Torpedo attacks are difficult, and in real life they were low-probability affairs iwth a high chance of getting shot down. The big problem is not ack lethality, but as I stated at the beginning of the frame, 5" guns.
I've posted it here before, and I will again right now:
If Torpedo Runs are to be an option, players should not be allowed to man fleet acks.
Here's why:
for most o fthe scenarios we do, nobody had VT fuzes. Even when they did, they were not as easy to score kills with as here. Why?
Real VT fuzes have a radio that causes the shell to detonate when the projectile is a certain distance from any object, especially terrain.
AH VT fuzes only airburst when they pass near an aircraft. So an AH torpedo plane skimming the deck will cause the 5" AA to fuze whereas its real-life counterpart would have fuzed much earlier.
Furthermore, as a gameplay concession, when you're in the 5" turret, there is a precise readout of the range at which your shells will hit the water. Worse, in AH scenarios, attacking torpedo planes get their own icons about 3400 yards out. This means that a decent 5" aa gunner can start hitting a target at 4000 yards. And at 3400 all he has to do is match the numbers (the difference between meters and yards is just about right to compensate for closure)
The best "torpedo sniper" will release at 2300 yards or so. That's a full mile at 180 mph, or 20 seconds ingress that the torpedo plane is exposed to enemy fire. Then there's another 20 seconds of egress. Do some quick calculations for 5" ROF, and put 4 5" gunners on a normal CVG or 6 for the one we had today, and you see very quickly that nobody's going to survive. That's why I gave the Hornets the option of violating rules and carrying bombs rather than torpedoes. With 5" VT shells, flying torpedo planes is a suicide mission, and no fun for anybody but the hysterically laughing dweeb at the other end of the cannon (and I have been that dweeb in scenarios before, so I should know).
As for adjusting the ack lethality, I think that's the wrong answer. You would have to pork the ack lethality a helluva lot to allow anybody to get through. And at that point, why bother having ack at all? Why not just disable the gunner positions on the fleets? This has worked in the past.
Without 5" ack, torpedo-bombing is a challenge: you have a group of bombers that have to maintain precise formation through superaccurate ack and dodge enemy fighters. Onnce they release, they can make rudder turns away, and, if done right, some bombers will survive. We can train for that, and we can pull it off in a scenario.
There's no way to train to avoid a shell that comes directly from the target you're forced to fly at low and slow, that detonates anywhere near you and knocks you out of the sky.
I'm sorry, I have never seen a convincing argument for allowing 5" VT Ack in scenarios. VT fuzes were one of the many reasons torpedo bombing went from suicidal to impossible. If you're thinking about forcing a squadron to fly torpedo planes into a 5" barrage, at least have the courage to force them to fly C47s.
And whatever you do, make the rules clear in advance so we can squeak about them. I spent a lot of time working up the orders; the 418 practiced torpedo bombing extensively. And 15 minutes before launch I have to tell them that they're all going to die without getting close to the target?
