A few questions about the game

[dc1962]

1. I struggle with maneuvering task forces. Is there a command to have different divisions maintain their station relative to another division? For example, I have a line of battleships and I want to keep the destroyers on either side in the same position. When I make a change to the heading of my battleships, the supporting ships seem to go off on their own.

2 Per above, is their a quick guide to maintaining multiple divisions in line?

3. Is there a way to tell if your submarines are sinking any merchant ships? I've posted a bunch out in the UK SLOCs but I can't tell if they are having any effect.

4. Are the defaults for the optional combat modifiers (shell accuracy, torpedo damage) the historical accurate settings? I understand I need to switch the two UK modifiers to on for the higher chance of a turret explosion.

5. Any advantages or disadvantages to deploying submarines and zeppelins singly or with multiple subs or airships in each division?

Thanks I enjoy the game

[Bullethead]

Originally Posted by dc1962

1. Is there a command to have different divisions maintain their station relative to another division? For example, I have a line of battleships and I want to keep the destroyers on either side in the same position. When I make a change to the heading of my battleships, the supporting ships seem to go off on their own.

I'm afraid not at this time. It's something we'd like to do but haven't had time for yet. It's actually more complicated to do than it sounds, because it requires teaching the AI a whole new bag of tricks.

So for the time being, you have to give separate turn orders to both the BBs and the DDs.

2 Per above, is their a quick guide to maintaining multiple divisions in line?

Yes. This is called the "guide on other division" command. It works like this:

• Select one of the ships in the division you want to #2 in line.
• Move the cursor over one of the ships in the division you want to be #1 in line.
• Right-click to bring up the orders buttons for the selected ship.
• Move the cursor over the course change button. This will cause a new button to appear in that column, which looks like a flag with an arrow pointing to it.
• Left-click on that button. This will cause the #2 division to follow the #1 division. It will attempt to close the distance until its leader is 500m behind the last ship in the #1 division.

A few things about this...

1st, you can make long chains of divisions this way, not just 2.

2nd, this is the best way to deploy the Grand Fleet from parallel division columns into 1 long line. Say you want to deploy on the port column. You select that column and tell it to turn in succession to the desired heading. Then for each column to the right of there, you have it guide on the column to its left. All the columns will then turn into line and follow the lead division on the desired heading.

3rd, once you use the "guide on other division" command, the following division is considered from then on as part of the lead division. Any commands given to the following divisions will be done by the lead division, too, so if you do a turn by succession, instead of the following division breaking off on its own, the lead division will make the turn and the 2nd will follow it.

4th, to regain independent control over the following division, you have to 1st give it the "guide independently" command. This is found in the column of buttons under the course change button. You can do this anywhere, you don't have to position the cursor anywhere first.

5th, in battles that begin with divisions directly behind each other, the trailing divisions default to having "guide on other division" already set. So if you want them to stay in line, they will already and you just have to order the lead ship of the whole line. But if you want to break the line up, you have to do the "guide independently" thing on them before you can.

3. Is there a way to tell if your submarines are sinking any merchant ships? I've posted a bunch out in the UK SLOCs but I can't tell if they are having any effect.

At present, the only notice you see of this is in the text buffer in the upper left corner of the screen. Periodically, you'll see a note that such-and-such an enemy ship has been sunk. Usually, this is due to a sub attack. Hopefully, this will soon get copied into the battle report log files that the campaign is now generating.

4. Are the defaults for the optional combat modifiers (shell accuracy, torpedo damage) the historical accurate settings? I understand I need to switch the two UK modifiers to on for the higher chance of a turret explosion.

Yup, the default slider positions give historically accurate hit rates and damage, at least in terms of bottom line results over the long run. Naturally, there are scads of variables in the whole combat system so the results of individual battles might differ from the historical long-term averages.

Above the sliders are 2 optional settings called Advanced Critical Hits (ACHs). These are independent of each other and the sliders. One of them gives Brit ships a 20% chance of blowing up if a main turret is penetrated. The other makes all Brit big and medium guns and a few old German and French guns use fragile AP shells that are rather more likely to function as HE than AP.

If you turn off the fragile AP ACH, then it's like the Brits have 1917-1918 Greenboy shells. These things really hurt the German ships, especially the 13.5" and 15" shells. And because only a couple of Germans can shoot as far as the big Brit guns, if the Brits can stay out of reach this gives them a rather large advantage.

5. Any advantages or disadvantages to deploying submarines and zeppelins singly or with multiple subs or airships in each division?

[quote]

I spread my out individually using the area patrol order with a radius of several map hexes. Each ship can spot the enemy, so spreading them out gives more coverage than keeping them grouped together. Besides, the area patrol order automatically rotates ships on and off station to maintain the patrol without me having to worry about that ever again (unless I want to move the patrol elsewhere).

Thanks I enjoy the game

Glad you like it . Tell your friends about us.

[dc1962]

Thanks for the detailed response. It helps a great deal. I'm a fan of the campaigns and look forward to your next game.

Thanks again and keep up the good work