Legal cheating with Decoys. Bug?

[siRkid]

If you scatter a TF by breaking it up into many smaller ones, the AI will send out many different strikes and get most of them. I've seen this happen over and over again. I think the original problem was that one TF with a single ship was sent out and it was the only target available so the AI pounced on it without making a strike on the airfield. Well the code is working exactly as designed. When you set the primary target as Naval and there is a naval target, it will be attacked. There is no option that says only attack with 10% of my force if the TF only contains one ship.

Its up to the player to make a choice as to what his primary target is. If hitting the airfield is that important, then some of the bombers should have that as the primary target.

[Cap Mandrake]

How many SBD's turned to pursue a single Japanese DD in the Battle of Midway...hmmm? Of course they found 4 Jap carriers..but they didn't KNOW that when they turned.

What happened to the Neosho and Sims in the Battle of the Coral Sea? Hmmm.

What was that chaps name who purposely sent in the CVL Shoho in a small single carrier decoy TF only to consume an entire wave of TBD's and SBD's from the two US carriers in Coral Sea? Hmmmm.

What happened to one flight of Swordfish bombers when they went out to attack the Bismark? Hmmm


**** happens.

[kaleun]

Right Mandrake. It is very hard to decide what is a gamey tactic versus legit. That's my problem with this. It did happen, but it also can be exploited. Hmmm.

[Raverdave]

In WiTP I have tried to make things harder for my IJN PBEM player (Luskan) by trying the tactic of breaking up a convoy into single ship convoys. They all got hammered.[:(] The AI simply sent smaller groups of planes to each target rather then one large goup of planes to one target. Therefore it is not a cheat.

[myros]

Its good to know the good folks at Matrix already got this covered. (the splitting into smaller TFs).

As far as the use of decoys I dont see any problem there, decoys and feints have been used in just about every type of war since we were throwiing rocks at each other probably. Just makes sense to use every means available to get the odds in your favor ... hopefully any program quirks which can allow this to be abused a bit will be squashed, and so far it looks like their on the right track.

Cheers

[brisd]

ORIGINAL: Raverdave

In WiTP I have tried to make things harder for my IJN PBEM player (Luskan) by trying the tactic of breaking up a convoy into single ship convoys. They all got hammered.[:(] The AI simply sent smaller groups of planes to each target rather then one large goup of planes to one target. Therefore it is not a cheat.

Yes, I recall you doing that and the system handled it fine. So I don't see a need for setting any limits. I intend to use every trick and tactic available, just as the real life commanders did. There are advantages to both tactics, large tf's have massed AAA and single ships are harder to spot. And then there is the sheer craziness of keeping track of so many individual tf's. If you (and your staff) are so devoted to this part of the game, then somewhere else, such as the land campaign, you might neglect. We are not computers and fatigue is a factor. So it all balances out in the end, IMHO.

[Jack Shelak]

http://www.neuralstudios.com

HOT BABE!

MY mind's drifting a bit...

[Xargun]

I agree that sending a lone ML to mine a hex.. or a lone MSW to sweep a hex is not gamey.. I have sent lone MSW off to battle subs for 2 reasons...

1. They carry depth charges when half my IJN DDs do not...
2. They are very expendable.. And if they die, I get a new one thrown into the cue... Its the only
expendable ship japan has so I use it for a lot of things... Plus, why risk 1 or 2 DD with a lone ML or
whatever when if they get caught they all will die anyways... 1 or 2 DDs escorting a ship will not
provide any kind of protection against air attack - unless a lone CVE is attacking you.. Even a CVL
carries enough firepower to kill 2 DDs and more... especially Japanese CVLs loaded with Kates...


I do consider it gamey to send a bunch of small TFs in front of your important TFs to act as shields and bomb / torpedoe magnets knowing the computer will pick one or two of the TFs in the area to pound and the more targets the lesser chance for the important ones to be hit - THAT IS GAMEY... Using the lack of the AI (no insult to the designers / programmers) to cheat the enemy - if given a choice, you KNOW every CV commander will ignore harmless ships and go for the Heavies... Almost every time... Especially if the heavies are a threat to them....

Xargun