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I need help with mine-laying. I have an IJN minelayer which is fully loaded with fuel and mines at Rabaul. I give it a destination hex and it goes there, but then it returns to Rabaul without having laid mines. I notice with my other minelayer that when I gave it a different destination, I was informed, "Will proceed to hex xx,xx and conduct mine operations." It doesn't say that with my problematic minelayer. I only have two minelayers so I'm not messing it up by having the wrong ship type. It's a one ship task force with the mission of mine warfare. Settings are Human Controlled, Retirement allowed.

Your expertise is much appreciated!

Hi, Sounds like you are doing it correctly. Disband the TF and remake it and try again.

Thanks, Mogami! It's nice to know I haven't lost my mind. I'll give disbandment a try.

8 )

Inigo,

I am pretty sure you can only get mines from Truk.

I have also notice despite the Minelayers having mines and Fuel at the beggining they need to go to Truk sometimes for their inital load out - I am thinking this might be a bug? Anyway - I send the Minelayers to truk and homeport from truk - make sure they refuel and rearm from there and they work perfectly.


If this can be done out of Rabul - my appologies and I will have to give that a try.

IJN minelaying craft have to load their mines at Truk. Submarines go to their destinations from there as usual, but surface minelayers can be a difficult problem due to their limited endurance. The trick is to form a minelaying TF, make sure they are loaded with mines, then change the TF mission to surface combat. Then, you can move them to an intermediate base where they can replenish fuel, be reassigned to a retirement-allowed minelaying mission, and go on their merry way.

This works for the Allies too, of course, who get their mines from Noumea and (due to a recent patch) Brisbane.

Hi, I think he was saying the ML came down from Truk to Rabaul, were sent out and returned with the mines still onboard.

You read my post perfectly, Mogami. I checked that there was a full load of mines on board before I left. The ML went to the destination hex and then headed back to home port. I checked the ML and it didn't drop any mines - still a full load.

My current theory is that since a submarine was spotted in the destination hex, the ML elected to retire rather than lay mines. The submarine didn't shoot at the ML or even spot it as far as I can tell, but I'm guessing that the agressiveness of the CDR was too low and I failed a check.

Thanks for the help everyone!

Oh, I guess I misinterpreted.

Yes, from Truk to Rabul should have dropped, I think your theory is a good one - Retirement allowed and the commander chose to evade the submarine. Probably a wise choice if unescorted.

No problem, Ironpaw!

BTW, have your read On a Pale Horse, by Piers Antony?

Interesting description of death...

To be honest, I didn't know it even existed.

But it does sound right up my alley - I will have to check it out.

Thanx much.

Just an added note, Inigo: you won't get the "will conduct mine ops in hex xx" when your destination is a base hex. But, the ship will lay mines in any case.

In your situation, I suspect the ship turned back -- as suggested -- because of a perceived threat (sub, CV in the "area" -- that area can be rather large, I've noticed).

(Makes mental note to self: Bring minesweepers when invading Rabaul in my game with Inigo!)


Thanks for the free intel, fellas!

Actually, I've experienced this behavior before, too. I could be wrong, but it almost seems to me that the cmdr of the ML TF has to make a die roll check or something in order to lay the mines. I've seen it before where a ML TF will just sit there at the point to where it could run in during the next turn and drop the mines, but it does nothing. In those instances, I just return it to base and reform it with a different commander.

I'm glad you haven't lost your mind, Inigo. I believe the whole mine warfare thing is slowly eroding mine into nonexistence.

My experience has been that minelaying TFs act like bombardment TFs. I have never had one that has gone past the "point of no return" not lay mines.

Did you change the ML TF's home base to Rabaul instead of Truk? It seems to me that, in the distant, hazy past of trying to learn how to do this, the ML TF has to have Truk as its home base in order to perform correctly.

The sequence that works for me is "form ML TF at mine depot base - make sure it is loaded with mines - change TF orders to surface combat/do not retire - set intermediate destination - refuel at intermediate destination - change TF orders to retirement allowed/mine warfare (do it in that order) - set ultimate destination - wait to see what happens."

I dunno. I increasingly think that UV has made me nuts. I'm thinking about writing a novelette called "Notes from Underground" and moving to Switzerland to gamble heavily and dictate strangely psychoanalytic novels to my secretary and make her my mistress. Maybe greatness will ensue ...

Actually, you don't have to have the home port as Truk or BB or Noumea. I consistently change the home port of an ML to Rabaul (or another port close to final destination) so that I can, from Truk, "return to home port" and refuel there before heading to my final destination.

But, as noted, those ML skippers are a bit skiddish near the front (or at least near PM).

Boy, this is great stuff!

Bax, the plan is for you to never invade Rabaul, but rather to keep you focused on invading Australian once it is completely in my hands.

How to lay mines? First, make sure you have adequate iron in your diet. When you are sufficiently prepared psychologically, assume the Boy Scout squatting posture and push real hard (breathing exercises can be helpful). A word of advice though...those detonator spike thingys can be brutal.

Hey, I was having trouble with this too, and I think I found the answer.

In the manual, it says that a Mine Warfare TF set to "Patrol/Do Not Retire" will sweep minefields.

A Mine Warfare TF set to "Retirement Allowed" will lay minefields.



At least in my case, I'm pretty sure I was setting my minelayers to "Patrol\Do Not Retire" because I wanted them to remain on station. I was laying Defensive minefields at the start of a scenario. If I'd been trying to rush in at night to lay a minefield somewhere more dangerous, I'd have probably gotten it right

Originally posted by Cap Mandrake
How to lay mines? First, make sure you have adequate iron in your diet. When you are sufficiently prepared psychologically, assume the Boy Scout squatting posture and push real hard (breathing exercises can be helpful). A word of advice though...those detonator spike thingys can be brutal.

Sounds like the kind of effort to lay yours, not mines