Ron Saueracker
Posts: 12121
Joined: 1/28/2002 From: Ottawa, Canada OR Zakynthos Island, Greece Status: offline
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Here is another example. Players forming ASW TFs with DDs which had 1940's DCs and sound gear would and should not bag you submarines in WITP as often as heads comes up in a coin toss. But they do. Why? Here we go...take it George. "In WITP players use wire guided depth charges with Kablammo (TM), a special explosive designed by the folks at WITP to make individual DCs not only near 75% accurate, but nearly always fatal too. IRL they used depth charges which were unguided and had basic TNT, Torpex, or some other traditional explosive trigged by timers or depth triggers. This made them extremely inaccurate and tens, if not hundreds, were usually dropped to achieve a sinking. **** In WITP it is common to spot subs from the air and from the decks of ships during daylight because, among a host of things, submariners are retards, don't submerge in enemy waters during daylight, surface ships can use sonar at full speed, and surface ships have X RAY vision. IRL spotting subs was difficult as they generally were the hunters, not the other way around (at least until advent of major tech breakthroughs in radar, sonar, techniques, availability, and sheer number of platforms on which to carry these new devices). Subs had a lower profile than surface ships so generally sighted the enemy first on the surface, day or night. Submerged, submarines generally spotted surface ships first as well through use of hydrophones and their even further reduced profile (now down to a periscope!). At speed, it was near impossible for a surface ship to even know a submarine is in the area unless a pericope or periscope feather was noticed (required basically calm sea states, careless use of periscope, and incredible diligence and luck on the part of surface ships. **** In WITP subs are not only easily detected but are like lambs at the slaugher as well. No evasion by sub is permitted if discovered. Subs can't even fire back. Simply, they just sit there and take it. Baaahahahahahaaa.... IRL subs generally avoided attacking ASW TFs, and because they were subs, were generally successful in doing so. If detected, subs were again generally successful at evasion unless in shallow, restricted waters or vs late war Allied escorts. When attacked, subs often fired defensively (the down the throat shot). **** In WITP, every escort regardless of total gets a crack at the sub, and do so without it affecting their other duties such as remaining with their charges they are supposed to be protecting, perhaps from further subs in the next hex (like peewee defencemen chasing the puck and not playing their man). Yep, they all get to attack and as many devs say, it's because it's a six or twelve hour hunt so of course subs get killed off at a high rate. But for some reason, those same DDs are with the TF as they go through every hex, sometimes bagging multiple subs during the movement phase. It's a veritable gang bang from hex to hex. IRL, a blow up doll has three holes and a pair of air filled titties. A women also has two hands for a total of six points of interest, barring amputations or any other corrective surgery. Any more wanting "some" must wait in line. That's four to six "service areas" in total, and they match the optimum size of a historical ASW group 4-6 ships. Any more and the ships simply get in each other's way. For ships not in a dedicated ASW group but are escorting other ships, the number of escorts which peeled off to engage the sub were basically a fraction of the total available because killing the sub, while of importance, was not the primary mission of the escorts. The escorts primary mission is the protection of their charges from subs and their safe arrival at the destination. This necessitates that the charges always have some escorts tagging along while others keep the sub from effectively attacking (of course if the number of escorts is one, it should always have a chance to see if it even notices the sub and attack). If WITP limited number of escorts which attack, then the ability to engage subs in multiple hexes is believable as the abstract restriction on escorts means that at least some of those escorts are with the TF and not racing to catch up.
< Message edited by Ron Saueracker -- 4/4/2005 8:01:17 PM >
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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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