Dutch Airstrikes in Operations.

[Taylor3006]

I always used my Dutch ships playing co-op only  and kind of ignored the airstrike mechanic. Just used them as gunboats unless a bot was stuck on a rock, then would use an airstrike. 

Decided to grind out the tier 9 JdW in Operations and got Cherry Blossom. Figured I would save up my strikes to use against the airfields during that last push into the base. As you can imagine it was a hectic mess but finally got close enough and launched two strikes at one of the airfields hoping that would be enough to take it out. It didn't but was so busy fighting that I didn't notice until later looking at the detailed report, that I hadn't done any damage with them at all. At first I thought their air defenses had shot down my planes but I only lost one plane the whole match according to the report. It does not make sense to me, I could not have missed and I didn't lose enough planes to matter.  I dropped the strike in the middle of the aerodrome and then scooted the reticle over just a touch for the second strike (they overlapped quite a bit). Am I missing something or are the bombs AP and do no damage to the fields? 

Edited December 6, 2024 by Taylor3006

[Tpaktop2_1 NA]

They (airfields) are probably not program to recognize the airstrike attack. I wonder if the CV players have problems with Bombers too? Bug maybe?

[Admiral_Karasu]

Can't say about planes, but aren't the ships supposed to use HE against those airfields, so probably AP bombs would be much less useful there.

[Kruzenstern]

35 minutes ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

Can't say about planes, but aren't the ships supposed to use HE against those airfields, so probably AP bombs would be much less useful there.

Dutch cruiser airstrikes use HE bombs though. They should be devastating those aerodromes. If they don't, something is bugged.

[UnderTheRadarAgain]

Yesterday, while taking Prince of Orange out - got Cherry Blossom. After taking out the Atago, I positioned myself to the south of the Southern airfield, aimed the airstrike on the airfield and sent them.

Those 2 airstrikes took out the airfield in one shot.

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

Airfield damage on Cherry Blossom...and forts and surface structures on other ops...do not count towards damage done counters.

[UnderTheRadarAgain]

9 hours ago, Daniel_Allan_Clark said:

Airfield damage on Cherry Blossom...and forts and surface structures on other ops...do not count towards damage done counters.

100% correct. And so focusing on the primary objective often results in a lower score than those who ignore the airfields entirely. I can't tell you how many games have been lost because of that. 

I at least try to focus on the airfields as well as the bots in boats. Quite often when I examine the post battle results, I am the only one who shot the airfields. It's good to know the Dutch airstrikes are very effective. But one must remember to wait until the airfield icon is visible on the minimap. Bombing or shooting them before the icons appear results in ZERO damage.

[Taylor3006]

11 hours ago, UnderTheRadarAgain said:

Yesterday, while taking Prince of Orange out - got Cherry Blossom. After taking out the Atago, I positioned myself to the south of the Southern airfield, aimed the airstrike on the airfield and sent them.

Those 2 airstrikes took out the airfield in one shot.

Ok thanks Under, will try it again and see what happens. 

[Wolfswetpaws]

15 hours ago, Tpaktop2_1 NA said:

They (airfields) are probably not program to recognize the airstrike attack. I wonder if the CV players have problems with Bombers too? Bug maybe?

I can use CV's to hit the airfields. 
It works best if I have the correct bomb type (armor piercing versus high-explosive).
Problem is that it is time-consuming.

I've also used the CV's secondary-battery guns in some Cherry Blossom games.  
It's quite a fight to get the CV's hull that close to the airfields, though.

[Wolfswetpaws]

11 hours ago, Daniel_Allan_Clark said:

Airfield damage on Cherry Blossom...and forts and surface structures on other ops...do not count towards damage done counters.

That explains the damage counters.

Relevant quote from the wiki

Quote

XP is not awarded for damage to shore installations.

https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Base_Earnings

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

5 minutes ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

I can use CV's to hit the airfields. 
It works best if I have the correct bomb type (armor piercing versus high-explosive).
Problem is that it is time-consuming.

I've also used the CV's secondary-battery guns in some Cherry Blossom games.  
It's quite a fight to get the CV's hull that close to the airfields, though.

High explosive is by far the best ammo type against that airfields.

[Wolfswetpaws]

Just now, Daniel_Allan_Clark said:

High explosive is by far the best ammo type against that airfields.

👍

[Admiral_Karasu]

6 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

I can use CV's to hit the airfields. 
It works best if I have the correct bomb type (armor piercing versus high-explosive).
Problem is that it is time-consuming.

I've also used the CV's secondary-battery guns in some Cherry Blossom games.  
It's quite a fight to get the CV's hull that close to the airfields, though.

You mean it takes several trips back and forth with CV planes?

As I don't play CV's, I know that BB guns shooting HE are effective, I assume so would be rapid firing cruiser or even DD guns, but those don't necessarily have the luxury of targeting the airfields if there are enemy ships close by. At least I hope they are trying to sink those ships....

[UnderTheRadarAgain]

3 hours ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

You mean it takes several trips back and forth with CV planes?

As I don't play CV's, I know that BB guns shooting HE are effective, I assume so would be rapid firing cruiser or even DD guns, but those don't necessarily have the luxury of targeting the airfields if there are enemy ships close by. At least I hope they are trying to sink those ships....

Often takes most of the game for a CV to take down both airfields alone. Japanese CV's only have the rocket attack planes available. US can use both rockets and dive bombers (except Enterprise where it's rockets only). German CV has limited options, the AP rockets can work if you carefully aim at the grassy knolls, the hard part is you must attack from over the water which means heavy AA. Russian and UK CV's have the option of both rockets and bombers as well, apart from Malta with AP bombs.

Yorktown has the B-25 tactical strike which chunks the airfields hard.

Of course, with the operations being random, it's hard to know what to take. 

[Wolfswetpaws]

5 hours ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

You mean it takes several trips back and forth with CV planes?

As I don't play CV's, I know that BB guns shooting HE are effective, I assume so would be rapid firing cruiser or even DD guns, but those don't necessarily have the luxury of targeting the airfields if there are enemy ships close by. At least I hope they are trying to sink those ships....

 

1 hour ago, UnderTheRadarAgain said:

Often takes most of the game for a CV to take down both airfields alone. Japanese CV's only have the rocket attack planes available. US can use both rockets and dive bombers (except Enterprise where it's rockets only). German CV has limited options, the AP rockets can work if you carefully aim at the grassy knolls, the hard part is you must attack from over the water which means heavy AA. Russian and UK CV's have the option of both rockets and bombers as well, apart from Malta with AP bombs.

Yorktown has the B-25 tactical strike which chunks the airfields hard.

Of course, with the operations being random, it's hard to know what to take. 

In addition to what @UnderTheRadarAgain pointed out, there is the time spent flying to the targets.
Literally time-consuming.

Also, there are a lot of other threats to one's team that are closer (to the CV).
Sinking red-team ships could benefit the team by helping team-mates fight their way to within gun range of the airfields.
And damaging or eliminating ships provides damage and XP earnings, whereas the forts and AA emplacements and airfields don't. (as mentioned earlier, somewhere).

So, a CV has to balance their tactical options (just like any other ship, eh?).

Side trivia.  Some of the ships on a map don't spawn until they're "triggered" by player proximity or other conditions.
I wonder when the Airfields actually "spawn"?  🤔

[Admiral_Karasu]

15 minutes ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

 

In addition to what @UnderTheRadarAgain pointed out, there is the time spent flying to the targets.
Literally time-consuming.

Also, there are a lot of other threats to one's team that are closer (to the CV).
Sinking red-team ships could benefit the team by helping team-mates fight their way to within gun range of the airfields.
And damaging or eliminating ships provides damage and XP earnings, whereas the forts and AA emplacements and airfields don't. (as mentioned earlier, somewhere).

So, a CV has to balance their tactical options (just like any other ship, eh?).

Side trivia.  Some of the ships on a map don't spawn until they're "triggered" by player proximity or other conditions.
I wonder when the Airfields actually "spawn"?  🤔

Haven't apparently paid attention to when they spawn, I assume they spawn at the latest when they are spotted by any of the team ships. Hitting them after that with a long range BB guns isn't a huge problem, as long as the BB's are shielded. Theoretically, it might be best to have ships both south and north, in a sense cross spotting the primary targets.

Sometimes the team spots them too late, or starts firing at them too late. Targeting the airfield AA is also pointless and waste of time when your team has no carrier planes.

[Wolfswetpaws]

1 minute ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

Haven't apparently paid attention to when they spawn, I assume they spawn at the latest when they are spotted by any of the team ships. Hitting them after that with a long range BB guns isn't a huge problem, as long as the BB's are shielded. Theoretically, it might be best to have ships both south and north, in a sense cross spotting the primary targets.

Sometimes the team spots them too late, or starts firing at them too late. Targeting the airfield AA is also pointless and waste of time when your team has no carrier planes.

👍