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"Desperate Battles" has arrived!

Shadow Wolf 07

Shadow Wolf 07

SOH-CM-2025
This one is meant to be an historical campaign, based on the carrier battles of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons (22-25 August 1942) and the Battle of Santa Cruz (25-27 October 1942. I named the campaign “Desperate Battles” because at this stage of the war the US Navy was fighting uphill. That is, they had fewer resources than the Japanese, in many ways inferior aircraft and less experienced pilots. In both battles, the Japanese are the attackers and the USN has to fight a defensive struggle.

The dates, times and locations of each engagement (mission) are as close as possible to the actual ones. Ship names, locations and courses as well as aircraft numbers and types are as accurate as possible. Attack angles and targets are set up to give historical results, but you, the player can change history (slightly).

The campaign consists of various missions; recon, strike, defensive and land based as well as carrier based. Random chance plays a big role in the numbers defensive aircraft and in some cases, whether or not a target will be there at all. Call signs and aircraft skins however are not historical. Carrier task forces are set up to sail into a 15 knot wind on takeoff and landing. Using the alternate dps provided for the Usio ships and the FDG alternate files for US aircraft should make this campaign even more realistic and challenging.

These battles have been done before but I'm trying to update them and add a dew new wrinkles.
 
"The Shadow knows"?

… and I’m a big fan of the dynamic ones. Can you imagine, the engine running, on the deck just before you reach for the throttle and the mission is known but nothing else is?
　

Shadow, carry on!
AC
 
Reply...

Shadow Wolf,

Great job! I was wondering how long you were going to keep a lid on this! :ernae:
 
"Desperate Battles"...an appropriate title...:guinness:...looking forward to it.

I've been flying Aviar's 1.2 stock USN upgrade lately. After 29 missions we've entered the early Marianas stage flying Hellcats and Corsairs. But i must say that the Midway, Wake, Solomons and Santa Cruz actions in the Wildcat were most interesting. Just like the historical accounts, i spent a lot of effort clearing my wingmen's six in fighter vs fighter engagements. They still absorbed a lot of punishment in those tough "little Cats", but made it back for the most part.

Twenty-something missions with only one combat loss in Wildcats is not an easy accomplishment. I also think using the CFS2 AI Promoter program in conjunction helped improve their performance and aggressiveness somewhat along the way. While i was focused on the bombers in escorted bomber intercepts, my wingmen did a helluva job taking out the escorting Zeros, Oscars and Nates. The best ones, my aces, would even rejoin me immediately without command and help clean up the bombers too.
 
Bearcat: Thanks for the heads up! I need to include the AI Promoter in myrecommended downloads list. It's a great little utility, :icon29:

Rami: Yes, I decided to go ahead and warn everyone... :)
 
Good plan Shadow Wolf.

Those two major carrier battles do not get the coverage of the earlier Coral Sea and Midway battles, so your campaigns will be most welcome. The fact that the USN did as well as it did (a tie and a loss depending on your sources) allowed the Marines on Guadalcanal to soldier on. The IJN sortied their carriers for both of these operations to support the IJA's operations on Guadalcanal. Their interception by the USN was a direct result of the USN's code breakers to accurately predict times and locations of the Kido Butai.
 
I have already test flown the Santa Cruz missions and will start on the Eastern Solomons missions today... then I have to try it as a campaign to make sure all the missions on the cmg work right. I've already written up the documentation: Campaign description, downloads list et al. I'll post some screenies as I go along. Okay?

SW
 
Just did the first intercept mission... that Kawanishi flying boat (Emily) is one tough customer. It has guns like the non-defrocked stock Betty and takes a ton of hits to bring down.

Here's a shot shortly after takeoff:
 
Shadow Wolf 07 said:
... that Kawanishi flying boat (Emily) is one tough customer. It has guns like the non-defrocked stock Betty and takes a ton of hits to bring down.
Click to expand...

Shadow Wolf, assuming you're using one of the Aidan McCaffrey Emily's (he has two versions in CFS2 circulation), they both have an Achilles heel in the cockpit/pilot area of their respective DP's with very limited defensive coverage. If you BnZ with head-on passes and concentrate all that precious ammo on the cockpits you'll get it done a lot quicker.
 
I'm still test flying and need to make a few changes. One mission is in need of a total redo (corrupted file) and that Emily is still giving me and my boys grief.

Here's a few screenies for your enjoyment:
 
Great pic’s Shadow. I especially liked the one in your previous post. I don’t know - gave me a chill? Made my palms sweat?

AC
 
Getting it done...

I finished and flight tested all but one of the missions. As I planned, they are tough. Some are a breeze at first - the recon flights - but they can be rough towards the end. Like the Enterprise scout mission, where you search for the Japanese carrier TF (Battle of Eastern Solomons) and after finding it, you and one wingman have to try to damage a fleet carrier - alone!

After I add the alternate waypoints for this last mission, the next stage is to test it and all things working fine, test the campaign itself to be sure the cmg setup is correct.

I had a problem with 3 missions. According to the historical record, attacks were launched at about 1630 on 24 AUG 42 on Japanese TFs. CFS2 however sets the lighting at near dusk for takeoff and after dark when you reach the target area. US forces rarely if ever made night attacks at this stage of the war. I had to offset the takeoff times by 2 hours to get the US planes over the IJN TF with sufficient lighting. You get back just after sunset though. :)

Other than that, I had few if any problems with the missions themselves except for the one corrupted mission that I'm now fixing. Lord willing, I should have this campaign ready for publishing in a week or so.
 
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