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Quick question. Other than actual combat, is there a way to increase the experience of ship crews?

Do patrols, in-and-of themselves increase crew skill. In other words, if I (playing as the Allies) send a Surface Combat TF to patrol a couple hexes in-between Hawaii and the West Coast, will that increase crew skills at a faster rate than my ships sitting in port?

Patrolling will slowly increase day & night XP, up to a point. See Manual p. 129, Shakedown Cruises. The maximum XP level one can get through those cruises depends on ship type and nationality, however I don't remember the exact limits. From memory, it's around 50 for combat ships, much lower for transports and support ships.

ORIGINAL: Revthought

Quick question. Other than actual combat, is there a way to increase the experience of ship crews?

Do patrols, in-and-of themselves increase crew skill. In other words, if I (playing as the Allies) send a Surface Combat TF to patrol a couple hexes in-between Hawaii and the West Coast, will that increase crew skills at a faster rate than my ships sitting in port?

Yes , but not much. Even the manual recommends a "shakedown cruise". Being at sea always helps, but it's a matter of degrees. Steaming and patrolling help, asw attack is better , air attack helps , bombardment helps. Combat is always among the best training you can get. Taking damage is good to a point, then it becomes a diminishing return. Minor damage is good, killing off crew is not.

This is all pretty much "real world". An example is the late "Cold War". Each side had a definition of Readiness. For the Soviets it meant a ship tied to the pier, with all systems in perfect repair. To the western nations , especially the USN and RN , it meant "ships and sailors at sea" practicing by doing in the real world.

The game mirrors this pretty well. So I recommend getting your ships out as much as possible , and performing "minor raids" and engaging in "light combat" , then getting your ships repaired. Also in the case of ships, as pilots , you need to select your personnel on skill sets and ability to lead and expire. That will tremendously help build experience. Training is teaching , and a good teacher always helps tremendously. [:)]

This is what I figured. I just noticed that in a couple of my PBEM games some crews had far more experience than others, and by-in-large, I was seeing much higher crews on ships I knew had seen combat. I was just curious if I could bring some of those ships that hadn't seen action up a bit without purposefully putting them in danger.

good, the content is simple, easy to understand

AW1Steve: ... select your personnel on skill sets and ability to lead and expire.

High points for leadership is needed everywhere but I am not so sure about the ability to die! [:D]

I think the ability you were looking for is "Inspiration" - the verb being "inspire". [:)]