Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Shark7

So this begs the questions: Is there any way other than actual combat experience to help 'train up' a ships crew? IE I've seen 'shakedown cruises' mentioned, but what effect do these actually have on improving a ships fighting capabilities?

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

ORIGINAL: Shark7

So this begs the questions: Is there any way other than actual combat experience to help 'train up' a ships crew? IE I've seen 'shakedown cruises' mentioned, but what effect do these actually have on improving a ships fighting capabilities?

Having ships in TF increases their experience up to a specific level (depends on ship type)

ORIGINAL: Shark7

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

ORIGINAL: Shark7

So this begs the questions: Is there any way other than actual combat experience to help 'train up' a ships crew? IE I've seen 'shakedown cruises' mentioned, but what effect do these actually have on improving a ships fighting capabilities?

Having ships in TF increases their experience up to a specific level (depends on ship type)

So simply put, having a DD in a TF will cause it to improve just by being in the TF...up to a certain EXP level. And the increase is permanent? That I can understand.

ORIGINAL: Shark7

So this begs the questions: Is there any way other than actual combat experience to help 'train up' a ships crew? IE I've seen 'shakedown cruises' mentioned, but what effect do these actually have on improving a ships fighting capabilities?

ORIGINAL: Local Yokel

ORIGINAL: Shark7

So this begs the questions: Is there any way other than actual combat experience to help 'train up' a ships crew? IE I've seen 'shakedown cruises' mentioned, but what effect do these actually have on improving a ships fighting capabilities?

My take on this is that you must find a way to get those patrol boats and subchasers into combat, given their anaemic experience levels. Potentially one thing you have going for you is that ship experience is not broken down into skill sets, as is the case with pilots. A ship that increases its experience through gunnery combat is going to be better at ASW as a result and vice versa. That's the model we've got.

Getting combat experience with TBs and DDs is more straightforward than patrol craft if you can find opportunities for them to go raiding - particularly against targets that don't shoot back. It will be much more difficult - maybe impossible - to get patrol craft into such fights, so you may have no option but to train them against enemy submarines, and take you medicine when the submarine shoots back. Have some ideas on how I shall go about this, but they may well prove completely wrong.

Shinano

Going back to this, I have read an account (appearing to be well researched, but no sources cited)which says that the airgroup embarked in Shinano was the compromise outcome of a dispute between NGS and V Admirals Fukuda (chief Yamato designer) and Iwamura (head of Naval Tech Bureau). The admirals wanted the ship as a staging point for strikes - the Japanese preoccupation with 'outranging the enemy' - whilst NGS wanted her as a full blown strike carrier. The modest airgroup of 47 aircraft was organic but was intended to include a strike component rather than being purely defensive. The remainder of the hangar space was to be used for other carriers' aircraft staging through.

The fact that the intended basis of employment was a compromise strengthens my impression that the Imperial Navy really didn't have any clear grasp of what was to be done with the ship. Having eschewed her potential as a battleship, the Navy ended up with a vessel that was neither fish nor fowl as a carrier, and in consequence probably represented the greatest waste of resources it ever incurred. In my book, the nettle needed to be grasped when construction was first halted. Either the ship as designed was one they needed, in which case they should have got on with bringing her out as Battleship Number Three, or the job was to be scratched so that Yokosuka #1 slip could be returned to gainful employment at the earliest opportunity. That way you are looking at, say, a useful Unryu delivery in early 1944 rather than an expensive apology for a strike carrier the following November.

ORIGINAL: Shark7
With the PBs, I guess you could go do minor bombardments of the undefended Chinese bases along the coast, Pakhoi etc. I think the PGs and PBs can do that, but I'm honestly not sure, haven't tried it in a while.

ORIGINAL: Local Yokel
Certainly worth a try. In my mod I have reintroduced Iwate and Izumo (both China Fleet ships, from memory) as PGs, so they would come within this category. However, again from memory, I think I tried this in CHS and couldn't get them to bombard (great for soaking up CD fire in an invasion group though[:)]). No reason not to suck this and see again in AE, whether with these ships or other PGs/PBs.

ORIGINAL: Shark7

I've been thinking about this, I've considered reducing HI supply output to 1 and increasing LI supply output to 2. It more or less keeps the in/out balance, but reducing the HI output by half means you'd most likely be forced to run at least some of the Japanese LI instead of just turning it off completely.

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

ORIGINAL: Shark7

I've been thinking about this, I've considered reducing HI supply output to 1 and increasing LI supply output to 2. It more or less keeps the in/out balance, but reducing the HI output by half means you'd most likely be forced to run at least some of the Japanese LI instead of just turning it off completely.

The ability to turn off LI production is a design oversight, and should not be possible. LI largely represents the civilian economy, which could not be turned "on" or "off" at whim.

Andrew

ORIGINAL: Local Yokel

Blimey, this thread's just taken rather a discursive turn! [:D]

John, thanks for the tip about the ship types that can take part in a bombardment. Something I ought to gave known already, but the alphabet soup of some of the small types can throw me.

For ASW training, I have in mind multiple ASW groups following a lead group so that you effectively swamp the hex targeted. Ideally such exercises are conducted in shallow water and at short range from airfields basing friendly naval search/ASW patrols. That way, even if a target submarine manages to kill an ASW ship that is primarily there for training, you have optimised your chances of killing the submarine in return. Although low crew experience may make the efficacy of these measures marginal, I can't readily see a better way of managing the risks of training for ASW in this way.