RHS Landing Craft Theory (universal OB errors)

[el cid again]

It came to me while sleeping:

we have two speeds for a naval unit -

SO we give the economical speed as cruising speed - and endurance as the range at that speed -
and let players choose if they want to move at full speed or not. The code will reduce the range dramatically if they do.

For landing craft this matters a great deal - as economical cruising speed is very low - and range is severely restricted at full speed. Thus you can move typically 2 hexes at full speed but only 1 hex at cruising speed in the first 12 hour movement segment. But if you choose the latter you often get much better ranges.

Also - FYI - landing craft are in groups of 40 to 60 in RHS. This nicely simulates the actual theory of landing craft "they can't sink us all". It also simulates the ability of landing craft in groups to help each other - as in tow the guy home. Since code will tend to make a "damaged" unit abort and run for home - it isn't that bad. And also since code will tend to burn out and sink a badly damaged unit - it is better still. When you see a "turret" on an RHS landing craft - that means "number of guns per boat" rather than turret - one hit takes out that number (usually 1, it may be 2). These guns are almost uniformly .30 and .50 cals - but Aussies carry 20mm - and there may be some specialized exceptions eventually. These light guns will matter mainly in opposing other light forces - or very low fliers.

EDIT: Larger landing craft (e.g. LCT) and support landing craft come in divisions of 6.

An impact of this (and putting patrol craft and other craft in groups) appears to be a significant increase in playability, a decrease in turn execution time, and the ability to assign more realistic numbers of these vessels to both sides - but in particular to the Allies. Also I am using a lot fewer slots so more types of vessels - and more modding by others - will be practical.

[Ian R]

El Cid,
 
IIRC Craft only = LCM, LCVP, LCT, LCI
 
All LSI and LST are still individual vessels?
 
So what did you do with the PT boats?
 
 
 
 

[el cid again]

So far I have distinguished between a landing craft and a landing ship. For one thing, my landing craft are all assumed to have a durability of 1 - so 1 hit is fatal (more or less - it isn't fatal to the group - but it does take out the craft as an effective contributor to the group instantly). Landing ships have a durability of 2 or more. This makes the division somewhat logical.

PT boats are in divisions of 3 for Japan - and I have not messed with the Allies - but it looks like 3 is the right number. However, fast MGB in Japan come in divisions of 6. River gun boats are so far individual - we have lovely art - and some are quite large - but MINOR river gunboats - armed with MG or 25 mm - are in groups - except the one unique Upper Yantze one - which has only 3 50cal - 2 forward - 1 aft. But there is nothing up there to fight but junks and sampans and river transports - mostly armed with .30 cals.

[el cid again]

When large landing craft units are sunk - or scuttled - they show up as "bigger" than cruisers! One point per durability point means they are wroth quite a bit of points! But if you lost 48 or 60 landing craft before - you lost just as many VPs.

[el cid again]

I found an inconsistency in ship classification in all versions of WITP.

The LCT-7 was renamed the LSM by the US. It is classified as an LSM.

The LCT-8 was the British equal of the LSM-7 (different guns). It is classified as an LCT.

The LCT-7/8 were three times the displacement of the LCT-5/6 series. So I have decided to give them 2 damage points per hull = 12 for a division of 6 craft.

It appears the code treats all landing craft pretty much the same. It appears that the published range of slots which will respawn landing craft - or which will permit a player to "call" them to a location - is not correct. However, it isn't clear that all CHS or RHS landing craft slots are going to be able to do either or both? Since we cannot carry landing craft as IRL, I have made US landing craft have a default location of Noumea - so they at least appear in the right theater. British LC already had a default location of India (Bombay for large craft, Vizzapatnam where they are built for small ones). Aussie LC already appear where they really did.

LSTs were incorrectly armed. And the later series lacked its phenominal 24,000 nm range. The problem that hundreds are missing is potentially fixable as well. We have already fixed the shortage of LCTs/LCIs/LSMs and support vessels on the same hulls. We also have created some US Army and USMC (and Indian and CW and similar) minor landing craft - but many of these are "invisible" parts of other ships (APA, AKA, LSD, etc) - so you won't get all 85,000 US Army ones - for example.

[el cid again]

Only 42 LCI(M) were converted - and only 36 LCI(R) - but in all versions of WITP there are more than that. It is unlikely that all went to the front lines of PTO either. But since I discovered this after I created units for all the dates in the data set - I have taken two steps:

1) I reduced the craft count from 6 to 3 per unit - so you have the ability to send them more places

2) I left in enough divisions to represent 100% of production - 9999ed out half - and allow modders to make other choices if they wish

[m10bob]

What ship icon is used to represent these multiple landing craft flotillas when encounterd in a tactical naval engagement?

[el cid again]

We do have a new set of ship art for RHS. And "multiple ships" is a new category in RHS art - although it is not (or not yet) universally applied. We have found that it is practical (technically) to get 3 images in a single image - so if you call a PT boat art wise you will see 3. Looks like we will also represent 3 vessels with that - although that was not the original plan. Works very well technically. Landing craft come in much larger groups - but you only get 3 in the image - or for larger types only 1. But the name of the craft contains the number of vessels. So a Daihatsu (x48) has an art image of 3 vessels but represents 48 vessels.

Now ship icons as icons are not changed. An LCM remains an LCM - it just carries more than it used to carry - since it represents more LCMs. The number of units to manage is going down but the number of types and vessels they represent is going up - pretty rapidly.

Also I have moved the LSMs into the LCT slots (LSMs are renamed LCTs anyway) - and am now putting the LSTs missing from the OB into the LSM slots - thanks to exhaustive work by AK Dreemer.

[m10bob]

If air battles can be represented by a single air Icon (with a number below), why not landing craft as well..Good idea..