Keeping strike planes from doing recon missions

[thedoctorking]

I have a CVL in battle with 8 torpedo bombers. I'd like to keep those torpedo bombers from flying off to do recon missions because they are pretty much the only punch I have. Do I need to set them to ready for a strike at the beginning of combat? I'd rather not have readied planes sitting on the deck like the Japanese at Midway. Is there any way to tell them to not fly recon missions? After starting the scenario, I now look at my strike window and there are no planes to select because all the TBs are in the air or unready.

[Squarehead]

I think you have a couple options for keeping your strike aircraft from running recon.

The first is to select 'no search' in the routine air ops screen at battle start and then order your recon out manually if you need/want it (a bit micro heavy for my taste but not unreasonable if you only have a couple of CVLs present)

Alternatively, if you have a good number of floatplanes in your fleet you can select floatplane search priority in the doctrine settings which will help keep your carrier aircraft off recon duty and available for strikes.

[thedoctorking]

Ah I think the latter is the best option for me - I did put floatplanes on a bunch of my ships.

[Garwin]

Be aware that usually floatplanes are inferior quality so they are slower and your search pattern could be worse.

[thedoctorking]

I think of them as inferior helos with longer ranges.