Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead
I'm not expecting WW2 radar to be a weapons guidance system,

quote:

ORIGINAL: Randy Stead

I should have made my point more precisely; I meant in the sense that the bombs released by ASW planes would be self-guiding ordnance like the modern day whizbangs.
I knew that gun laying radar was used on Bismarck, for example, but did not know that skilled operators could distinguish shell splashes. Thanks, Ian.

quote:

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

A Fire for Effect Mission on troops in the open: White Phosphorus shells with VT fuses!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

I’ll quote section 10.1 (Detection Level) of the Manual, first phrase of the last paragraph before sub-section 10.1.1 (p.218) : « The greater the DL the easier it is to inflict damage on the enemy in combat. » It has been said numerous times that radars only increase the DL, but won’t magically make your planes find the targets if you don’t have searches ongoing. Therefore, range finding and targeting through radar can be said to be in the game, but abstracted through the mechanic of DL, and some of it is also included in the form of hard-coded improvements to AAA efficiency later in the war.

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

I’ll quote section 10.1 (Detection Level) of the Manual, first phrase of the last paragraph before sub-section 10.1.1 (p.218) : « The greater the DL the easier it is to inflict damage on the enemy in combat. » It has been said numerous times that radars only increase the DL, but won’t magically make your planes find the targets if you don’t have searches ongoing. Therefore, range finding and targeting through radar can be said to be in the game, but abstracted through the mechanic of DL, and some of it is also included in the form of hard-coded improvements to AAA efficiency later in the war.

For ship targets, increasing the DL can also result in a reaction from your patrolling TFs in the area - directly leading to combat. The proven method for hunting subs off your coast is to have patrol aircraft on Nav Search spot them, ASW aircraft localize the contact still more and attack to damage or sink them, and ASW ships to make sure they don't get away. Many a sub kill is made because previous damage rendered it incapable of submerging. This shows up as a surface combat between warships and the sub where the sub is caught on the surface and never tries to dive before being destroyed.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

Air ASW alone will not often sink a submarine, but once it’s damaged and returns to base, the threat it represents is over for possibly several months.

quote:

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

I’ll quote section 10.1 (Detection Level) of the Manual, first phrase of the last paragraph before sub-section 10.1.1 (p.218) : « The greater the DL the easier it is to inflict damage on the enemy in combat. » It has been said numerous times that radars only increase the DL, but won’t magically make your planes find the targets if you don’t have searches ongoing. Therefore, range finding and targeting through radar can be said to be in the game, but abstracted through the mechanic of DL, and some of it is also included in the form of hard-coded improvements to AAA efficiency later in the war.

For ship targets, increasing the DL can also result in a reaction from your patrolling TFs in the area - directly leading to combat. The proven method for hunting subs off your coast is to have patrol aircraft on Nav Search spot them, ASW aircraft localize the contact still more and attack to damage or sink them, and ASW ships to make sure they don't get away. Many a sub kill is made because previous damage rendered it incapable of submerging. This shows up as a surface combat between warships and the sub where the sub is caught on the surface and never tries to dive before being destroyed.

And NavSearch may be conducted day & night, with the more squadrons, the better. DL is reset to 0 in every phase, with MDL halved, so to keep a high DL for the combat portions, you need several « search hits » to keep it high. Just having enough planes to cover each arc once is not enough.