Ships not yet truely in theatre are able to be used as if they were located at the base they are supposed to arrive at.
Through the sea-based air screen you can even transfer them into theatre before the ship they are on arrives
What makes me think this?
Well Today I witnessed this message:
"36 F4F-4 Wildcats flying CAP over TF 214"
Not supprising?
Well I didn't have any wildcats set on LRCAP... The only squad of 36 were on CV Lexington, anchored at noumea and set on escort with a CAP level of 60. Other squads of F4F's in Noumea were of size 24 (US Marine reinforcements) and were not set on LRCAP either (they were at whatever they arrived with still or on stand-down).
So where did these phantom aircraft come from? Well first I thought it was a freakish accident, until it happened again!
The only other F4F squad in existance at the time was on CV Yorktown, currently sailing to Noumea from Pearl. Looking at its fighters it seems they were set to LRCAP somehow (quite likely that's what they were on when I sent the carrier back to pearl).
CV Yorktown was at the time 7-8 days away from arriving.
All other CV's were either on their way back to pearl (and thus had 0 fighters) or had never been in theatre (Bunker Hill, Essex, Intrepid, Victorious I believe) and were still 100's of days away.
On top of that TF 214, comprised of a couple of BB's, around 5 CA's and a CL was in Lunga bombarding whatever they could find.
That's one hell of a long range to fly!
I tried manually selecting them as a target, but it gave the expected 'range too far' type message.
I wouldn't be supprised if at the commanders discretion (i.e. no manual target) they could fly all over the map
So there appears to be a couple of small problems here.
If you need a save I can create one, I saved it the turn after it occured but am pretty confident I can get it to occur again if I turn the bombardment TF around again
- Deathifier