Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Mousie

I'm following Sardaukar's AAR, and am working through thee first day, but there's some concepts I don't understand.

How can I easily find the five bases out of dozens that don't really have anything? Besides Pearl Harbor, US, San Francisco, and a few others, it feeels like I'm looking around the map aimlessly until I find a port with units I can command.

The coordinates of a port are shown on the base screen or, if you have the port name in a report and want to find it, use the "Bases" list button (a Star for the Allies or a Red Sun for the Japanese) at the top of the screen. Look up the base in the alphabetical list and click on the name or coordinates and it should take you there. Eventually you will become familiar with the ports/bases used most often.

Which ports should I start expanding from the beginning?

Which side are you playing?! In general, you want to envision where your perimeter will be in six months and then in a year. Figure out where you want to have large amounts of supply available for distribution to all the smaller bases - 6-10 locations should be plenty. They need to be close enough to the combat zone that smaller ships can carry supply forward but far enough back that the enemy cannot easily attack the base by air, sea or landing troops. Also pay attention to the Standard Potential Size (SPS) that shows how large the port and airfield can be built (max is three sizes bigger than the SPS numbers to a max of 9 for and SPS 6 or higher). Then note how many victory points the base is worth for each side. Make your best guess and start hauling - the game is about logistics as much as anything else.

Could someone explain to me the patrol levels? Why are most of them using only 20% total, when a group of planes could do multiple things at once, like a bomber scouting and doing ASW.

The game limits multi-tasking, but you can sometimes divide the unit into smaller detachments and give each of those different missions. And you can set a squadron on a primary mission but specify some aircraft to perform training and some to "rest" (which reduces pilot fatigue and allows some aircraft repairs to happen). As for the % on the primary mission, it depends what you think you need on the day. High % usage fatigues both pilots and planes and should not go on for many days. On a carrier, you want to have fighters available for both CAP to protect your ships and Escort to help protect your bombers. It's a judgement thing you have to try out yourself. When an encounter is imminent, save the game and try playing the encounter several different ways to learn what the consequences can be of various settings.

What is the normal, extended, and maximum range? In this AAR, Sardaukar advises to change the maximum rang so that it's equal to thee normal radius. Why not go farther?

Normal range is for full bomb loads. Extended range is a little further but the bomb load is cut in half to allow more fuel. Max. range is a one-way flight, usually only used to transfer between bases. Flying beyond normal range causes heavy fatigue in pilot and airframes and causes higher Ops losses. Use it only when the target is worth the momentary stress on your pixelpilots and aircraft.
Why not use 100% of forces during missions?

Is training something important to do? Are there ways to make a fleet practice with itself or something, like wargames?

Before engaging in combat, ships can gain experience by being on "Patrol" or going between ports. There is a max level they can reach doing this non-combat training, and it varies by nation and by ship type. e.g. a Canadian Corvette can only get to about 45 in non-combat training while a US DD can reach something like 65 or 70. Combat is the big experience giver for all types of units. Every time they discharge weapons, they gain some experience.

Aircraft operating on a carrier can change from "carrier capable" to "carrier trained" after three months on the carrier, The difference affects ops losses but does not give training points in the squadron's primary mission or other air skills. Most pilot training should be done at safe rear bases.

Land Combat Units (LCUs) can train up while in "rest/training" mode or in Combat mode at a base. Being 100% "prepared" for a target base increases the rate of experience gain substantially.

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Which ports should I start expanding from the beginning?

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Is training something important to do?

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Are there ways to make a fleet practice with itself or something, like wargames?

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Why not go farther?

Why not use 100% of forces during missions?