|
Prince of Eckmühl -> RE: HPS new games (3/24/2010 4:41:19 PM)
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: garymc
All of the US Float planes are available. They're in some .oob files, and otherwise, can be added to custom oobs. (I'd not suggest messing with the stock oobs, as that could toast any scenario that uses those files).
Why aren't they in the game? As I mention in the designers notes, we had a bit of internal discussion. The Japanese used their cruiser aircraft as scouts (see the Tone Scout 5 at Midway). However, the US as a rule did not. (There are a couple of times where the VS groups were simply not available, such as late in the day at Santa Cruz when the Hornet was a floating wreck, and the Enterprise was withdrawing with damage). The Kingfishers were typically used for things like picking up pilots out of the water.
As such, it was felt that it would give the US an unfair advantage to let them use those aircraft in a totally ahistorical manner.
One really excellent reason for surface combatants NOT to use float-planes is that the "tender" in question would have to stop to pickup the aircraft. Somehow, I can't see the Yamato doing so when faced with the possibility of being torpedoed. Given the USN experience at "Torpedo Junction," this inhibition would likely be even more pronounced for its capital ships.
Question for our readers: Did ships actually have to stop to pick up a small float-plane, or just slow down? I seem to remember seeing some photographs of a Kingfisher taxing up to a teathered-mat, which would snare the aircraft by its float. That fixed the aircraft alongside the ship, so that it could be hoisted aboard. There must have been a maximum speed at which this could be done, and that likely wasn't terribly fast. Suffice it to say, aircraft like the SOC and OS2U couldn't land (successfully) in heavy seas, yet another limitation.
|
|
|
|
