How to beat the Battle of Vella Gulf historically?

[Eboreg]

For anyone that doesn't know about historical battles, the Battle of Vella Gulf basically saw the Americans get the jump on the Japanese and torpedo them before they even knew what was going on. In fact, the Japanese Vella Gulf Task Force is rather infamous as the first one where the Japanese destroyer Shigure was the only survivor. However, when I play the Vella Gulf scenario in-game, the Japanese always spot the Americans before they can even get one torpedo off. How do I not get spotted by the Japanese when playing as the Americans?

[Cerdon]

Is your radar turned on?

[Eboreg]

Yes, it is.

[byepopejoy]

Originally posted by Eboreg:

Yes, it is.

Turning your radar off can reduce the chance of the IJN spotting you since some of their ships have radar detectors.

[JazzObserver127]

Originally posted by byepopejoy:

Originally posted by Eboreg:

Yes, it is.

Turning your radar off can reduce the chance of the IJN spotting you since some of their ships have radar detectors.

Yeah, but historically, none of the IJN DDs had any radar like equipment at all, and even if they did, the US came from a position where the island mass would cover them under the assumption that the IJN radar would similar in strength to the SC radar in surface detection, which would mean that they can't tell apart islands to contacts nearly as easy as the US SG radar. If that assumption is true or not, I'm honesty not quite sure.

[papalimaromeo]

It gets down to the IJN night sighting bonus in the game. It is a numerical factor, It may be in a text file that can be changed. Basically they have a much longer visual sighting range at night.