Matrix Games Forums

Answer me these questions three….

What, is the damage level that you use to determine whether or not to send a damaged ship to Pearl Harbor or Tokyo or leave it in theater to be repaired? For example, do you what until the number 30, 40, 60 etcetera is reached on either systems or flight operations.

What, is a good proficiency level for SC, or DD’s to have to effectively conduct ASW?

What is the velocity of an unladen swallow?

Micah,
A European or an African unladen swallow?

1) Sir Lancelot
2) I seek the holy grail
3) African or European?

Originally posted by NAVMAN
Micah,
A European or an African unladen swallow?

I don't know that.. aaaaaaaahhhhhh!

PS The first two questions were ones I was actually cuirous about.

1. I send ships back based on a SYS level usually around 20 if there are a lot of ships in port and I can afford it. If the ship is at 20 or close to even 30, but the only ship in town in a level 5+ port, I may hang onto it. Factors such as whether or not ships will be released to theater and if more of the same type are "en route" also must be taken into account.

2. DD ASW values of 6+ are my prime requisites for sub hunter missions. Others are assigned to convoy duty and basically prevent a sub from surfacing and shooting the hell out of the transports with 40mm or something.
For SCs, I have a broader criteria... if they float, they hunt subs. What else are you going to do with them?

3. And the answer to #3 is zero (the swallow is sitting on a tree branch, and the tree branch is not swaying in the wind and ground vibrations do not cause the tree to move at all :p )


"King??!?? I didn't vote for you ~ you can't be my king"

"He must be the king...he isn't all covered in s**t"

I'm sure it could grip it by the husk!!

I tend to send back allied ships at over 20% if they are DD's and especially early in the game. You want the AAA upgrade if you can afford to do without the ships. Generally you can as they Japs have such a quality quantity advantage in the early months that tangling with them usually leaves you more battered. Often better to upgrade your ships.
As the Japs I am almost loath to send anything back bar DD's and AP's. This depends on a few things. The AP's depend entirely on how many you have lost. You have a plethora of them, but they can take an awful pounding. Even the 50% damaged ones can become useful later. I send DD's back hoping you will provide enough screen to send a bigger unit. i.e. CV plus screening DD's

As for SC's and PG's usefulness, I find the important characteristic is night time experience. This is when you are likely to meet subs - night; and it should be over 50%. You can get it to this by trolling around, guarding (yeah right) transport TF's. However, the best way to get their night experience up is to have them fight a night surface battle. Trouble is it is pure chance as to whether they survive the battle - they have very little input themselves. Daytime experience should also be over 50 - however sub attacks are less likely - but you may have a sub sighting during the day.

Posted by Micah Goodman

What, is the damage level that you use to determine whether or not to send a damaged ship to Pearl Harbor or Tokyo or leave it in theater to be repaired? For example, do you what until the number 30, 40, 60 etcetera is reached on either systems or flight operations.

It depends on what your situation is. Do you have a pressing need to keep as many ships of a particular type around (like CVs, even damaged ones). Do you need to free up some points for the release of other ships as reinforcements?

As a rough rule of thumb, I'll normally send all ships with damage above 50 back to Pearl/Tokyo.
If the ship is a small vessel (DDs, APDs, small CLs, etc), is useful (ie good night exp) and damage is less than 50, I sometimes just put them in a size 9 port as they repair very quickly.
If the ship is very large (BB, CV) they normally go back if damage exceeds 30 (even size 9 ports take forever to get the damage on these ships down to single figures and Pearl can do upgrades as well).

What, is a good proficiency level for SC, or DD’s to have to effectively conduct ASW?

Rule of thumb (once again) is that I expect that ships with exp over 50 have a chance to sink a sub. I normally only rely on DDs to do the job (especially those that have had their night exp upped by surviving night surface combat).

What is the velocity of an unladen swallow?

Unfortunately, UV's representation of the WWII swallow is heavily flawed on several counts within the game.

Firstly, UV treats both models of the Swallow as the same, where as each model was sufficiently different to warrant a seperate type. This is especially true in terms of payload, range and velocity.

Compounding this is the fact that UV has committed the cardinal error of using the stated European model's velocity but having the African models range. According to -

"Jane's All the Worlds Fighting Swallows, 1939-45" (99th ed) -
the European model was designed "for maximum velocity" while the African model was "heavily modified for greater endurance to better suit local conditions AT THE COST OF REDUCED VELOCITY" (emphasis added). The correct velocity and type for each model is readily accessible in most good ornithology references. How could they get it so wrong?

Think about it Matrix. To get your stated combination of velocity and range would have required a wingspan of over 6'!!! Thats all very fine if your talking Eagles, but Swallows??? Come on!

The final (and in my opinion the worst) error in UV's representation of the Swallow is that the stated velocity is based on the European model in a fully laden condition and yet the UV Swallow is classed as a fighter, not a fighter bomber in the game. This is ludicrous by any standard. If you are going to (wrongly) classify something as a fighter-only type then it has to be at least considered to be flying in an unladen condition.

Micah,
Your question is therefore pointless within the context of this travesty of a game.

This needs to be fixed, Matrix!!!

originally posted by Drongo

The final (and in my opinion the worst) error in UV's representation of the Swallow is that the stated velocity is based on the European model in a fully laden condition and yet the UV Swallow is classed as a fighter, not a fighter bomber in the game. This is ludicrous by any standard. If you are going to (wrongly) classify something as a fighter-only type then it has to be at least considered to be flying in an unladen condition.

Unfortunately, two things always get left out of the Swallow Chronicles:

First, a laden swallow will need to operate out of a level four AF. If it attempts to fly out of something smaller, it's ladeness will be appreciably less ladened, possibly up to fifty percent (thereby giving rise to the modified "semi-laden" Swallow).

Second, the velocity of said Swallow is dependent on its fatigue and morale level. Of course, any good commander will help negate negative modifiers, and a stint in a malaria free Swallow-type home couldn't hurt either (posibly enough to restore the Swallow to full ladeness).

Drongo brings up some interesting points, and one would assume in order to fix these travesties, Swallow Patch 1.0 would need to be released by UV.

(Let's hope the Swallow faux pas is addressed and corrected by the release of WITP)

Originally posted by Attack Condor
originally posted by Drongo


(Let's hope the Swallow faux pas is addressed and corrected by the release of WITP)

While they are at it, I hope the fix they spud projectile capability of US warships. Damned annoying to have a close range set-to and not see the US side engaging their spud projectors.

Unless, I am in dire straights, I send Allied ships back with even minor damage. I might even send the at start CAs and DDs back to Pearl even without damage. Not all at once but as many and as soon as I safely can. Allied ships benefit so much from refit (AA and radar) and have a very good chance of coming back soon that it really pays to send them home.

As for Japanese ships, I am more reluctant to send them home as there is not a great chance that they will return once repaired. If they are heavily damaged, then yes, but it below about 30, I park them in Truk in hopes of a slow reduction in damage.

Better to have a damaged carrier in Truk as backup rather than a good one sitting in Tokyo.

originally posted by cap and gown

While they are at it, I hope the fix they spud projectile capability of US warships. Damned annoying to have a close range set-to and not see the US side engaging their spud projectors.

Watch out Cap... the patch will probably be a combination of the spud projector and Swallow fix, resulting in the dreaded Swallow projector - and a very irate National Audabon Society wanting to have a chat with you

(promises no more Swallow posts :rolleyes: )

Come on, I think he was refering to "the" Swallow as in Me262 no doubt, LOL!!

Later,

Lrfss

I just wet myself reading this, so glad the spud projector thread is still lurking out there:D

Ps beer is good

Bad news guys, last week the city council of Orting, WA voted to outlaw potatoe guns after hooligans armed with these WMD used them to attack particpants in the Spring Festival's Daffodile Parade.

This of course will have profound effects on the use of spud projecters on any ships operating with in the confines of the Orting city limits, and will require a special rules modification to take this into account.

Orting is a small town in Western Washington State about 50 mile south of Seattle. Last year they voted to outlaw silly string.

Would it be easier to hit an African or European swallow with one of those spud projectors? That is the real question which needs to be addressed.

Originally posted by Micah Goodman


What is the velocity of an unladen swallow?

Rolling in uncotroled fits of laughter, you just had to ask didn't you.

that the Royal Pythonian Flying Corps is represented here. I thought the primary representation was in the shrubbery.

For some reason, whenever I have had dealings with wargaming groups, a knowledge of Monty Python routines (esp those from The Holy Grail) seemed a universal pre-requisite.

Says a lot.

Originally posted by Drongo
For some reason, whenever I have had dealings with wargaming groups, a knowledge of Monty Python routines (esp those from The Holy Grail) seemed a universal pre-requisite.

Says a lot.

MY experience as well, obviously a sign of true enlightment.....

Originally posted by pbear
Rolling in uncotroled fits of laughter, you just had to ask didn't you.

For some reason it just poped into my head. I haven’t seen that movie in years but it is still a classic. I saw it for sale once on DVD, but thought the thirty five dollar (US) price was a little steep.

QUOTE]Originally posted by Drongo
For some reason, whenever I have had dealings with wargaming groups, a knowledge of Monty Python routines (esp those from The Holy Grail) seemed a universal pre-requisite.

Says a lot.

[/QUOTE]

Oh, I just thought it meant most of us went from being role-playing geeks to war gamming geeks! <Evil Grin>

For those of you who got past my silliness thanks for answering my other two questions. The ship damage one was of particular interest to me, and the answers have helped a lot, or I should say will help a lot when I get back from my business trip.