Oh Bugger......

[KenchiSulla]

Is that so? The Wasp is the only carrier in the formation. How would you defend it?

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: Cannonfodder

Is that so? The Wasp is the only carrier in the formation. How would you defend it?

If the enemy pops up at 2000 yards there is not much you can do other than firing with everything you've got I guess. This is more a problem of the game routine though, because it ignores the fact that radar picked up the attacker at 7000 yards already but nothing happens until the two sides can actually spot each other. The carrier would probably start running the moment the enemy is picked up on radar at 7000 yards, not waiting until someone identifies the enemy at 2000 yards to see torps being fired right at the carrier.

Real life would see the battle starting at 7000 yards with the Allied reacting first when the Japanese don't even know they are there until they stumble into them at 2000 yards or when they are suddenly being shot at by something 7000 yards away. In the game, you get a disadvantage for having a CV TF fighting a surface combat TF and you have to fight while you would just run immediately after picking up the enemy at 7000 yards (the carrier with some escort at least). Add in the super hero IJN night experience and voila, you lose.

[RevRick]

ORIGINAL: Cannonfodder

Is that so? The Wasp is the only carrier in the formation. How would you defend it?

Ah, let's see.
The carrier is usually the center of the TF, with at about 1500 K yards out, the heavy escorts. In this case, 1 CA & 2 CLAA - the CA probably ahead, and the two CLAA just abaft each beam. Another 1500-2000 yards out is the bulk of the DD screen - probably 6 DD in a rough circle, with two more DD 1000-1500 yards ahead of the formation.

So, in this encounter, three IJN DD's manage to basically get into the heart of the formation to spot the CV without being spotted by screening ships as much as 3500 yards out from the CV, let alone the radar contact. Unless the collective leadership of the entire formation had the collective intelligence of a Zabriskan Fontema someone would have spotted and engaged well before the IJN spotted the CV.

In other words, this does not compute - except in the world of cyber battles.

Lord, have mercy. I forgot Helena is also in that TF. IJN DD's should have been smothered at 7K yards.

[LoBaron]

ORIGINAL: RevRick

ORIGINAL: Cannonfodder

Is that so? The Wasp is the only carrier in the formation. How would you defend it?

Ah, let's see.
The carrier is usually the center of the TF, with at about 1500 K yards out, the heavy escorts. In this case, 1 CA & 2 CLAA - the CA probably ahead, and the two CLAA just abaft each beam. Another 1500-2000 yards out is the bulk of the DD screen - probably 6 DD in a rough circle, with two more DD 1000-1500 yards ahead of the formation.

So, in this encounter, three IJN DD's manage to basically get into the heart of the formation to spot the CV without being spotted by screening ships as much as 3500 yards out from the CV, let alone the radar contact. Unless the collective leadership of the entire formation had the collective intelligence of a Zabriskan Fontema someone would have spotted and engaged well before the IJN spotted the CV.

In other words, this does not compute - except in the world of cyber battles.

Lord, have mercy. I forgot Helena is also in that TF. IJN DD's should have been smothered at 7K yards.

Agree, its the world of cyber battles, no doubt.

But what bothers me in this regard is: What are the distances measured from? You always see a uniform distance throughout the battles, neither the combat replay nor the combat report
discern between varying distances of individual ships, just of formations.

In your case the formation probably looks like a rough ellipse with the CV in the center, the IJN DDs I suppose would attack in line ahead formation.

Does anybody know? I am aware it is an abstraction as so much else in the game, but if the distance is measure @ 2000 yards I would recon it is measured at the point of the formation where
the distance is closest, so in this specific abstraction the distance between the leading IJN DD and one of the USN screening DDs, with the CV further out.

The engine might not provide enough detail to model this, but I wonder if this is the best interpretation.