[Fidd]

128. Thoughts on aircraft.

The rumour-mill keeps suggesting aircraft may be devved at some point. These obviously have quite considerable potential impacts on the game. I presume that it's a given that their existence in game would be optional as a lobby setting.

Obviously there are Luftwaffe aircraft capable of patrolling and spotting, and indeed attacking a convoy, eg an FW200, or Ju88's, which patrolled Biscay, the FW's being out further in the Atlantic. In a campaign-game, these could be used to both locate, and track a convoy, at least until the advent of escort carriers or steam-catapulted Hurricanes to provide a convoy with the ability to defend itself v enemy aircraft. At the end of the day, outside of a convoy campaign, it's hard to see what they can actually bring to the u-boat game.

Likewise, the various ASW aircraft, eg Sunderlands, Wellingtons, Catalinas and Liberators (also a limited number of B17's) which actively hunted u-boats night and day, with rockets, DC's, FIDO and the like, present a major problem in terms of gameplay, especially at night, as the combination of Leigh-lights, rad-alts and radar means 9 times out of 10 the aircraft will acquire the u-boat before it can dive, and having done so the warning systems on the u-boat will not give directional information to the flak-gunner. So the advantage, especially for a u-boat with a single 20mm cannon, is going to be entirely with the aircraft, until it turns on the Leigh light, after which it'd only have a very few seconds to acquire the target and hit it. It's hard to see how allied aircraft can therefore be introduced into the game with their ASW capabilities, without generating a lot of crash-dives, failure to close with the convoy etc. Especially as the war progresses in date.

It might be viable in the Atlantic "air-gap", as the only (rarely present) viable aircraft operating there are relatively large Sunderlands and Liberators, with the latter not being an especially effective in the ASW role. Both present enormous targets to flak gunners and neither is quick...

Concurrent devving of the Schnorkel may help, however, these were quite limited in the maximum speed they could be operated, and could still - with difficulty - be spotted on an ASR screen, and thence visually. So even with schnorkel use, having planes in game presents enormous challenges to generating good content with allied aircraft being introduced.

That is not to say it cannot be done, merely that it may have to be limited to more of an abstraction, and likely purely within a campaign game. So, you might have an FW200 telling you where a convoy is, and it's mean-course, allowing BDU to direct u-boats to coalesce ahead of that track. Conversely, if some convoys have an escort carrier, then those aircraft would preclude or disrupt the advantage of having an FW200 tracking that convoy, making it, at the campaign-level, harder to locate and intercept it. So aircraft can, within "the campaign" be made to impact the game as an abstraction, rather than something one sees flying about and liable to attack one's u-boat as such...

Manned allied aircraft, especially in the ASR role, suffer from the same gameplay problem as (purely) manned escorts do, namely that endless patrols had to flown, over hundreds of hours a month, and few crews ever saw a u-boat, let alone attacked one, without the advantages of night and radar/searchlights. So I think "rarity" of the experience of being attacked at night by a dedicated (AI) ASR aircraft has to be key here - ie it's something you might play 30 or 40 games (within the campaign) without ever seeing, but if your boat is attacked in this way, one can expect very heavy damage, if not being rapidly sunk. In any event, that'd have to be an optional lobby setting, as one may readily forecast the general wailing and gnashing of teeth consequent from suddenly being greatly damaged or sunk during a game with little or no warning, and still less ability to avoid that fate! It only makes any sense within the context of a campaign-game, where one's aim is to acquire tonnage and survive for a number of sequential missions!

Again within a campaign, the presence of friendly abstracted aircraft, can reduce the chance - a little - of being attacked by an enemy ASR aircraft, or having enemy Hunter-killer groups vectored onto you, however, in practical terms the problem we're left with is that effective counter-measures in behaviour of the u-boat all suck as u-boat gameplay - eg being compelled to recharge in daylight and submerge at night, or, using schnorkels at much lower speeds.

So, the conclusion I'm rapidly coming to is that even in the campaign game, it's still going to be very difficult indeed to implement aircraft in a fashion where one may come and drop DC's on one, without producing sub-optimal gameplay. It might be possible to have a single Catalina or FW200 flying endless orbits around the convoy once in a few games, but otherwise..

As regards informal stand-alone games. There's no scope that I can see for having ASR aircraft in game, if the capabilities are accurately modelled. Unless, they can only damage, rather than sink, the u-boat, thus presenting damage-control content.

I'd be interested to hear other's views, especially dissenting ones, or ideas for how it could be made to work? To my mind, having the experience of seeing a Hunter-killer group come over the horizon (because you've been spotted on the surface) is one thing, being killed with little or no warning, and virtually no scope for reply via flak, at night, is quite another!

I'll leave it there for now, but may edit amend or add further posts on this in the light of other's thoughts and ideas.