Matrix Games Forums

Is there any way to use the historical tactic of your TF's closing on a target by following a weather front or hiding within it. It seems to me this was a favoured tactic, albeit weather dependant, but can it be simulated within UV?
Sleekit

Hi,

AFAIK there's no way to sort of follow a front as such but last turn I found a Jap TF in Gili-Gili (4 APs/AKs) by sending a sub into the harbour.
I think they came from the Shortlands but I never sighted them on the way although I had a PBY squadron plus some Hudsons in Port Moresby.
Interestingly it was a Thunderstorm turn so the weather should have improved their possibility to avoid detection if it has any meaning.

Regards
BPRE

Yeah when it rains it sometimes poors:eek: two or three days of thunderstorms can give you some surprises...then again it is usaully not raining all over the map.

Tropical weather doesn't play by the same rules you're used to. There's no regular march of fronts from West to East.

And even by tropical standards, the SW Pacific was especially erratic.

All you have is the ITCZ (zone of cloudiness and T-storms, occasionally developing a tropical cyclone) randomly oscillating N and S in a pretty much completely unpredictable way.

I've had some success in rainy and thunderstorms by splitting my taskforces into 4-5 ships. They seem to go undectected to get within 11-12 hexes. (Sometimes closer with a CV group) I don't bother in other weather types as it don't seem to help. I have found that large sized tf (12-15 ships) seem to get sighted in all weather conditions.

PS I've never divided my tf into very small groups of one or two ships in case I run into subs or trigger some reaction force and get blasted.

AA

Attempting to find a spot of bad weather to hide under is the responsibility of your local TF commanders. As a poster noted above, weather in this area was notoriously fragmented and unpredictable. If you want to maximize your chances of avoiding detection, try to stay 8+ hexes away from an enemy base and use TFs of five ships or less.

I find players often use 10-15 ship TFs and at times have several in one hex. This is not really a difficult job for enemy search planes, barring very bad weather.

Regards,

- Erik