Originally posted by Fuchida
No one is suggesting that bad tactics should not be punished.
However, the player has a limited control over the movement of his task forces, understandably so since this is an operational level game. Therefore those task forces should exhibt reasonable behaviour under a given set of circumstances.
Assume for arguments sake that I have a US carrier task force near San Cristobal, outside of LBA. If I spot an enemy carrier group making an end run around me to get at Santa Cruz then I would like to react toward it and launch strikes. If instead I spot a carrier task force near the Slot, I certainly do not want to react towards it to launch strikes because LBA will get me.
Under the current options I can choose react or don't react. If I choose react I stand the chance of getting hit by LBA, if I choose don't react, I stand the chance of the Japs getting past me unmolested to attack Santa Cruz
What I need is a third option. React but don't enter range of LBA (or probably more realistically don't go within x number of hexes of any enemy airbase). This is not because I want to get away with bad tactics but because I want my commanders to have the option to behave sensibly in a wide variety of situations.
Fuchida : I agree.
Consider the following :
This game is the engine that is going to be used for WitP. In that game, there will be much more varied terrain in the sense that you will have isolated islands that are completely out of the range of other islands for support.
Suppose there is an island that is a major base, like Truk, and is surrounded by many hexes of open sea? You might have a Jap carrier group operating there that you want to ambush. Suppose the enemy carrier group moves due north.
Under the current settings, if you set to react, your carrier group will stupidly enter LBA range of Truk and fight a carrier engagement at a huge disadvantage. If you set to Do Not React, you will not catch the group.
A third option would be React but Avoid LBA. Here, you could deploy the carrier group just outside the range of LBA, and the enemy carrier group that moves northwest will be caught by your carrier group which takes a react path outside of LBA, but still far enough and long enough to catch the enemy carriers.
The point is, the React command takes NO NOTICE of enemy LBA threats, and this is totally against the historical SOP of all belligerents of the period. The third option to react but stay out of LBA is something that WAS SOP for the belligerents of the period, but we players cannot do that without close supervision of our own carrier's position and movement.
I want a command to automate to some extent what I do already. Its becoming tedious to count hexranges from LBA so my carrier group avoids LBA. I do the nearly ALL THE TIME, while at the same time I lose the extra movement that I should be entitled to under a REACT status because I know that the REACTION will be stupidly controlled by the code precisely because it isn't cognizant of LBA threats. I shouldn't have to do it this way, it should be an additional option in TF behavior controls. Any sequence of activity that players repeat over and over again needs to be *seriously* considered as a candidate for some feature enhancement - and this is a principle that extends well beyond the wargaming community.
MATRIX : Please also consider that there are a number of people who are not excellent tacticians who are playing this game and getting easily frustrated by carrier group reactions that result in LBA attacks which sink their carriers. This segment of your market will largely abandon the game without additional operational controls that are both easy to understand and provide them with more of an enjoyable experience. This particular operational control request is not something being implemented just to satisfy those people, however, as we have said, its something that was in fact SOP for all belligerents historically.
