How to lay minefields

[stldiver]

Ok,

I am in my first PBEM and saw a thread before on how to mine the base you are in, but cannot find it now, and I am not able to mine the same base as my ships. In addition I have sent out Minelaying subs , how do you activate them to mine, is it their target hex. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Stldiver

[RAM]

Well, it all depends on the Stay/retire orders you give them

you give a mine warfare TF orders to "Stay/patrol", they try and sweep mines at target hex

you give a mine warfare TF orders to "Retire", they go to the hex, lay minefield, and run away. Of course, if there are minelayers in the TF

[RUPD3658]

To get subs to mine:

1. Start in a size 9 port or one with an MLE
2. Set mission to Sub Minelayer
3. Replenish from port
4. Set target as destination

If you aren't in the size 9 port or don't have an MLE they will not load mines.

Same goes for reloading MLs. To mine your own port, set the destination as the port you are in and the home port somewhere else. Have ships set to retirement allowed.

[FeurerKrieg]

Additionally, if you disband the sub in the size 9 port (and I assume in an MLE port also) and then create new subminelayer TF (as opposed to changing the mission) You will load a few extra mines as some of the torpedo tubes will be loaded with mines in stead of torp. On the japanese minelayer subs, it is an extra 8 mines (4 in each tube).

[stldiver]

Great, that is the info I needed.

[aernor]

I amy be wrong but it also looks as though the process of laying mines isn't instantaneous --- because the mines don't appear instantly we think something has gone wrong.

[pasternakski]

ORIGINAL: aernor

I amy be wrong but it also looks as though the process of laying mines isn't instantaneous --- because the mines don't appear instantly we think something has gone wrong.

A good thing to point out. There is a troubling inconsistency in the behavior of minelayers in this game (minesweepers have a similar, but different, problem) that causes them sometimes to act like you expect (hover a distance away from the destination hex equal to the number of hexes they can move at full speed, drop the minefield overnight, then run to a hex the same distance away in the direction of their home base), but they often do some stupid things, like stay in the destination hex or in the adjacent hex the next day so as to get the crap pounded out of them by airstrikes.

I haven't looked at this closely enough to figure out when they will do one thing or the other, but it's really annoying.

Wait till you send your minesweepers into a hex you want to amphibiously assault the next day and they just sit there like so many garbage scows, so that your transports and bombardment groups get honked by mine hits. And why is it that mines are intelligent enough to hit - and sink - the very transport on which the commanding general of the HQ in charge of the operation is on?

[dtravel]

The entire section of code controlling the speed changes and movement of ships near their destination is sub-optimal.  You see the same "will I? won't I?" bugginess with Bombardment TFs and Transport TFs.  (I'd say Fast Transport TFs too but they are so FUBAR'd that I don't even use them anymore.)

[pasternakski]

ORIGINAL: dtravel
sub-optimal

Isn't that what periscopes were for?

(I'd say Fast Transport TFs too but they are so FUBAR'd that I don't even use them anymore.)

Yassuh! And, take heart, all you "this is the greatest game ever created" people out there, don't even think about incorporating an APD into a regular transport TF expecting to get sensible results...

[SGT Swanson]

I haven't seen too many inconsistentcies with minelaying / removal with the exception of the IJN sweepers.   They seem to take forever to clear a field layed by the Allies versous how fast the Allies can get it done.

[Rob Brennan UK]

"And why is it that mines are intelligent enough to hit - and sink - the very transport on which the commanding general of the HQ in charge of the operation is on?"

Must be the same way my jap subs in WIF, ALWAYS sink the transport with Mac on-board [:D]