Battlestations: Midway/Battle of the Surigao Strait

'''With the shutdown of GameSpy, these pages are no longer relevant. They have been preserved for historical purposes.''' American Objectives
 * Sink the Fusō and the Yamashiro
 * The enemy must not reach the western border
 * One of the Allied key units - the Repulse, Renown, the airfield, and the shipyard - must survive

Japanese Objectives
 * Reach the western border
 * One of the Japanese key units - the Fusō or the Yamashiro - must survive

This map is well known for its unique objective. The Japanese can win not by destroying all enemy ships (although normally that's how it ends out playing anyway) but by passing through the strait. It is a quite common map and you can find many players willing to play it.

Unfortunately, it is also not very balanced. The Japanese have a distinct advantage in the seas, and Allied air supremacy is pretty much negated by the large number of Fubuki destroyers. The only way the Allies can win is if their torpedo planes and torpedo boats cause a lot of damage against the enemy battleships. The Fusō class ships have many more guns than the Renown-class, so going toe-to-toe with them is a poor strategy for the Renown.

Player Slots
🇨🇴 American Slots Airfield (contains 80 torpedo bombers and 40 dive bombers) Shipyard (contains 40 Elcos) Shipyard (contains 40 Elcos) Fletcher (DD) - Morris Renown (BB) - Renown Fletcher (DD) - Sands Renown (BB) - Repulse 🇨🇴 Japanese Slots Fusō (BB) - Fusō Fusō (BB) - Yamashiro Mogami (CA) - Mikuma Mogami (CA) - Mogami 🇨🇴
 * Atlanta (CL) - Oakland
 * Atlanta (CL) - Juneau
 * Fletcher (DD) - Fletcher
 * Fletcher (DD) - Pope
 * Fubuki (DD) - Akebono
 * Fubuki (DD) - Sazanami
 * Fubuki (DD) - Ushio
 * Fubuki (DD) - Shirakumo

American Strategy
The Japanese lack any air support whatsoever, so start the battle by putting up bombers. You don't have fighters, but you don't need them. Instead of fighters, you get the sub-par but venerable Fairey Swordfish. Compared to the TBF/D Avenger, Swordfishes are easy targets given the fact they're biplanes. Regardless, air power is how you're going to sink these battleships, so hurt the enemy as much as possible and allow the Renown and the Repulse to finish off the rest of the enemy warships.

Don't forget about your patrol boats either. They require a lot of micromanagement to work properly, so it may be a good idea to give your other units away until the PT boat hangar goes down. Until then, however, freely spawn torpedo boats and send them on suicide missions against the enemy battleships. Torpedo boats in this level carry only 8 torpedoes, so you have to make them count. That said, with a grand total of six boats out at one time (and each boat having four torpedo launchers) accounts for a swarm of 24 torpedoes in a single wave. You can use this as a deterrent against the enemy attacking you, and if you can manage to get hits on enemy warships, then all the better. Each PT boat hangar has a total of 20 PT boats, but chances are they'll all be destroyed anyway, so use them while you still can.

As the enemy draws closer to the strait, you're going to want to hit them more with aircraft. As soon as the enemy battleships enter the strait, they'll start pounding your airfield, so have your planes launch while they still can. Coordinate your attacks with the PT boat hangar and overwhelm them with small swarms of enemies and force their anti-aircraft to divide into firing at the PT boats and firing at the incoming torpedo planes.

When the enemy is close, start loosing torpedoes from your destroyers down the strait and try to damage anyone trying to make their way through. Ultimately you're going to want to delay the enemy again and again until the PT boats and airplanes do enough damage that the Renown, Repulse, and the others can take care of the enemy fleet.

Alternatively, you may choose to surprise the enemy with a strange tactic. Park the two battlecruisers on broadside toward the Japanese right from the beginning, and park your destroyers in front of them as shields (Remember to turn off "Auto move" and "Torpedo Avoidance" for all ships involved, or they will run away, optionally turn on "Torpedo" for the shielding destroyers). This usually ends up with the destroyers getting sunk by heavy fire and torpedoes, but will provide valuable time for your two battlecruisers to fire fullbroadsides on the Japanese battleships with litte to no damage, while the Japanese will only be able to fire the forward guns on you (and the shield ship) for a while. But keep in mind, this tactic instantly fails if the shield ships are destroyed before the battleships come in range, coordinate with the other players to slow down the Japanese or even destroy some of the escorts. As a last resort, you may want ask for the airfield and PT boat hangar players to hand over their light cruisers, and use them as shield ships too.

The Japanese have the advantage on this map, so you're going to need every advantage you can get.

Japanese Strategy
The Japanese have the advantage here as all their firepower is massed and they have more cruisers than the Americans, giving them tremendous sea firepower. The Japanese don't have anything in the way of air power, so your Fubuki-class destroyers are going to have to act as fighter screens. Keep close to the Fusō and Yamashiro, acting as a protective screen against the endless waves of bombers. You'll often also get pestered by enemy PT boats, but they generally aren't much of a threat. When you get closer, send a few cruisers their way and blast the living daylights out of the PT boat hangars to put them out of commission.

There isn't much else aside from sailing straight up the alleyway and onto victory. Be careful when duelling the Repulse and Renown though, as most of the time they'll cross the T since they know you're moving forward. You can turn this advantage to your advantage by firing torpedoes at them. Ships can't move sideways without first going forwards or backwards, so a spread of torpedoes will cause a lot of damage to them while simultaneously giving them little room to manoeuvre.