Bombardment TF ignoring orders and defaulting to home port

[SqzMyLemon]

michaelm,

I'm encountering a consistent problem in my PBEM with bombardment TF based at Munda not reaching the target hex of Lunga to bombard. In 3 separate cases I've had the TF show orders of Munda as the target of the bombardment upon returning to base and never actually reaching Lunga at all during the turn to perform the bombardment. Last turn I even disbanded the TF and created a new one with new orders to see if that helped. No, they sailed a few hexes from Munda, then returned and showed Munda, the TF's home port as the bombardment target.

Can you please take a look to see what is up. The save file 008 is the turn saved prior tto the end of turn save where it clearly shows the target of the bombardment is Lunga, but upon running the turn the target shows as Munda. The 016 save file is the result of running the turn and you can see no bombardment occured and the target is now Munda.

Thanks in advance.

[SqzMyLemon]

Here is the save after running the turn.

[Alfred]

Just checking. Did you:

1. confirm no ammo was expended on the "bombardment"

2. actually set some vessels to bombard, IOW you hadn't set No Escorts Bombard and had only escorts in the TF

3. had set the bombardment range to be within the capabilities of the ship guns

Munda to Lunga is not that far apart. Bombardment TFs attempt to standoff from their target to enable a high speed night end run to their target. The short distance to target combined with perhaps operating exclusively in enemy controlled airspace maybe is causing you some problems?

Alfred

[michaelm75au]

Yep. It moves but the way-points appear to disrupt the check for bombardments.
As a result it moves to Lunga on the way-in. And then returns back as there are some movement left in the phase before the actual bombardment check.

Not sure why this is a problem as I'm sure way-points have been used with bombardments before.

[kjnoel]

I've consistently had the same problem every time there is a waypoint set on a bombardment mission. Waypoints for some reason stop the bombardment in its tracks, even if you set it to the normal run-in distance for the bombardment.

I typically want to do this if I want the TF to approach from a certain direction. Now I just set that direction as a "do not retire" spot prior to ordering the bombardment run the next day.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Just checking. Did you:

1. confirm no ammo was expended on the "bombardment"

2. actually set some vessels to bombard, IOW you hadn't set No Escorts Bombard and had only escorts in the TF

3. had set the bombardment range to be within the capabilities of the ship guns

Munda to Lunga is not that far apart. Bombardment TFs attempt to standoff from their target to enable a high speed night end run to their target. The short distance to target combined with perhaps operating exclusively in enemy controlled airspace maybe is causing you some problems?

Alfred

Hi Alfred,

1. Yes, I confirmed that no ammo had been expended. All ships were rearmed at Rabaul prior to sailing.
2. Yes, the BB's are set to bombard, the escorts are set to not bombard.
3. Range is set at zero or one.

I agree on the distance and there should be no problem making the movement in either high or mission speed. I've checked so often I'm pretty sure something is up. There are a lot more enemy submarines operating in the area now than before is the only thing I can think of. The problem is the bombardments prior to this had all been working at the same settings. Thanks for the common sense post just to make sure I wasn't missing something simple.

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: michaelm

Yep. It moves but the way-points appear to disrupt the check for bombardments.
As a result it moves to Lunga on the way-in. And then returns back as there are some movement left in the phase before the actual bombardment check.

Not sure why this is a problem as I'm sure way-points have been used with bombardments before.

I've had no problem moving previous TF's along the same route using the same waypoints. Just recently, the last four turns my movments have become wonky. Only difference is more enemy submarines, but as you stated my ships are sailing to Lunga now and returning prior to the bombardment phase. I'm also leaving the ships set at mission speed as the distance doesn't warrant full speed. Waypoints are set to avoid the enemy submarine concentrations and they've not been an issue prior to this. Can anything be done? If my TF's are unable to bombard that puts me in an untenable position. Any suggestions, fixes or ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[michaelm75au]

Don't use way-points for the attack. That is what is messing up the TF movement. I think I have found the culprit. At least, your TF now does the mission when it gets to the destination hex, instead of turning round and going back to Munda.

With your save, the TF does actually move to Lunga. Just did NOT execute the bombardment because of the way-points.

[edit]
Left out ONE word that chanegd the whole sense of the sentence.[:o]

[SqzMyLemon]

Thanks michael.

I'll have to try it. I'll double check on the number of waypoints as well. I thought I'd only been using one previously and you mention I have 'waypoints' set. I wonder if I added an extra waypoint that I wasn't previously and that has caused the pooched operations. As mentioned, all my bombardment TF's have had at least one waypoint set and there wasn't an issue previously. I was purposely routing my TF to the shallow waters to avoid the concentrations of submarines in the deep water hexes, which not being able to use a waypoint means I now have to traverse two of them instead of only one.

Thanks for the explanation and time taken in looking into this.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: michaelm

Don't use way-points for the attack. That is what is messing up the TF movement. I think I have found the culprit. At least, your TF now does the mission when it gets to the destination hex, instead of turning round and going back to Munda.

With your save, the TF does actually move to Lunga. Just did NOT execute the bombardment because of the way-points.

[edit]
Left out ONE word that chanegd the whole sense of the sentence.[:o]

So, just to confirm this Michael:
We shouldn't use waypoints in bombardments missions at this time, correct? Hopefully a future patch will be able to address this? Thanks.

[michaelm75au]

You could use way-points up to a point. But you would need to clear them before the actual bombardment run-in turn, otherwise it may turn around and leave the hex.

[treespider]

IIRC Don Bowen once suggested setting your final waypoint as the target of the bombardment itself...IIRC the purpose of this was to get around the Bombardment TF setting up a set distance away from the target to make its run...IIRC a bombardment TF will stop a number of hexes away from the target = to one phase on a high speed run the turn before the bombardment run is executed.