Allied: Taranto Raid

[uran21]

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

[omegabet]

Coast line at hex [10,15] [15,17] [16,18] [17,18] and [22,8] are missing sandy borders.

Hex [20,8] looks too highlighted, more like Atlantis ^^

[billmv44]

General level, starting prestige 1993, ending 1908. Triumph.

Pretty simple, yet enjoyable scenario. Just don't get too close to the harbor entrance! I had a cruiser shot up pretty badly. Sank the battleships fairly quickly. Also sank a destroyer because I could. Italian opposition was minimal and ineffective. Their fighters were late and fairly easy to shoot down or drive off. Perhaps having the battleships anchor closer to the AA guns, but have the AA guns with ammo zero until the first attack on the battleships would make this harder.

I seem to have picked up the the non core fighter and light cruiser from the prior scenario. They both appeared in my core for this scenario. Seems strange, but I'll put that cruiser to good use I'm sure.

No other issues.

[nikivdd]

Colonel level
Upgrades:none
Purchases:none

Deployed my core and aux Hur I. It took me a while to find the battleships but i got them all in the end. My Hurricanes had target practice. The Swordfish planes took more damage from enemy flak then from those italian fighters. Although there is no experience to be gained here (except for the Hurricane), it is an enjoyable mission and a perfect fit in the new tutorial missions.

Losses: 1 Swordfish, DV 11/12, 2424PP

[Ballacraine]

A nice change of emphasis in this one.

An enjoyable scenario.

What is with all the supply depots clustered around the entrance to the inner harbour?

Balla.

[ThvN]

Taranto Raid

General, Triumph 9/12

Prestige before/after deployment: 1716/1449
Prestige on last turn/incl. victory bonus: 1449/1749

Interesting scenario, the Swordfish aircraft were quite durable and resilient, so the defenses did little damage, the greatest challenge was keeping the planes supplied.

When deploying, I had an auxiliary Light cruiser in reserve, it could not be deployed here. Not that it would have been useful, but it feels a bit strange. I also had an auxiliary Hurricane fighter, I deployed this together with my core fighter, and nothing else, although I could have purchased and deployed another one if I had wanted.

I did have some trouble with refueling, I could only refuel/reload my airplanes when they were placed on top of the carrier, even the fighters? This made it a bit of a logistical challenge, since I had assumed the fighters could refuel when placed adjacent to the carrier. If this is still part of a tutorial it would be good to mention it.

[zappel]

Beta1 - Colonel - DV at turn 11

Funny scenario and I like it:
- Surprise: the aux Hurricane and light cruiser are now in my core
- Funny: an airfield on a one-hex-island, like a unsinkable carrier
- Preview: how a pacific or marine corps could look like
- Lost: recognized forts disapeared then no plane or ship is within sight

I did have some trouble with refueling, I could only refuel/reload my airplanes when they were placed on top of the carrier, even the fighters? This made it a bit of a logistical challenge, since I had assumed the fighters could refuel when placed adjacent to the carrier. If this is still part of a tutorial it would be good to mention it.

That is still the behaviour like in the version before: look at USA-East Coast from the vanilla campaign! It was the only scenario I had a carrier and it supplies fighter and tac bombers only on the same hex! But yes, this is a challenging logistical mission.

[Kamerer]

5) Taranto – beta 1

Level: Field Marshal
Prestige: Begin: 1,625. End: 1,625. Net: +0.
Result: DV 9/12
Replacement policy: none used.

Core Changes:

• Disbanded: None
  Purchased: None

Problems:

• • None noted. (Missing core unit(s) addressed in Ital. Off. Thread)

General impressions/comments:

• • Interesting diversion. Worked well.
  • I had a core Hurricane from before, and the aux. one, so no changes. They made easier work of the Falco kite-bags, so maybe just some bad roles last scenario with them.

[LostAgain]

Playing FM. Another scenario that needs beefing up somehow. It is just too wasy to complete, the only problem at all being resupply as the planes needed to be right on top of the carrier and the logistics of that many planes refueling on only 2 carriers was trying at times. I also noticed when I was placing my units that the "Units To Deploy" heading advised me that I had 2 to place, but upon placing them it still said I had 1 of 2 to place. It allowed me to purchase a 3rd fighter and place it although it would not allow me to place the Light Cruiser that I'd earned in the prior scenario?

And FINALLY...As the option was there I purchased a 3rd fighter BUT at the opening of the next scenario it was not there!!!

[Longasc]

Taranto Raid

Level: General
Start Prestige: 1493 (EDIT: I had 1517 after resetting, something wrong here...?)
End Prestige: 1144
Result: Triumph, 9/12
Bought/Upgraded/Losses: Bought a Hurricane, lost 2 Torpedobombers and 1 Cruiser


First impression: 1.) Hmm, I got the Hurricane and the Light Cruiser from the last scenario? 2.) 2 deployment slots but only the Hurricane can deploy, what about the Cruiser?!
I will most likely go on and buy another Hurricane and then see if i can deploy more units or what this is all about.
The harbor fortress gun is good, my two cruisers slipped through but had to pay a heavy price for this.

VERY COOL scenario. I like the torpedo bomber mechanics, there is some planning involved there - go for the Destroyers or focus on the primary objective, the BBs?
NOTE: I didn't lose anything in my first playthrough, but it was bugged and then I wanted to do it better. -> so there is potential to fail in this scenario, this is good.

BUGS: I had always 1/2 shown deployed despite having already deployed 2 Hurricanes. The game allowed me to purchase units, but then I never got them. Hu?
(LostAgain described the very same issue above!)

Suggestion: How about some extra prestige based on the number of surviving Torpedo Bombers? There was already a similar scenario in the DLCs where you had to keep some Aux units alive.

[Tarrak]

Scenario: Taranto Raid
Difficulty level: General
Outcome: Triumph on turn 10/12
Starting Prestige: 2158
End Prestige: 2271 (incl. victory reward)

Spent some prestige to overstrength my Hurricane up to 15.

Quite nice and enjoyable scenario. I deployed my Hurricane i bought last game and the auxiliary one i managed to get added to my reserve list from the last scenario. They both made dealing with the enemy fighters a breeze. But even if getting some shots of at unguarded torpedo bombers they wasn't doing much damage (between 0 and 2). The bigger threat was the AA fire. They actually managed to knock off quite a few of the bombers down to few strength points left. Finding and killing the the bombers in time seems to be not to hard but not to trivial. It's mostly an logistic issue but it's a nice touch.

The forts at the entrance are doing good job at keeping my Navy from entering the harbor. After i moved one of my carriers to close to them to shorten the way for my bombers it got shot together pretty badly.

The deployed auxiliary Hurricane disappeared from my core in the next mission. I still have the Cruiser tho. Not sure if this is the correct behavior for auxiliary units in reserve.

[uran21]

Thanks to all for the feedback so far. I hope you find this scenario rather refreshing.
In spite the fact no land units contribute in this one there is an array of lessons. Anti-aircraft fire, bomber escort is maybe not so obvious because of inability to escort all of them, there is a lesson about how dangerous is for ships to approach to coastal batteries (it is planed to review this lesson at Messina Strait but it is a missing link for now). Aircraft carrier wasn't extensively used in the game so people can get better feeling about it. First testings were made with just one but it didn't worked out very well and to those of you who approached harbour entrance is probably clear why they are at strength 20! This is also a good opportunity (although used in first scenario) to observe difference in strength plates of special units. This is why there are only destroyers in the harbour, not other capital ships, to make bigger contrast of targets.

Italian fighters are to colect some experience on them and hangars around railway only for flavor, so it looks more realistically. In Austro-Hungarian facilities, which was an inspiration for it, such warehouses for amunition would be caled Arsenal. Airfield island was also inspired by an old Austro-Hungarian port.

I have added another deployment hex so two of core fighters can enter the battle.

[Ballacraine]

Thanks for that extra information, uran.

It makes even more sense the way you explained it.

Balla

[omegabet]

Having played all the missions, Taranto Raid is my favorite gameplay mission and Cobra the most challenging one.

[produit]

DV 8/12. Ending prestige 806. Sell the aux fighter and bought a new one. OS both fighters to 15. Also OS all of my units.
Lost 1 swordfish (another at 1 strength point). Easy and nice scenario.

[maho1973]

Time to buy a 2nd hurricane, so in total 3 fighters entered the battle.
An additional ship deployment hex should be added in order to use the aux light cruiser, if the player kept him.
I'm not sure, but the port at hex 8,15 seems to be upside down.
The Italian resistance is relatively harmless.
No additional prestige to earn here.
A nice fresh scenario.

[monkspider]

Taranto Raid beta 1

General level
Ending Prestige 1296
Result: Triumph, 9/12

This was a very unique and enjoyable scenario! It was fun to hunt down and sink the Italian battleships. You do have to be strategic in how you position your naval units, lest they be chewed up by the surface forts or enemy ships. One possible suggestion would be to give one or two in-battle messages to let you know how many ships remain, like on the new version of Dunkirk

[Tarrak]

Replayed the scenario in Beta 2.

The AA fire from the capital ships is a lot stronger now and knocking up to 4 points of strength of the torpedo bombers. The enemy fighters are tougher as well now. They can even make a dent in the Hurricanes. Overall it made the map more challenging. I like it in the new incarnation and would keep it the way it is.

[monkspider]

Taranto Raid Beta 2
General level
Ending prestige 2233
DV 11/12

I also noticed that the battle was much trickier this time but I also would keep it the way it is, as a bonus scenario. By the end of the battle my torpedo bombers were pretty shot up, but I managed to get the DV on the penultimate turn.

[Moltke71]

A little AA from the fleet would be nice.