Carrier CAP Question

[Dereck]

This may be a dumb question or I'm just not thinking good today (which is NOT a rare occurance) but:

A carrier fighter squadron has 30 planes.
The squadron is set to "escort" and has CAP set to 50.

Does that mean that when they go on air strikes that 50% of the squadron stays behind and 50% goes with the attacking planes ... OR ... does that mean that only 50% of the planes fly CAP when attacked and 100% of the planes go with the attacking planes?

[Mr.Frag]

50% stay, 50% go.

*If* the 50% going end up not flying because the mission was scrubbed, they will attempt to also join in with the CAP but they have to climb to intercept.

[Dereck]

Would this be a reasonable tactic then?

While moving to and from my launch hex, set CAP to 100% and only change it to 50% when actually launching my air strike(s)?

[tsimmonds]

100% CAP changes it's mission to long range CAP. Make it 90% CAP max. Other than that, a fine idea (you may not really need 50% escorts, 40% or 30% may be enough).

[Dereck]

What's the difference between CAP and Long Range CAP?

[tsimmonds]

CAP is in the hex the air unit is based in. LRCAP is over something else. It might be another friendly base, or an enemy base with friendly LCUs in the hex, or you might set LRCAP to follow a TF. When you select the LRCAP mission, you have to option to designate a target (why you would pick LRCAP and not select a target for it is beyond me); the target can be a hex or a TF. It has to be within the fighters' range (duh). The further away the target, the fewer a/c will actually be flying CAP over it at any given time. If the target is one or two hexes away, you might get 50%; at 5 or 6 hexes distance you might get 20-30%. LRCAP over a CVTF, you will only get max 20%, whatever the range. Hard to coordinate with the CVTF CAP you know.

If you select the Escort mission, then change to 100%, the mission will re-set to LRCAP. Worse, if you don't notice and leave it like this, you likely will not have a target set, so you will get a LRCAP over some random thing, and only whatever CAP can scramble over your base.

[Feinder]

Or another gem is that...

Or if you want 100% CAP over your own base, select it as your target (just to be sure), you can select LRCAP (100%) and set the range to 0.

-F-

[Cpt.Buckmaster]

Does setting your fighter squads to a high percentage for CAP fatigue them quickly?

[bombata]

correct me if i am wrong, but isnt a CAP weaker (from the numbers of the planes) when the TF/base is without radar?

bye

[Feinder]

Percentage vs. Fatigue = Technically, yes.

But not really enough worth noticing (unlike in UV, when you could really only ever fly 60% CAP, or you guys would litterally fly themselves to death).


Radar = Yes, helps alot. A base with SR270 radar can scramble 100% of it's fighters, regardless if they're set to 100%. I don't know what the percentage is for those "sound detectors" tho, but they're obviously not as good.

-F-