Cloud Cover/Storms

[decaro]

I finally won the Coral Sea scenario as the Allies by taking the advice of Horace Greely -- I told my TG CVs to go west -- and then hide in cloud cover as I wait for the IJN to arrive.

But when do clouds become thunderheads, and can I still launch my planes in such conditions?

[Adam Parker]

Weather appears to be a major abstraction in the game:
 
1. I'd like to be able to get a weather forecast each day to determine which way the storm fronts are moving.
 
2. Did little prop driven planes realy launch out of storms?
 
3. How did they ever find their ships to land and did they land in storms?
 
But if it's an abstraction, all well and good if there's some history behind it.

[MarkShot]

Yep, I was curious about that storm thing.

When you put up your whole air wing as a CAP, it doesn't keep them from disabling your carrier. However, park your carrier in a thunder storm and you have an excellent chance of getting by unscathed.

So, if it is so hard to locate your carrier and dive bomb it, then ain't it going to be a b*tch to try to land on it?

[MarkShot]

I was just comparing the weather system between CCAW and CAW. The weather generation system is the same. However, in CCAW you can paint weather as part of the map editting process. It seems in CAW, you can only define weather generation.

Another thing which is interesting ... the behavior of sticking to hiding under bad weather is really a scripted behavior (a warcard parameter) and not an intrinsic behavior of the AI.

[decaro]

By intrinsic do you mean hard-wired/coded into CAW, vs. being particular to a specific scenario?

I also read -- as per the C@W manual -- that the ability to detach ships from their TG was also scripted; as the Allies, I have never been able to detach a single damaged ship during the Coral Sea scenario.

One last observation; with the sorry torpedo bombers the Allies have in this scenario, I don't launch coordinated strikes as those old Devastators are a liability (again as per the manual). But when these slow planes finally reach their targets sans escort, they don't seen to take a lot of casualties from enemy CAP. Has anyone else noticed that?

Finally, Markshot I think it was your posted advice re hiding in wx and using surface TGs to take some of the hits away from the CV TGs; that seems to work well, so thanks.

By the way, have you played BoA lately? What a different game under 1.12a.

[MarkShot]

I mean that weather hiding for AI TG's is really up to the scenario designer. It is a parameter of I think the patrol warcard.

I am not sure I can take weather credit, but it is a big factor. In bad weather you are less likely to be found. Once found, you are less likely to be hit by the attackers. As they say, every storm has its silver lining.

No, I haven't play BoA recently. There are just so many games and so little time!

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: Joe D.

[]........I don't launch coordinated strikes as those old Devastators are a liability (again as per the manual). But when these slow planes finally reach their targets sans escort, they don't seen to take a lot of casualties from enemy CAP. Has anyone else noticed that?

Yes. During the historic battle of Midway, 41 Devastators were launched from Hornet, Yorktown and Enterprise, only 4 made it back to Enterprise, because their fighter escort lost contact, making them easy prey for the Zeros.
After a few games I got some "historical" results here and there. That's odd, since TBDs did not have additional armor, self-sealing tanks etc. like the Avenger.
TBDs were removed from frontline service after Midway.

[decaro]

I would have to click on each torpedo bomber icon after the scenario was over, but during the strike animation, I could swear that the TBDs were attacking alone and almost unscathed.

So where is the enemy CAP? the AAA? Low, slow, straight flying aircraft have "shoot me" written all over them.

I think another "tweak" is in order.