"Combat support units"
 

Howdy gents, finally upgraded to ver1.5 and the game's running great but, guess what, a couple of questions about the new 'features';

Again, I did a search but I guess I'm not using the right combo of words.
The "newer" manual with the Gold Edition doesn't have ONE entry on this stuff, gahhhh!!!!:nope:

1. LOL, I noticed the extra 'pencil' on the map screen which is for "combat support units". What exactly does it do?

2. I noticed on the new message clipboard there's a special area called "Captain's abilities". What exactly does it do and how do I use it?

3. The "special abilities" I've found in some posts but they only state how they are awarded and not what they do, can someone clarify please?

If this info is sitting in a Sticky somewhere, by all means, fire my butt in that direction, LOL, as I said I tried searching but didn't find the answer I was looking for. Apologies for any inconvenience (i.e. answering yet another of the same questions;) )

It's not that easy to find, so here goes the answer:

1) Special Crew Abilities are either permanent, or can be activated for a certain time, every few hours, using the last icon (after freecam icon, the one that shows a crewman).

2) Support Units (Air Recon, Ships...) are icons on the map (like the Air Base Icon you have at Penang, Singapore...). You can click on those icons once, it will show a radius around them how far the assets can go (at least for air, haven't had ships yet). A second click inside that radius sends the scout plane on it's way. Should work similar for surface units.

It's a shame we can't see what the units are doing in the 3d world, that would have been great

Hhmm? I'm sure you can.

At least with the scout plane, if you direct it to overfly your position, you see a 3d aircraft. I'm fairly sure that the "Pocket Battleship" and Aux Cruiser are also animated and modelled in game.

They are. I've fought alongside the pocket battleship a couple of times. Gives you some extra firepower in the event of an air attack :D

I learned purely by accident about clicking on the map for combat support units. However, AFAIK it's done by clicking the support base and then clicking where you want the asset to go. So what is the pencil for?

IJN Carrier support...
 

...I've only gotten this to work once. Should we assume that this capability can only be used "...ONCE at six hours..." as stated in the Promotion File?