Ron Saueracker
Posts: 12121
Joined: 1/28/2002 From: Ottawa, Canada OR Zakynthos Island, Greece Status: offline
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Let's see. How I use mine. First off, I would have liked the ability to have been able to organize my ships in squadrons and divisions which would have reduced the player workload substantially in the long run. Instead of constantly picking through individual ships (that capability would have still been possible of course) I could have selected CV Wasp, Cruiser Division 4 (CA Astoria, New Orleans, Minneapolis), and Destroyer Division 12 ( Destroyer Squadron 22 and 23) when making a CV TF. DD Sqn 22 already formed of DDs Aaron Ward, Buchanan, Meade, Woodworth and DD Sqn23 formed of DDs Farenholt, Laffey, Duncan, Frazier. A further possible benefit, the fact that these ships were part of a specific unit as opposed to single ships could have helped the surface combat routines, because the division or squadron could have been dealt with regarding being sighted or not sighted (not individual ships), thereby improving the feel of the combat as the player could see they were acting as a unit and not running around willy nilly which is the impression I get presently. As for selecting which classes for which roles, well this depends alot on the respective class refits. Generally though, as stated above, I use the them as follows... Flushdeckers as blue water (long range) convoy escorts because they have low durability, weak gun armament, even weaker AA armament, and they are without refits until 1943. Farraguts as fleet DDs but as new ones arrive, they are sent to convoy escort as their radius is short in comparison to later DDs. Nothing worse than having to replenish the short legged DDs in the midst of a CV exchange. Porters and Somers as surface combat and convoy escorts due to single purpose armament. Waste of space in a CV TF. Mahans are excellent. Multi role puppies. Bagleys and Gridley/McCalls have long legs 8000 nm radius so good for CV screen and 16 TTs good in a surface combat TF. Benhams at the start have decent ASW as all but Benham and Ellet were refitted for the Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic. Sims were refitted prior to the PH so have decent ASW, AA, TT and SC radar. CV TF escorts all the way. The Bensons, Bristols, Fletchers, Sumners and Gearings are all excellent all purpose ships so I use them in CV TF and surface combat TFs mainly, and relegate the older DDs, especially Gridley/McCalls which never recieve 40mm at all due to stability problems, to subsidiary roles such as convoy/amphib escort as the newer DDs arrive in increasing numbers.
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Yammas from The Apo-Tiki Lounge. Future site of WITP AE benders! And then the s--t hit the fan
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