Effect of CV CO and CV TF CO

[Sardaukar]

I have gotten into habit to check if CV ship commanding officer has decent Air skill...because sometimes they don't.

I am wondering how much that does influence performance, since usually CV TF commanding admiral has good air skill. Somehow it'd make sense to me that CV ship captain would have some influence on air operations too, but not sure.

Any ideas?

[Admiral DadMan]

As I recall, CV CO does not need good Air Skill unless he is also the ComTF.

[mind_messing]

Not really. The only case where it would make a difference is if you're having the ship commander do "double duty" in commanding both the ship and the task force.

There's not much benefit in doing so, as (generally) the leaders pool for task forces tends to have more leaders with a better skill-set for carrier operations than the leaders pool for capital ships. Also practical considerations around flagships being sunk or damaged that force a change of leaders in the TF.

[Sardaukar]

There are some ship captains (actually admirals) that are better leaders of CV TF than Halsey. So I usually swap them out to have as TF commander. I think Sherman was one of them. Edit: checked, Frederick Sherman has Air 87, best Air skill for TF CO on Allied side, I think.

One of the CVs had captain with Air skill 27...was bit worried that it'd affect the performance (in reality it should).

[bush]

In one of the old, old, old threads regarding leadership skills it was suggested that the best skill for the CV Captain itself was naval - as this would help its survivability during attack.

[Lowpe]

I have had TF commanders with lowish air skills (around 50) do perfectly at coordinating an aerial attack, and perhaps early on as the Allies you should favor TF commanders with high naval so as to avoid Iboats and surface combats....well, it has worked for me pretty well.

Experimenting with leadership ratings is a great mini-game and can be quite rewarding at times.

[Alfred]

Individual ship captains do not impact on air operations conducted from their ship. The authority of a ship captain does not extent to other ships in the task force.

The code treats the Task force leader as the leader of an Air HQ for the purpose of modifying the air operations of the task force. This is primarily important for Air Combat task forces with all their independent attached carrier embarked air units. It however also applies to non Air combat task forces which have embarked float planes conducting naval search.

Do not confuse a ship captain who also doubles up as the task force leader. Their authority over other ships in the task force stems from their appointment as task force leader.

Alfred

[spence]

IRL the Captain of a ship is primarily responsible for the safety of his ship. Offensive missions by the Admiral commanding the TF are the responsibility of that Admiral so at least in a theoretical sense the CO of (each) carrier in a TF should have a high naval skill whereas the Admiral commanding should have a high air skill. According to "Shattered Sword" this should definitely apply to the Japanese as Japanese doctrine specifically called upon the CO's of the individual carrier to maneuver radically when under attack (rather than depend upon the AAA fire of the close in "ring defense" that typified American TFs (Japanese TFs placed the most escorting DDs (excluding the plane guard) so far away that they did not really have the range to even engage aircraft attacking the carriers but the carriers did have LOTS of maneuvering room)