Course changes with planes aloft?

[MarkShot]

Do course changes when you have recon and strike groups aloft, present problems when they are trying to locate they are inbound and trying to locate the battle group?

Also, if you recall a strike, is there any penalty for breaking radio silence?

Thanks.

[Massattack]

These are my impressions only so take them with a grain of salt. The only penalty appears to be for a strike group returning after dark if they are not a night rated suadron, a higher risk of damaged aircraft/writeoffs. Recon aircraft don't seem to suffer any problems from any course/speed changes the task group makes. Search aircraft seem to return shortly after nightfall without any ill-affect and they start their search patterns about 45 mins before dawn. Once a carrier launches a strike group you can no longer order any course/speed changes, until the last strike squadron is recovered. In game the carrier task group changes icons to a triangle while any strike groups are aloft. This seems to be a bit of an abstraction on the games part.

Radio silence is discussed in an adjacent thread, and some posters have said it is less important at this tactical scale. Regardless of whether this is right or wrong, it does not seem to be implemented in game. The only way you will get spotting info is through contact from a search plane, ship, submarine or coast watcher. The nice thing is that this info may be fuzzy, an overexcited searchplane reporting a carrier contact when it is a supply convoy etc.

Regards

[David Sandberg]

I only have experience with older versions of CAW. But unless something very major has been changed from those previous versions, it's my understanding that carrier groups still do not move across the map at all while strike groups are aloft. They are still steaming around at speed within their current hex for the purposes of avoiding enemy bombs and torpedoes, but they don't move away from the strike launch location and hence do not complicate the return of those strikes.

[Gregor_SSG]

ORIGINAL: MarkShot

Do course changes when you have recon and strike groups aloft, present problems when they are trying to locate they are inbound and trying to locate the battle group?

Also, if you recall a strike, is there any penalty for breaking radio silence?

Thanks.

Carriers go on station with a strike aloft, and can't move outside their location until the strike is recovered. Carriers can move as usual with only search planes aloft, and they will find their way back to the carrier regardless of how it manouvers.

There is no penalty for recalling a strike, but then I can't remember the last time I did so. Once you hit the launch button you have to use the recall function to change your mind, even if the clock hasn't advanced, so a recall covers a range of circumstances from essentially changing a target before a strike has left the deck to calling them back once they are in the air.

Gregor