Battlestations: Midway/Battle of the Sibuyan Sea

American Objectives
 * Sink the Yamato, Musashi, and Chikuma
 * One of the Allied key units - the Iowa, New Jersey, and the Wasp - must survive

Japanese Objectives
 * Sink the Iowa, New Jersey, and Wasp
 * One of the Japanese key units - the Yamato, Musashi, and Chikuma - must survive

Only available through the Iowa expansion pack. Every PC player should have this map, as it is free to download. It is also one of the most common maps, due to the huge amounts of firepower it carriers. It is also the only multiplayer map to feature the Iowa and New Jersey. The only multiplayer map to contain Japanese level bombers, but Operation MI also has B-17s. MI, however, lacks Mitchells.

This map remains, unfortunately, horribly balanced - the Americans have an extremely powerful advantage early-game with extremely good bombers. The Japanese bombers are hardly capable of defending themselves, but the American bombers - especially the B-17 - can shoot Gekkos down using their many rear-firing machine guns. Bombing the airfields early leaves the skies uncontested for the Americans, paving the way for additional bombers to attack unmolested. Even with the Japanese airfields intact, however, the Americans have three airfields (one of which is the USS Wasp) while the Japanese only have two. The P-38, while performance-wise is comparable to the Gekko, has a considerably smaller profile, making it harder to hit.

Player Slots
🇨🇴 American Slots Fletcher (DD) - Benham Iowa (BB) - Iowa Iowa (BB) - New Jersey Fletcher (DD) - Miller Fletcher (DD) - Hickox Narwhal(SS) - Dace Shipyard (contains 80 Elcos) Airfield (contains 40 fighters, heavy bombers, & dive bombers) 🇨🇴 Japanese Slots Airfield (contains 80 fighters, 40 heavy bombers & dive bombers) Shipyard (contains 10 submarines) Fubuki (DD) - Nowaki Fubuki (DD) - Hamakaze Fubuki (DD) Kiyoshimo Fubuki (DD) - Urakaze Shimakaze (DD) - Kishinami Shimakaze (DD) - Hayanami 🇨🇴
 * Fletcher (DD) - Owen
 * Yorktown (CV) - Wasp
 * Narwhal (SS) - Darter
 * Airfield (contains 40 fighters, heavy bombers, & torp bombers)
 * Airfield (contains 80 fighters, 40 heavy bombers & torp bombers)
 * Yamato (BB) - Yamato
 * Tone (CA) - Chikuma
 * Yamato (BB) - Musashi

American Strategy
The Americans have the skies uncontested, but the Japanese can still encroach on your airspace, trying to hit the Iowa in particular with torpedo bombers. Therefore the first thing you're going to want to do is bomber rush the enemy airfields with everything you have. Even if the enemy deploys all Gekkos, they will never be able to stop you because of how many machine guns your bombers carry.

The airfields can start by putting up as many B-17s and B-25s as they can, and massing them either around the airfield or around the shipyard to the south. Once they're all in formation, select all the B-17s and have them strike one airfield, and have all the B-25s hit the other. This ensures even bomb distribution and the demise of both airfields in a single strike. Enemy Gekkos will rise to stop you, but ultimately against that many bombers, there's nothing anyone can do. Once the airfields are out of commission, start deploying bombers against the enemy warships. Don't bother with Lightnings anymore, as you've neutralized all their air power. If you want you can deploy some dive bombers against the enemy shipyard, since it is often left completely undefended, but the Yamato and Musashi are the biggest threats and should be neutralized ASAP.

The carrier should have similar tactics to the airfield, but since it moves and it starts very close to the enemy, you should have it move next to - or better yet, past - the airfields in the north to ensure its survival for as long as possible. Coordinate your attacks with the airfields and lodge as many torpedoes into the Yamato and Musashi as possible. The Yamato classes have better armour than the Iowa (200 vs 190) and have bigger guns (18.1 inch cannon vs 16 inch cannon), but go ahead and slug it out the old-fashioned way against the Yamato and the Musashi. Whatever you do, DO NOT SEPARATE THE FLEET. The Yamato and Musashi, together, can easily sink lone Iowa-classes, so either attack together or do not attack at all.

The shipyard in the south has little tactical value, and if you're lucky, a newbie in command of the Japanese airfields will bomb it first, saving you some time. Regardless, the shipyard can deploy nothing but Elcos, making it of limited use. They can easily destroy, however, the Type A submarines, whether it's depth charges underwater or machine gun fire on the surface. Additionally, Type As lack any kind of surface weapon aside from torpedoes, making you completely impervious to their attacks.

The enemy fields a lot of destroyers in this map, and the Shimakaze-class in particular is extremely fast, so you'll want to remain at crush depth until the very last moment, at which you surface, lodge torpedoes into the Yamato or Musashi, then crash-dive to escape counterattack. The subs are extremely powerful, and in capable hands can sink both battleships with ease. Just be wary around those destroyers.

Japanese Strategy
The Japanese have the disadvantage on this map, as the Americans have three airfields (one being mobile) and vastly superior bombers compared to you. The airfield has two options - to try and save the airfield, or do what damage you can do before the airfield goes down. Either way, if the Allies decide you don't have airfields, you won't have airfields. If you want to try and save the airfields, put up as many Gekkos as possible and forestall attacking the Iowa to the east. Blindly charge all your Gekkos in the direction of the airfield to find a huge mass of enemy bombers. The trick to saving the airfield is to launch a pre-emptive strike on the enemy bombers; if you manage to intercept the bombers early, you'll manage to stop them.

If you're instead going to cause as much damage as possible to the enemy before their massive bomber wave takes down your airfield, deploy as many bombers as possible and have them head straight for the Iowa to the east. Torpedo the living daylights out of it as much as possible, and do not bother trying to land your craft - crash them so that you will be able to respawn the squad later. Planes are no good if your airfields are dead. Any attempts to counter-rush the American airfields will be met with Wildcats since the enemy has three airfields and you only have two.

The airfield person also has control of the shipyards, so if you intend to micro the airfields, give the shipyards away. Just don't forget to deploy submarines, and have them head east, towards the New Jersey and possibly to the Wasp. Carrying only four torpedoes and firing two at a time, the best you can do is annoy the New Jersey, but if you fire with a lot of spread you can cause two leaks on the ship instead of one. This will cause it to take more damage as a result. Chances are though, your Type As will only have a one-way ticket, but still - do what you can with them. The Yamato and Musashi are the core of your operation. In addition to having slightly heavier armour, the Yamato and Musashi carry 18.1 inch guns versus the Iowa's 16, so you have a slight firepower advantage. Duke it out with the Iowa and New Jersey until you or they go down. If the Americans sink the Yamato and Musashi, you're left with the Chikuma, a few destroyers, the shipyard, and (if the Americans didn't bomber rush) your airfields. In other words, you've pretty much lost. If you defeat the Iowa and New Jersey, the Americans can still fall back on their superior air power and damage or possibly destroy both your battleships before they can close in with the Wasp, especially if it's in the corner.

You can either try charging the north BB into action against New Jersey right away and possibly sink the Wasp early, but you'll come under fire from the New Jersey and, depending on the skill of your opponent, either take considerable damage or sink outright. As for the southern force, you have the numeric advantage, but unless you are considerably more skilled than the Iowa player, chances are you'll take unacceptable amounts of damage. It's more prudent to engage the enemy battleships two-on-one. If the airfields haven't been destroyed by the American bomber rush, the Airfield player can put up Gekkos between the battleships and the American airfields, to stem the tide of Devastators.

The mission becomes far simpler if the Americans lose the battleships, though. Then all you have to do is hunt for the Wasp, and typically it's stuck up in the corner. Even if it's not in the corner, just send a few destroyers or the Chikuma to take out the airfields. Doing so will reduce the number of planes the Americans can field by a whopping two-thirds, so do so as soon as you can. After that, just send a few destroyers on a search-and-destroy mission for the Wasp to end the mission.

Dispite what people say, the IJN airfields can be of critical use. Keeping them active means the Allied forces will have to keep sending waves of Fortresses and Mitchells at you. Your airfields have around 70 Gekkos. This is because they are EXCELLENT kamikazi planes. Crash into the bombers to keep them away! Have 5 squads of Gekkos attack the bombers while one Depth-charge Kate squad hunts for the subs. If you move the Musashi's fleet West-Nothwest, send your destroyers out to get the Darter on Radar. Sink her with the charges. Plus the extra AA will help weaken and destroy some bombers. Using the MusashiBold text and Yamato to scare the Iowa and Jersey from the Wasp is good. Usually players will just count the Wasp as a loss and save the Iowa and Jersey from attack, ultimatly cutting 1/3 of the enemies air. When you notice the Allied players divert their attention from your airfields to the BB's, bomb their airfields! Send up 6 Betty's and have them all bomb the Devastator/Mitchell hangar (North one), cutting out all plane damage that can be done to your BB's (plane torpedo's). All thats left is the final push. Good Luck! -[Compliments of ChrumeKK]-