Meet TF and Merge

[Charbroiled]

I had a lightly escorted Cargo TF heading from SF to PH. I spotted a couple of Japanese subs in the path of the Cargo TF, so I created a STF of 6 DD and told them to "meet TF" and then merge. The Cargo TF was about 12 hexes out of PH....I didn't tell the CTF to "meet then merge", because the STF already had that order. When I ran the tutrn, I figured that the worst case senerio would be that the STF would be on it's way to meet the CTF, but, because of the distance between them, probably wouldn't merge that turn.

After the turn was ran, I noticed that the STF was still sitting in PH. Of course, the CTF was getting closer to the subs patrol area.

So, is this working correctly?

Is the STF suppose to merge into CTF, or will the CTF merge into the STF? If it is the later, I can see problem, because the AKs can't be part of a STF.

Should I have given the "meet and merge" order to both TFs?

Do I need to assign a destination for a rendezvous point with "remain on station set?

I didn't set a destination for the STF, because it was to "meet" the CTF....is that why the STF never left port?

[loricas]

i think that both must be the same tipe TF in order merge to work: i've a similar trouble but i've chenged the STF in Transport TF and the next turn all ok

[Charbroiled]

I'll try that...Thanks

[Don Bowen]

Just off the top of my head, the TFs do not have to be of the same mission type but the ships within them must be compatible. Ordering a transport TF to merge with a carrier TF would be an issue as transports are not allowed in carrier TFs, etc.

[TheTomDude]

I used "Meet and Merge" very often due to the fact that as Japan you don't have that many Escorts for every Cargo/Transport/Amphibious TF.

01. The merging TFs don't have to be the same type.
02. IIRC if you try to merge the wrong TFs (i.e. cargo into air combat) you will get an on-screen message and it will not work.
03. There are some instances when follow or meet (with or without) will not work. I.e. if the primary TF is set to go to a river hex and the TF trying to follwow/meet/merge has ships that do not fit into rivers.

99% of the time I merge SurfaceTFs into CargoTF or Transport/AmphibTFs. Works perfectly good. Sometimes the STF which is trying to merge will not find/catch the other TF in the first go and will need 2 or 3 more tries (days) to meet and merge. But that does not happen much.