ORIGINAL: jmalter
ORIGINAL: Alfred
ORIGINAL: jmalter
I'm dubious about the ability of a subTF to 'react' to an enemy TF, but I always set its react to 1 out of habit.
You can leave your scepticism at the cloak room.[:)] Subs do react.
There are however some circumstances where a sub on "patrol" or moving to it's destination will not react notwithstanding a reaction range of 1 has been set. Subs will not react if it would result in:
* entering a known minefield
* entering a medium or larger sized port
Subs in position and set to "remain on station" do not react irrespective of what range the player has in the reaction field.
Alfred
hi Alfred, I'm glad to learn that subs do react, it's just that I've never seen an in-game or ops-report msg that said "TF #nn reacting to...", nor have I paid enough fine-grained attention to my subTFs to see if one pulled out of its patrol-zone to follow a slow-speed target.
wrt 'reaction' in general, which of these settings is more likely to respond to an enemy:
A) a TF in its home-port, w/ react>0, no destination set & 'retirement allowed'
or
B) a TF in its home-port, w/ react>0, set to a single-hex patrol-zone (>0 days) in its home-port hex?
Hmm, bit of a defensive mindset?[:)] Have you received Sigint that a Maru is loaded up with the Imperial Guards and is headed to the Frisco area?
Probably much of a muchness. In general terms, to improve the odds of reacting you need
1. Good detection, the higher the better
2. An aggressive TF commander
Both of the above are independent of the two options you posed but will be more important in generating a reaction. I note that in the past you were loathe to select high aggression leaders for your sub TFs, preferring instead to choose on the basis of naval skill. However, in this particularly defensive mindset environment, you might want to revisit the earlier decision.
I don't place subs into base hexes for defensive purposes. Nor can I find a dev directly commenting on this situation. So I can't give a definitive answer. If I had to choose between having the sub TF without a PZ and one with a PZ, I would plump for denoting a PZ. But not using "Patrol Around Target". IOW I would set using at least 2 boundaries for the reason that there are important differences between surface and sub TFs with regard to reactions.
1. Surface Combat TFs have much higher speeds than sub TFs.
2. Surface Combat TFs may have embedded floatplanes which sub TFs don't, unless it is one of the Japanese float plane equipped subs.
3. Surface Combat TFs tend to be comprised of many more vessels than sub TFs.
4. You can set a reaction range of up to 6 for a surface combat TF but only a range of 1 for a sub TF.
The importance of these details are as follow.
(a) Due to its higher speed, a Surface Combat TF which is loitering in its base hex, without a specified PZ, if it reacts, will not be outrun by the enemy TF it is reacting to. The same cannot be said of a sub TF reacting. This speed disparity is not much of an issue when subs are used offensively in a PZ because they will have plenty of equally slow merchantmen/damaged ships to target in a reaction. In your hypothetical, unless it is that Maru heading for Frisco noted at the beginning, you are almost certainly going to be confronted with high speed enemy warships.
(b) Consequently I would prefer to be out moving in the PZ and relying upon the hex by hex movement deliberations rather than reaction to get an interception.
(c) With its own floatplanes, should one of them spot an enemy TF, the surface TF is more likely to react than the sub TF which is relying upon a third party spotter. A surface TF just loitering is not particularly penalised compared with one out in its PZ but the sub TF will only itself spot the enemy TF when it arrives at the base hex. Which makes having a 1 hex range reaction rather moot for the sub.
(d) A multiple ship surface combat TF which reacts to an enemy TF, has the potential of sinking
in toto the enemy. That ain't gonna happen with a single sub intercepting at best 1 hex away from its port. At least if the sub TF were at sea in its PZ some hexes away from its port you have the possibility of the contact being renewed the next turn/s and some meaningful damage being inflicted before the enemy arrives at the port.
Bottom line to me is that subs are offensive weapon platforms best used in deepwater, interdicting enemy sea lanes. Not underemployed on home port defence. But if they must be used defensively, giving them a PZ still retains an offensive element to their operation.
Alfred
