Sea Interdiction with Antiship Missiles

[StreetF16]

I can't seem to get ASMs to do any damage to enemy ships or troops moving by sea transport. They will attack many times when the enemy moves in range, but never do damage. The TOALog doesn't seem to shed any light on it. I've even tried bumping the ASM attack strength up to extremely high values with no effect.

[sPzAbt653]

Note that there is a Naval Attrition Divider that may have an effect. Therefore, I ask - Which Scenario? I'll take a look. If it is your own design, look in the What's New for NAD details [placed below].

Thanks.

Naval Attrition Divider: This is the same as the normal Attrition Divider, but applies to naval combat only. The normal Attrition Divider does not affect naval combat. A setting of 10 is neutral. A setting of 5 doubles shots. A setting of 20 halves shots, etc. Note that it also scales naval combat supply costs. See Appendix I.

Generally speaking - Number of attacking planes = Assigned x (2 x Proficiency + Readiness + Supply) / 4 / (Naval Attrition Divider/10)

[StreetF16]

I've seen this with both the Taiwan 2016 and Anonymous Heroes scenarios. I tried adjusting the naval attrition divider, no change in results. Also tried changing the ASM unit icon--coastal artillery, missile artillery, even an air unit. In all cases it will see the enemy unit and attack, but never causes any damage to naval units or embarked land units.

[sPzAbt653]

Thanks for the details, I'm having a look at Taiwan 2016. Skimming thru the units, there really aren't any that appear to be set up for Ant-Naval Combat, so I added the unit pictured below to run some tests.

[sPzAbt653]

I composed this group from the SW corner of the map and moved north to the Coast Art Unit that I had added. Several Tests were run, in each one the Coast Art Unit attacked the Naval Group 30-60 times and caused no losses to the Group, while eventually the Coast Art Unit was eliminated each time. I changed the NAD to 1, 50 then 100. I changed the Icon of the Missile Unit. Still No Losses to the Naval Group, which seems to indicate something is wrong.

[sPzAbt653]

Maybe Missiles don't function well with the Artillery Icons? So I switched to a moderate Anti-Naval capable 'regular' artillery piece. With this eqp, the Coast Art unit wiped out the Naval Group in two attacks. That seems harsh but it was with a NAD setting of 1 so a harsh result would be expected.

It is noted that this scenario uses a custom EQP File. I don't know what all the changes are, or if they may have affected any results.

[sPzAbt653]

So is there a difference in the EQP File that isn't allowing Missiles to hit Naval Units? On top is the 155mm Gun that destroyed the Naval Units, at bottom is another Anti-Naval Missile that I tried that is also causing no damage, even with 1000 Missiles in the unit. The 155mm isn't even set to Anti-Shipping!?!? So what Setting or Flag determines if an EQP can hit a Naval Unit?

[StreetF16]

sPzAbt653

I used the same Heavy Coastal ASM in my tests, with the same results. Will try again using regular artillery.

[StreetF16]

And I have the same negative results with a modified Anonymous Heroics scenario, using the standard eqp file.

[cathar1244]

Did coastal ASMs ever work well?

I seem to recall some discussion about this a long time ago.

Also recall a discussion about a campaign in Russia scenario in which only certain types of artillery could fire on ships. Seemed opaque to me.

Cheers

[sPzAbt653]

I don't know if ASM's ever worked. I could test with TOAW III to check.

I think the 'issue' with not shooting at ships had to do with the Icon, because only certain Icons will shoot at ships, and usually those Icons won't shoot at Land Targets. So it can be annoying.

[cathar1244]

So what Setting or Flag determines if an EQP can hit a Naval Unit?

From an old post of mine.

Cheers

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There is also a third case in which anti-shipping capability is auto-generated. This is the case in which the anti-shipping flag is NOT toggled and a (smallish) anti-shipping capability is made available based upon the AP value.

For fixed-wing aircraft.

Again, with antipersonnel (AP) as entered by an external editor into the equipment file ...

the anti-ship capability is figured as the square root of (two times the AP rating), rounded down.

Example: AP is 0. 0 times 2 = 0. Square root of 0 is 0, the anti-ship rating.

Example: AP is 8. 8 times 2 = 16. Square root of 16 is 4, the anti-ship rating.

Example: AP is 9. 9 times 2 = 18. Square root of 18 is 4.2426. Round down to 4, this is the anti-ship rating.

Highest allowed AP rating is 8000 (!) This works out to an anti-ship rating of 126 after rounding down. (Higher AP ratings can be entered, but TOAW will treat them as 8000.)
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Anti-ship capability for artillery, as auto-generated by TOAW.

Once again, with the antipersonnel rating (AP) as entered by an external editor into the equipment file:

Anti-ship capability is the square root of (AP divided by 2), rounded down.

Example: The common equipment 150mm howitzer has an AP of 260 in the equipment file. Divide by 2 to obtain 130. The square root of 130 is 11.4018, or, rounded down --> 11. This is the anti-shipping capability.

Edit to add: Note that guns need a range of at least 5 kilometers for the anti-ship capability to manifest.

Edit to add: Apparently, unit icon also limits which units can fire on ships.