Originally posted by Spooky
The fancy animations bring NO further informations than the "paper" report at the end - only some suspense 
. And so - according to you - the damage reports and losses are not given to a C-in-C 
The animations give a blow by blow account of the attack. In effect they explain the reason why two of your CV's were lost and in doing so give you far more information on the performance of the enemy and your own troops than is available from the papr report produced at the end of the action.
As for the paper report itself I doubt many C-in-C's would get such a detailed after action report as we are given. At least not for some time after the event and even then only assuming that anyone survived the action to make it. Many ships like lone AK's and subs would merely dissappear.
If you want to experience a game that models this try getting involved in a moderated multi-player wargame where the moderator only lets you know what the real commander would know. Its a real eye opener.
Just keeping track of where your own forces are can be a real nightmare. I once lost an entire Dragoon Division in Poland just becuase they took a wrong turn and wandered off their designated line of advance. They ended up warming themselves in Friemarkt whilst the rest of my army was fighting for its survival 40 miles away.
However, please tell me how your pilots will recognize the enemy TF you would like to target - since you do not know their position nor their exact composition
As I have said I am not an expert on this period of warfare but my understanding is that once a target was identified the squadrons were briefed on its last known location and the composition, speed and direction reported by the spotter. they were then sent off on a bearing calculated to intercept the target and were left to search along that bearing in the hope of detecting and identifying the target. After that it would be up to the flight commanders to decide whether any TF's they discover match the description of the one they have been ordered to attack.
The only thing I think Matrix should add is some kind of "to be targeted first" option in naval attack choices. The standard option would be to strike the CV first but maybe in some cases you would rather like to strike Transport TF or Naval Combat/bombardement TF instead of CV TF
This would certainly be an imporvement on the current situation but would not solve all the problems which have been raised and of course means adding yet more code. I was trying to think of a way of resolving most of the problems whilst reducing the need for code.
Also I have to say that I think the rules that a human would apply to the decision on which TF to target would be far more complicated than a programmer could reproduce in the AI and would be based on all sorts of judgements and hunches.
e.g. Always target AP's unless there is an AO which is closer and more lightly escorted or an unescorted AK but only send one FB sqdn on that one and don't bother if the AK is within range of a PT boat squadron. Abort any missions that have LRCAP flying over and don't attack enemy ships in a port with strong AA cover unless they are AP's or CV's in which case only attack if the strike can be escorted or if the situation is desperate.
and this ignores all the other factors like:
"If I don't attack now, I may never get a second chance."
"My CV is never going to survive another attack like that, if I don't get the enemy with my next attack I'm done for."
or
"I don't know this could be a ruse, perhaps I woun't send all my bombers in the first strike."
