm missing something!

I just went back into the game to check on available scenarios. In the campaign it appears that after the 2 Philippine battles, I should have gone to the Marshall Islands. I don't know. Checked that, and that is NOT the battle I have failed at so many times. The one I am in - or, have lost - is one where I need to get an oil tanker to safety, destroy a base on an island [forget the name] that the Japanese are trying to build and prevent them from taking an Australian port at the other end of the map.

Feeling like I'm on Mars!!

You're correct, you are in the Coral Sea scenario. It is a tough one, if you have the points a 2nd carrier w/aircraft is a MUST have. There are 7 scenarios left once you get past Coral Sea, check the scenarios tab.

My Scenario Tab shows Boot Camp ---> Marshall Islands. Doesn't even show the scenario I am actually playing. That is why I thought I was missing something. The only other scenario listed has a Silver Star indicating it is a user created scenario. No idea how that got there. Am I supposed to be seeing Guadalcanal, etc. under that tab at this point?

At this point I would like to give some further clues. In a campaign you have to win a single scenario before the next will be overed. This works step by step. In your case the Coral Sea Scenario could be a really show stopper if you can't manage it and you will never see Guadalcanal or Okinawa. Then you should start again the US campaign on a lower level, why not? However, you can also switch to the Multiplayer option. There you'll find a Coral Sea Scenario which you can play against human instead of AI. Just join if you like!!

You might want to search this forum for earlier Coral Sea threads that have some suggestions on strategy.

Thanks guys. I have searched the forums, but, still getting whipped! I will keep trying.

I love the game, btw. The GUI is crisp & clean, and the game is fairly intuitive. Having a bit of a problem with my air force -- takes getting used to. I normally play the American Civil War! And not sure how the production works, but overall I went through the Boot Camp scenarios fairly well, and did a reasonably good job at defensive retreats in the first 3 scenarios of the campaign.

Stuck in the Coral Sea, but I AM going to fight my way outta there sooner or later!! I have the difficulty level set at the 2nd tier from the bottom; don't want to go lower than that!!

VICTORY!

I chose to disband units - I hope that doesn't hurt me in the future battles - to gain resources. Tried hiding my 2 carriers rather than keeping them with the fleet. That worked until late in the game. By then, a devastating battle - for both sides - was taking place in the middle of the Coral Sea, while a lesser naval engagement was occurring at the objective Port. [Tulagi & my oil tanker were already secured]. Ended up destroying the entire naval force in the Coral, and knocking out every fighter. Great game.

On to Midway!

Always nice to read when a player cracks a tough one

Morning Sun is stuck on the 1st AI turn of Nanchang. What can I do to get it going?

Hi msu, could you upload your savegame and output_log to a thread in the Tech Support forum? I'll have a look to see what's gone wrong.

I'd love to, however, the game stops on the 1st AI turn and when I attempt to save it, it reverts back to the beginning of the turn.

You are not the only one stuck on Coral Sea. The AI has kicked my but twice now. Thought I should get a battleship the second time since the surface fleet kicked my but the first time. Worked except Port Moresby got invaded and the Zuikaku(?) left the game with one hit point.

Always try forming a single large naval task force of destroyers, cruisers and battleships. As with ground artillery, the more you gather in one spot the lesser damage your units will receive. If you shield your large ships with destroyers in front, they should be safe from nasty torpedo attacks, as destroyers are better at sucking their damage. It also costs less to repair destroyers than large ships later. Carriers should hang back a bit, so they can’t be spotted.
When defending against enemy dive and torpedo bombers (or first only recon planes), try to damage them all with a single fighter instead of eagerly destroying one unit with several fighters. Damaged bombers typically retreat when they received enough damage. If you don’t need to intercept other planes then chase them, otherwise deal with the enemy fighters first, so your own bombers can freely roam the skies. Sending too early own bombers can often cost unnecessary resources. Depending on AI resources for the scenario, enemy planes often return from carriers and airfields without reinforcements, so it’s no problem to smoke them down sooner or later.

I did this scenario with no BB. I prefer more cruisers and destroyer.

I have use a Mogami and 2 destroyer on bottom area while the rest of my fleet is north. The trick I use is move destroyer to screen your cruiser from torpedoes and use cruiser to attack destroyers. Save your torpedoes shots bith destroyer and cruiser of IJN have torpedoes and if enemy cruiser fire and remain stationary for a turn rush it with destroyer and torpedoes it. If enemy cruiser move then do not use torpedoes and torpedoes do a lot of dmg on a stationary ship.

Also IIRC you have 3 planes and a recon plane avail. I use 1 fighter, 1 Kate torpedoes and 1 Kate bomber. Torpedoes for cruisers and bombs for destroyer. I use my destroyers to focus fire on single ship and cruiser to spread fire to all destroyer as I find lower strenght destroyer can't hardly damage your destroyers.

Also Horst said it already damage as many planes as you can rather than focus fire force them to return to repair and keep the sky clear