Why Scuttle?

[Jam_USMC]

Need some guidance by some of you more experienced players. My question is what is the purpose of even having the Scuttle Ship option if the opponent gets full points for sinking it? Especially when you have the option to seperate the ship from the task force. So why not just let the ship run for safety in hopes she will survive instead of guaranteeing it will sink by scuttling?

Thanks,
Jam

[Jam_USMC]

Actually, I don't know who could be more experienced at this game, besides the developers, since it has only been out a few hours. But you know what I mean[:)]

[tgb]

From the manual, I get the impression that not all ships can be separated from the TG - that is pre-set by the scenario designer. So a heavily damaged ship that can not be split off can really slow you down. Also, when you do separate a damaged vessel, it takes some escort ships with it, which you may not afford to lose.

[Caltone]

Historically you scuttled a ship because you couldn't get it to safe waters and didn't want a chance the enemy could get it.  That wouldn't apply here but the tutorial did suggest what tgb mentions above, to prune out a slow ship without giving up escorts.
 
In other games, I've seen scuttling give less than 100% of the VP's for the ship.

[Jam_USMC]

Caltone, tgb,
That makes sense. I guess not giving up the escorts justifies not having to scuttle. Slightly. I just saw it as 6 in one and a half dozen in the other if the opponent gets full credit for the sinking. Probably still never use it though. What's wrong with 50% value if only to provide more incentive and inject a little more decision-making?

Thanks,
Jam

[alexs]

As has been mentioned, the scuttle option is generally used for low value, minor ships which dont have an option to detach from their taskgroup, which have a reduced speed due to damage which is slowing the whole taskgroup down. Giving up a few VP's to ensure a taskgroup can run away or have a better chance at chasing down the enemy is sometimes a good decision.

[donaldw2]

I would be reluctant to have any significant difference between points lost for scuttled as compared to sunk ships.  At 50% the Americans would only get credit for 2 carriers at Midway, only one more than the Japanese.  At Santa Cruz should the Americans only lose 75% for the value of Hornet?  They tried to scuttle her, failed, and it was left for the Japanese to sunk the hulk.
 
I would also guess that "sunk" results include ships that are abandoned and then scuttled by their own side when they didn't seem to be going down fast enough.  Again to use the Midway example, for most of the carriers damage control quickly became hopeless; only Akagi permitted a long but ultimately futile attempt to save her.  Even so, it was quite a few hours later that they sank and it required japanese torpedoes to put them under.   
 
Don