Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

First, I agree that the CAP engaged details are a bit hard to interprete
as the way the action is described can somtimes be quite misleading or have
more than one meaning.
I believe up to a certain point this is intentional, since the possible reasons
for each message set to be shown can be different.

Still I would prefer an a bit more specific set, the current one concentrates too
much on to explain what AND why the fighters are (not) doing something and the messageset
is simply too short to cover this to satisfaction.
Personally I think what they are doing is explaining enough, since why they do it can
be seen from the context and is influenced by too many factors anyway (from morale
to other engagements everythings possble).


Second, you have to be aware that the CR lists all aircraft remotely
in the area of the battle concerned, whether they actually engage in battle or
for some reason are unable to.

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 10

The 10 Wildcats are every single plane that is made ready, turned around or recalled
some time during the air battle. This includes planes that were returning from another
mission, planes being reassigned to defend against the raid, planes that were engaged in
another battle and after completion, planes on ready5 on the flight deck, planes that
have just been refuelled from another mission, planes on airborne CAP over the TF, planes
on LRCAP,... and so on.

On your specific situation I read the combat report concerning fighters like this:

6 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 6 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.

This refers to the same unit of planes, they obviousely had a previous different
assignement and were vectored on the incoming strike.
"Not yet engaged" is one of the most misleading messages IMHO, it means that the fighters
are not able to perform the mission assigned because of not specified reasons (but mostly
due to the reason that they are engaged somewhere else).
This was not the case for VF-2 and I assume that all of the fighters were able
to reach interception point.

Group patrol altitude is 10000

This just means that the concerned unit has a set patrol alt at 10k (your alt setting usually).
Nothing more. It also means that fighters launching in the course of a standard CAP pattern
would try to reach this assigned altitude.

Time for all group planes to reach interception is 19 minutes

Correct, this message refers to all available fighters from VF-2

VF-5 with F4F-3 Wildcat (0 airborne, 3 on standby, 0 scrambling)

Yes, its a pretty low number, but your CAP was also only set to 30%. Your squads got 27(?) fighters
total, 30% of that is 9(!).

Of those 9 planes the force is split into:

-Airborne CAP
-CAP returning to refuel
-Planes landing
-Planes being refuelled and/or rearmed
-Planes under repair after receiving battle or operational damage
-Planes under maintenance
-Planes on ready5
-Planes scrambling against incoming attacks
....

If you try to imagine what time it takes to perform all those different tasks
you will see that you have been actually lucky those 6 VF-2 planes were in the air.
The 3 planes were probably just getting ready (e.g. being refuelled) and not yet
available to scramble immediately.

0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.

- This is you plane number 10 , just referring to your comment on finding only
9 planes in the combat report.

Use you imagination what it did, it probably also was on another mission assignement
and recalled to support the defense.


Group patrol altitude is 11000 , scrambling fighters between 11000 and 19000.

Correct, in contrast to "patrol altitude" on scramble the fighters obviousely climb to
the best intercept position when an enemy strike is detected.


Time for all group planes to reach interception is 30 minutes

This line refers to VF-5, as the 19 minutes report referred to VF-2, so it says nothing
about the 6 airborne VF-2 Wildcats.
It could mean that either it took very long for the standby planes to get ready, or that
the single airborne plane was really out of position.


Youre not ignorant, the CR is just difficult to interprete. You will get used to it.
The best way is to combine information from the CR with the combat replay, you wont
find situations you cannot explain by watching both. Looking at only one of em can give
you information but you have to be aware its only half the story and focuses on different aspects.


I hope this helped.