Distant Guns objectives
Pandur,
I'll see if I can screenshot it for you, but basically, you are dealing with Japan, Korea, Port Arthur, Vlaidvostok and the sea around those spots.
However, the objective here is rather different. The key is to eliminate X tons of Japanese shipping as the Russians or to prevent that as the Japanese.
I've made a point of avoiding the main Japanese battle line, and Yakumo and Adzuma for the most part.
I'm winning, not because I have sunk all their DDs and TBs and their veterans from the Sino-Japanese war, but rather because I have captured/sunk about 80 merchants and A-E.Marus.
Auxilliary cruisers Angara and Lyena, as well as the Gunboat Mandzhur have done amazing damage to the enemy! Angara did meet Yakumo and Adzuma one night, before dusk, and they were making 20 knots to her 19, but I was able to slip away in the darkness, and then turn out to sea. I made a big detour around those two!
I kill what I can kill easily with minimal losses, which works to blind the enemy and allow me to use weaker forces.
I probably can't put together a force at this time that could go toe to toe with the six battleships and four armored cruisers in Mikasa's group, but then I haven't seen them in a long time. Anyone who sees them has orders to flee!
Yakumo and Adzuma are different. I have enough in my Vladivostok group to handle them (though they might hurt me a lot before they died), and the AI thinks so too, which is why they run from me. The biggest problem is that these two cruise at 18 knots, faster than any of my Task Forces. So they can keep contact until dark.
But, then, as long as they run, I can do as I like, sinking their merchants and Marus at will. And a lot of my cruisers can now beat anything they can't outrun.
Night is my biggest danger right now, which is why I am adding TBs and DDs as screens to my task forces, in case I do meet the big, bad Mikasa & friends at night!
But, the days are getting longer...
In short, this is commerce warfare! Starve the Japanese army of supplies, so that Port Arthur never falls, and they are pushed back to the sea, where, thanks to our relentless efforts, they will find no transports to take them home!
So, as the Russians, go after the merchants with a vengeance, and run away from anything resembling a fair fight!
I have found that running up and down the coasts of Japan (don't forget the east coast, very good hunting there), is very effective.
I try to hit a lot of places at once, so they can't catch us all.
Of course, now, I plan to mine all their ports (nyah-hah-hah!!!).