Setting Helos on a relative bearing ASW station

[Adagosto]

Hi all,
I'm building a scanario (and this question is also for regular game play) and I'm trying to figure out how to set up stations for Helos to operate in when conducting ASW ops within a formation of ships.

Can someone explain how to do this?

Need more detail? Ok no worries....

I have a fleet of a few ships with a Spruance class destroyer out in front doing the sprint drift thing. That ship is on station within a formation of other ships. So I set the DD to be on a fixed bearing to the lead ship (steady course). Now I want to launch one of the SH-60's from the Spruance and have the helicopter fly out to a point about 20 miles away and in front of the DD and maintain that position as it drops SB and dipping sonar. That a relative bearing station from the DD or the Group. Either is fine.

I cannot see the helos in the formation editor.

Any help??

Thx!

[Easy301]

This is pretty simple to do and CMO provides the basic functionality to do it quickly and easily, you'll be creating a small ASW patrol using reference points that you place in front of and then attach to the ship.

1. Use the define reference point area circle/rectangle feature to create a small circle/box (You can even just insert two reference points close together, a lot of people also like using small triangles made out of three reference points), place the points where you want the helicopter to conduct ASW ops in the ship formation.

2. With the reference points selected use the top menu drop-down (Forgot exactly which one it's under, I believe mission maybe) and select the option to make the reference points a fixed or relative bearing and click on the ship in the surface group you want the reference points attached to.

3. Make an ASW patrol mission with those reference points and you'll be all set.

You'll now have a patrol area as big or as small (to sit at a point in front of a ship for example) as you want that will always remain fixed or relative to your ship. Setting relative or fixed reference points is a strong feature that allows you to create missions like CAP, AEW,ASW etc that move with a carrier/surface group or any other friendly unit you want.

I'd suggest also playing the tutorials that come with the game, looking at tutorials on YouTube by P Gatcomb or looking through the manual for additional information so you're able to better grasp the basic foundations and functions in CMO. Especially before jumping into scenario building.

Hope this helps.

[Adagosto]

Easy 301, THANK YOU!!

Very well explained. Much appreciated!

I understand what you are saying about playing more and not trying to build scenarios, but, I'm a long time Harpooner. I built many scenarios on that platform and I'm trying my hand at converting them over to CMO. Things are so similar for the most part, but just different enough that I'll need some help from time to time.

I also find that building your own scenarios is actually a great way to learn the system.

Great stuff!!
Thx
Adam

[thewood1]

"I'd suggest also playing the tutorials that come with the game, looking at tutorials on YouTube by P Gatcomb or looking through the manual for additional information so you're able to better grasp the basic foundations and functions in CMO. Especially before jumping into scenario building."

As someone that played all aspects of the various Harpoons and built a lot of scenarios, I would suggest the above wholeheartedly. CMO looks like Harpoon superficially, but is deeply different. This is especially true in scenario building. A basic question like setting relative ref pts really hits home the point to at least go through some of the tutorials or basic scenarios and look at how they are built.

Taking that approach will lead to a lot less frustration in the long run.

[thewood1]

"I cannot see the helos in the formation editor."

I think this comment highlights what I'm saying. In Harpoon, you set a helo in the formation editor. In CMO, you set a relative ref pt and assign an ASW mission with the helo. That gives you immense options on how the helo reacts to anything that comes up without micro-management.

Ref pts and missions are some of the basic building blocks in CMO. Where a bit of micro-management would be the point in Harpoon, using missions allows the flexibility to quickly adjust formations, ROEs, etc. independent of the formation.

So something that looks on the surface to be the same as Harpoon is actually not at all like its done in CMO.

[Adagosto]

Fundamentally it's all the same thing. You just need to learn how to deploy assets. What you do with those assets might change from one platform to the next but only by the modeling. Learning the mechanics is where I am.

And yes. I've done ALL of the tutorials. They were all excellent. Very impressed and also impressed how they built on each other. It was fun.

[thewood1]

Thats like saying all naval games are basically the same. At the highest levels, that correct. But shifting from a Harpoon mindset to a CMO mindset is even trickier because old habits die hard. On the surface, the mechanics to do look the same. But the underlying focus on missions and changes in mechanics means that someone coming from Harpoon probably has to spend even more time figuring stuff out. A basic question around formations and reference points is a red flag that you are maybe moving too quickly.

[Adagosto]

Fair.

All the better reason to build scanarios to test it all out.

You make a great point.

Cheers!!