First Game Questions

[Ifernat]

Picked up RTW3, haven't played the prior entries. After a few halting attempts, coming to the end of my first real game. Had some questions, read the manual but didn't see this covered. Played the US.

1) Coastal Batteries, I get that they create minefields in the tactical mode, but I got the impression that they would also add a mine element for the strategic mode as well. IE I expected raiders and subs to start hitting mines on the trade warfare results, and I don't ever recall that happening. Was I just unlucky or does a modest amount of mine sweeping capacity negate a half dozen batteries.

2) Similar to 1) I invested quite heavily in airfields and stocked them pretty heavily with patrol aircraft. I did get a few enemy submarines sunk by air planes results but I don't ever recall seeing them damage enemy surface units in strategic mode. This included a period where the Germans seemed quite able to send CL raiders to the Caribbean despite it swarming with 1k+ range Patrol Bombers.

3) Is there a way to influence where combat starts on the tactical map? I had a war with Fascist Germany from 1938 to 1943 with both sides having credible air power. The battle generator kept spawning me in off the west coast of Denmark well within range of just about every airbase in Germany. I would have been more happy to enforce a distant rather than a close blockade. Instead it got painful fast with all the bombing.

4) Anyway to tell the game that just because I stuck a self defense gun on an auxiliary ship I don't want them sailing out to fight? Had a surreal moment in that war where the commander of my minesweeper corvettes decided to get his Admiral Beatty on and go ambush the German fleet with a grand total of three modestly armed ships.

This also happened with a flotilla of old destroyers that I had refitted as supplemental ASW/Minesweeper. They kept getting slotted in as adhoc escorts for operations and suffered badly for it.

5) I've noticed that when I set screening commands for escorts on a leading element the screening ships tend to follow rather than surround. Especially in chases where my fleets tend to rapidly look like a mother duck and ducklings anyway to improve this?

6) is there a way to force your ships to fire on an unidentified ship?

[RHoenig]

1. There are one or two random events that has an enemy ship hit one of your mines, but I'm not sure it's frequency is related to the number of minefields (or coastal batteries) you have.
The main (IMO) benefit of coastal batteries is that they prolong enemy invasions, giving you time to react and _sometimes_ to help you fight battles in certain areas (Austria-Hungary in the Adriatic, Germany/Russia in the Baltic - generally in confined waters, where your guns have the range to cover a large part of the area).

2. I don't think surface ships are hit by patrol planes during the strategic turn ever. During a battle on the other hand...

3. Nope

4. Only way to prevent ships from taking part in a battle is to put them into reserve/mothball or on trade-protection
Note: Ships on TP _can_ enter battle in one of those "your ship XYZ intercepts raider ABC" battles and sometimes TP ships will be added to a regular combat scenario (under AI control). Personally, all my colonial corvettes, for example, are on TP during every war.
Note 2: The battle generator _usually_ tries to match ship-classes in a scenario, so in a cruiser battle, usually your cruisers will fight enemy cruisers, in a small engagement, your DDs will fight the enemy's DDs and so on. Only when the necessary class isn't available, the game will put a substitute into a fight (and yes, I have gotten a pair of DDs to perform a coastal raid vs. a force of several CA with DD escorts once or twice)

5. Yup, screen is...not working great. Can't really do anything about that.

6. No - I have noticed, however, that I can manually launch torpedoes at them, if I play in Captain's mode.

[WLRoo]

The nature of Coastal Batteries is such that they almost certainly don't affect the strategic part of the game.

1. Coastal batteries are placed randomly each battle

2. Their minefields are 'defensive' and spawn within a few miles of the battery itself - and not on a key trade route.

Active/offensive minefields require minelaying ships (AMCs once the 'Active Mine Warfare' tech is researched, later DDs and CLs and later still some Subs) and will affect enemy ships.

[EwaldvonKleist]

5) Support and screen roles are somewhat broken. Devs said they are looking into this, so it may get better

If you want your DDs to properly screen, attack with torps or counterattack enemy light forces, you must lead them manually.

6) Not that I know of. But you can still manually send torps into them. Very effective at close range.

3) No. But certain types of battles often spawn in a particular place, so if your fleet composition favours them, you can indirectly influence the location.