Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Malagant

-When creating Barges, I only see one button (Create Barge). According to the manual there are two sizes with different Supply costs and presumably different capacities...what determines which size is built? Are there any details of capacity/range/speed/etc available (I can't find in manual, but that doesn't mean it's not there!)
I don't know how it is determined or how to influence it. I wish we could!

-Can the Japanese "Glen Boats" load any other kind of float plane? Can I stick Jakes on them?
AFAIK yes, but it's mostly considered bad form as those planes fit and IIRC the other didn't fit IRL.

-When an Amphib Group is being followed by a Bombardment Group, I've seen the bombardment group bombard the Amphib group's target when they reach the target hex. This is GREAT and does exactly what I'd hoped...my question is if this will always happen (assuming the fleets haven't "separated" due to other issues) or is there a die roll involved? Moreover, there is a dieroll involved to determine if a Bombardment TF will switch to Surface or simply retire, I believe...what happens with that check if the TF is assigned to follow another force? I'm assuming it will continue to follow regardless?
I did not even know that would happen. I doubt anything will always happen in this game because they designed in loads of variability based on pure chance - good weather versus bad, commander has bad hair day, etc. If you assign one TF to follow another, they generally do that. But note that any TF can decide to retire without your permission. Out of ammo is certainly one thing that comes to mind in the case you are citing. It's not automatic, and you might want an out of ammo TF to stay around so that others can protect it until they are all ready to leave. The best thing with this question is to just play around with things and see how they respond.

-How does Rest percentage affect single-aircraft groups? In other cases in the game I've seen fractions are truncated, which leads me to believe if I have a single float plane and tell it to Search 70 and Rest 30, it will never actually Search, because 70% of 1 plane is less than 1 plane, so it will round down to 0 planes flying. True?
AFAIK at least one plane would always (try) to fly the mission (it might get thwarted by weather, and so on) even with 90% rest. Exactly what happens when you assign more missions than planes (say 10% Search + 10% ASW + primary mission Naval Attack + secondary mission of Ground Attack and the group only has 2 planes) I don't know.

-Float Planes seem to be very susceptible to not flying in bad weather, but it seems to me that the more dedicated Tenders (I'm specifically thinking about Japanese CS here) seem to fly them a bit more often. I'd assumed this was due to these planes having been purpose built to launch sea planes (catapults, etc)...but it occurred to me that other non-dedicated seaplane carrying craft also had catapults. Moreover, while flinging a plane out in to the bad weather might be easy enough to achieve, recovering one in a high sea state is still nearly impossible. So, the question then is, are the CS type ships more likely to launch FP in bad weather, or is it my imagination (and bad assumption) that this happens?
Unknown.

-What Port size (or AKE/AE cargo capacity) is required to reload CV Sorties & Torpedoes?
Don't recall off the top of my head. There is a big chart in the manual and others have made up cheat sheets and posted them.

-Will ships disbanded in port be attacked by a SCTF? By a Bombardment TF? What about ships in Drydock?
Bombardment TF for sure will attack disbanded. In the shipyard they can get hit when the port is attacked (which is what a bombardment can do but doesn't always). SCTF - I don't think so but maybe someone has seen it and will pipe up?

-Not so much a question, but an observation about in-game information: for aircraft, aircraft weapons, ships and their weapons, there is a reasonable about of information given about their capabilities. However, for LCUs there doesn't seem to be any info available in-game. Other than saving, closing, opening the editor, I don't see a way to find out how different LCU components compare to each other. I get that this is a game targeted to extreme grognards, but I sure don't like to have to memorize the effectiveness of every possible combination of weapon system to make educated decisions on what I want to upgrade and where. Tracker keeps me in the know, though, so not a terrible big deal :)
Tracker = solid gold.

-Random Search Arcs vs. Specific Arcs I know is a whole other topic, but with regard to Random I'm wondering if the random engine will assign multiple planes to one arc while other arcs have no coverage. In other words, if there are 36 planes in the group flying Naval Search, will one go out on each arc, or will some double-up while others are left empty?
Rand arcs does not actually use arcs. It uses the old formula (meaning before arcs were introduced to the game) of detecting enemy units. Arcs do better - within the arcs obviously! There are a few places/occasions where using 'random arcs' is a better choice. One is embarked aircraft (carrier or float plane).

-Mission Speed: I'm a bit fuzzy on what determines when the TF would decide to rock-out and go Full Speed when Mission Speed is set. The only ones I think I get are Fast Transport & Bombardment, where they'll try to zip in at night and zip out. However, this seems very nondeterministic, as I don't really know when or where they're going to be. I guess I'm asking what common practice is...do folks leave things on Mission Speed, or do folks prefer the determinism provided by setting a fixed speed?
Surface combat and intercepts (aka "React") or fleeing such is another example. I almost always use mission speed. Full speed is useful when you want that to happen for whatever reason, and boy oh boy does it eat fuel!

-Escort Performance. It sure looks to me like fighters set to Escort tend to get the crap kicked out of them. Superior pilots flying superior planes still tend to often get the dirty end of engagement with CAP. Is this just my imagination and bad random number results, or is this a thing?
That is true and intentional. Lots and lots of discussions have been held on that point.


I guess that turned in to more than just a few questions...sorry! And Thanks! :)

-Bob

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

It looks like I skipped over a few. Sorry.

As far as attacking ships disbanded in port isn't a level 3 port that is the threshold for protection against sub attacks, not sure if SCTFs can attack disbanded ships in level dot, level 1 and level 2, but subs can.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on that guys.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Malagant

-When creating Barges, I only see one button (Create Barge). According to the manual there are two sizes with different Supply costs and presumably different capacities...what determines which size is built? Are there any details of capacity/range/speed/etc available (I can't find in manual, but that doesn't mean it's not there!)

Two flavors, no choice for selection.

-Can the Japanese "Glen Boats" load any other kind of float plane? Can I stick Jakes on them?

What witpqs said.

-When an Amphib Group is being followed by a Bombardment Group, I've seen the bombardment group bombard the Amphib group's target when they reach the target hex. This is GREAT and does exactly what I'd hoped...my question is if this will always happen (assuming the fleets haven't "separated" due to other issues) or is there a die roll involved? Moreover, there is a dieroll involved to determine if a Bombardment TF will switch to Surface or simply retire, I believe...what happens with that check if the TF is assigned to follow another force? I'm assuming it will continue to follow regardless?

Not sure, but as others have said, with all the 'die rolls' in the game its hard to say what will happen all the time.

-How does Rest percentage affect single-aircraft groups? In other cases in the game I've seen fractions are truncated, which leads me to believe if I have a single float plane and tell it to Search 70 and Rest 30, it will never actually Search, because 70% of 1 plane is less than 1 plane, so it will round down to 0 planes flying. True?

Think it will search most of the time. I usually use the 50/50 as well and have no problems.

-Float Planes seem to be very susceptible to not flying in bad weather, but it seems to me that the more dedicated Tenders (I'm specifically thinking about Japanese CS here) seem to fly them a bit more often. I'd assumed this was due to these planes having been purpose built to launch sea planes (catapults, etc)...but it occurred to me that other non-dedicated seaplane carrying craft also had catapults. Moreover, while flinging a plane out in to the bad weather might be easy enough to achieve, recovering one in a high sea state is still nearly impossible. So, the question then is, are the CS type ships more likely to launch FP in bad weather, or is it my imagination (and bad assumption) that this happens?

No, CS ships act just like any other when attempting to launch float planes at sea. Float planes will launch more frequently when in a base hex.

-What Port size (or AKE/AE cargo capacity) is required to reload CV Sorties & Torpedoes?

See manual s20.1.2.2 starting on p284. CAG rearm is on p288.

-Will ships disbanded in port be attacked by a SCTF? By a Bombardment TF? What about ships in Drydock?

Not by a SCTF at least AFAIK. Bombardment, guess its possible as a bombardment TF will hit the port. Drydock, same as above.

-Not so much a question, but an observation about in-game information: for aircraft, aircraft weapons, ships and their weapons, there is a reasonable about of information given about their capabilities. However, for LCUs there doesn't seem to be any info available in-game. Other than saving, closing, opening the editor, I don't see a way to find out how different LCU components compare to each other. I get that this is a game targeted to extreme grognards, but I sure don't like to have to memorize the effectiveness of every possible combination of weapon system to make educated decisions on what I want to upgrade and where. Tracker keeps me in the know, though, so not a terrible big deal :)

There are buttons up in the Menu Bar that have data on the various weapons, etc. You gotta dig a bit but hey that's AE.

-Random Search Arcs vs. Specific Arcs I know is a whole other topic, but with regard to Random I'm wondering if the random engine will assign multiple planes to one arc while other arcs have no coverage. In other words, if there are 36 planes in the group flying Naval Search, will one go out on each arc, or will some double-up while others are left empty?

All search arcs are 360 degrees out to four hexes. Beyond that its beneficial to define your arcs. IIRC planes will only search once per day (morning or afternoon) you can tell by the color of the search arc if you get double coverage. Green once (I believe just morning) , black both.

-Mission Speed: I'm a bit fuzzy on what determines when the TF would decide to rock-out and go Full Speed when Mission Speed is set. The only ones I think I get are Fast Transport & Bombardment, where they'll try to zip in at night and zip out. However, this seems very nondeterministic, as I don't really know when or where they're going to be. I guess I'm asking what common practice is...do folks leave things on Mission Speed, or do folks prefer the determinism provided by setting a fixed speed?

Mission speed is kinda a default setting that allows the TF to use whatever it needs for operations.
So normal would be cruise speed, with full speed when its needed. I only mess with this when necessary. That would be when a ship has been damaged, I set it to cruise, this helps keep further damage down. The other time is if a TF had to get the he?? outta Dodge for some reason... full speed ahead.

-Escort Performance. It sure looks to me like fighters set to Escort tend to get the crap kicked out of them. Superior pilots flying superior planes still tend to often get the dirty end of engagement with CAP. Is this just my imagination and bad random number results, or is this a thing?

And this mimics RL. The Luftwaffe chafed when required to do this during the BoB. Its basically strapping the fighter to the bomber as protection for the latter. LRCAPing the target might help. Sweeps are useful too, but its not always possible to guarantee they go in first. Although someone mentioned that lower number airgroups (by editor number I believe) tend to go in first. I'll set my bombers to naval attack with my true target as the base or ground as a secondary. This gives the sweep a better chance of going in first, as my true target will be hit in the afternoon. If the attack hits something naval I'm usually satisfied.


I guess that turned in to more than just a few questions...sorry! And Thanks! :)

-Bob

quote:

ORIGINAL: Malagant

Do aircraft using Drop Tanks off Carriers consume 2 Sorties?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Malagant

Do aircraft using Drop Tanks off Carriers consume 2 Sorties?

quote:

-Can the Japanese "Glen Boats" load any other kind of float plane? Can I stick Jakes on them?