Riddle me this....

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> War In The Pacific - Struggle Against Japan 1941 - 1945 >> Riddle me this....

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Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 8:32:55 AM

TheElf

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AM air phase: A Japanese sweeop of 33 Zekes hits Pago Pago. 13Wildcats rise to the occasion and lose 4 or 5 for no claims of their own. Immediately afterward a Dinah does a recce pass and the dialog box says that "33 x F4F Wildcat & 13 P-39D" are on CAP. Which is what I expected to see when the sweep came over!

Where t. f. were those aircraft a split second ago when I had 33 Zekes overhead? I have fully supported/supplied size 4 Field with an Air HQ in place.

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 9:17:28 AM

Onime No Kyo

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I think that the way this works is that out of the % of planes you set for CAP only a % is actually in the air. When an enemy contact is made, the rest scramble and tryu to reach intercept altitude. Some of the time, combat will either take place at too high an altitude or your CAP plane's climb rate is too slow to allow them to get up there in time. BY the time the recce plance came over, however, the entire CAP was up.

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 9:19:12 AM

TheElf

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Interesting. But I had ALL my units set to LR CAP. By definition they should all be up and there is no need to scramble. Am I wrong here?

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 9:23:05 AM

Tankerace

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If on LRCAP, I believe they are not assumed to be over the base (A 60nm hex, as some would say). So, you can rationalize it like this. The 33 Wildcats were over the base, and after your Zekes hit the P-39s flew back to the base to intercept the next group of guys. If you set CAP to 90 instead of LRCAP, then all the planes should be up the first time.

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 10:15:28 AM

Tristanjohn

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From: Daly City CA USA
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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheElf

AM air phase: A Japanese sweeop of 33 Zekes hits Pago Pago. 13Wildcats rise to the occasion and lose 4 or 5 for no claims of their own. Immediately afterward a Dinah does a recce pass and the dialog box says that "33 x F4F Wildcat & 13 P-39D" are on CAP. Which is what I expected to see when the sweep came over!

Where t. f. were those aircraft a split second ago when I had 33 Zekes overhead? I have fully supported/supplied size 4 Field with an Air HQ in place.

I don't know where those fighters were, but an Air HQ (according to the manual) does not affect CAP.

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 1:33:49 PM

tsimmonds

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When you set an air unit to LRCAP, you are indeed assigning 100% of its a/c to the CAP mission over the DH. How many a/c will actually be able to meet any incoming strikes depends heavily on the distance between the base the LRCAP is coming from and its DH. To maintain a standing CAP over some hex other than the one the base is in, implies that at any given moment, some a/c will be transiting to the DH, some will be transiting back to the base, and some will be at the base re-arming/re-fueling. The rest are what are available for your standing CAP. I think if the base of origin were in a hex adjacent to the DH, you could possibly get as much as 50% of the a/c on station. Further away, you get less. In any case, it will naturally be subject to some kind of die roll every time a strike enters the hex.

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 5:47:46 PM

Mike Scholl

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheElf

Interesting. But I had ALL my units set to LR CAP. By definition they should all be up and there is no need to scramble. Am I wrong here?

Reality check. Even if all your fighters are set to CAP over their own base, only half of them are going to be in the
air at any one time.. They have to land, re-fuel, take a whizz, grab a bite, and work the kinks out once in a while to
stay fresh. Cap rotates. The shorter the range, the more of it will be in place, but unless you have good advanced spotting/radar, not all of it is going to be in position to intercept incoming aircraft all the time.

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 10:44:14 PM

TheElf

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Tankerace

If on LRCAP, I believe they are not assumed to be over the base (A 60nm hex, as some would say). So, you can rationalize it like this. The 33 Wildcats were over the base, and after your Zekes hit the P-39s flew back to the base to intercept the next group of guys. If you set CAP to 90 instead of LRCAP, then all the planes should be up the first time.

I hear what you are saying TA, but of the 70 some fighters I have at PP only 13 were up when I needed them. And I DO have a radar there. I just can't figure out how you can have 75 fighters set to fly LR CAP over their OWN base, with radar, with an Air HQ, with bookoo supply AND Support on a level 4 AF and only have 13 F4Fs up when 33 Zekes come strolling in for the 2nd day in a row (By the way). Then a split second later a recce flight passes over and there are almost 50 fighters on CAP, yet out of position to intercept it.

The bottom line: I knew they were coming. I set my CAP accordingly and had EVERYTHING I needed to get the job done in place.

The end result: 5 F4Fs get schwacked for no gain. Why?

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 10:49:50 PM

Tom Hunter

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Its a screwy game. You do not have control. No amount of effort to get control will ever change that.

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/29/2005 11:07:02 PM

Nikademus

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Not even the presence of radar will gurantee, in-game or in real life that you will be able to scramble in time with the numbers you want, in the positioning you want when the enemy comes a knockin.

That being said....i never use LRCAP (or '100%' for CAP which auto changes the mission from escort to LRescort) over a friendly base. 90% is the highest i'll use and even then sometimes i wont get the numbers i want. A reason for this may be that by forcing your airgroup to fly 90% (at all times) you are increasing the chance for the CAP to get caught "while on the ground" refueling vs being up there when they are needed.

Thats when i have a base with radar or better, two radar sets, i'll usually never set my CAP above 60 tops...often i'll rely on that radar and set em to 30 or 40% and depending on condtions, more often than not, when the enemy comes calling, they get met with a large number of well rested well positioned playmates.

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/30/2005 12:16:05 AM

Halsey

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Don't complicate the process.
Bottom line is, he got a crappy die roll!

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/30/2005 12:20:01 AM

Nikademus

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or else he left his Ron S. toggle on.....

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/30/2005 2:27:34 AM

Halsey

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Will there be a patch for the Ron S. toggle in 1.5?

If it wasn' for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all!

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/30/2005 2:36:03 AM

Mr.Frag

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quote:

Will there be a patch for the Ron S. toggle in 1.5?

Ron 2.0 will be released shortly after I get to Ottawa

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RE: Riddle me this.... - 3/30/2005 2:38:57 AM

tsimmonds

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quote:

I just can't figure out how you can have 75 fighters set to fly LR CAP over their OWN base, with radar, with an Air HQ, with bookoo supply AND Support on a level 4 AF and only have 13 F4Fs up

This is your problem; take them off LRCAP immediately and put them on escort with 90% CAP. LRCAP is for hexes other than your base. You are screwing yourself.

When you switch to 90%, be sure to change the mission to "escort". When you click from 100% to 90%, the default mission changes to sweep for some unknown reason.

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