I was having similar feelings about RSRD until I really started using the shipping map to plan my patrols. Before I would just go to the star and stay close to it, now I've learned where the main routes are and that staying closer to shore/islands tends to yield better results. With those changes I just had a mid 1943 patrol where I put 10 merchants on the bottom.
What I'm noticing now is that I get lots of single merchants but no convoys. I understand that there wasn't much of a convoy system in place before late '43, but looking at old war patrols even before then a lot of the encounters I see mentioned involve at least small (3-4 ship) convoys. I was considering going back to the career that comes with TMO, but looking at those campaign layers, historically active hubs like Palau and Truk seem almost completely devoid of convoys. I like the realism of the RSRD shipping lanes, and definitely want to keep the historic invasion forces. But it would be nice if the small convoys were given the same treatment as lone merchants and occurred with some more frequency and randomness (like the TMO layers)
|