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I was using my carrier force (as allies) to support a resupply mission at Lunga, Providing maximum long range CAP as my carriers were safe. A sub spotted enemy carriers somewhere around Shortland, and suddenly my carrier force automatically charges up the slot into the umbrella of every Japanese airbase in the South Pacific. Every one of my bombers was lost as they attacked with no escort, a mute point anyway as my 3 carrier TF was wiped out by hundreds and hundreds of Japanese planes.

I just lost a whole evening of play, because the autosave overwrote the previous turn. My biggest complaint about this game is the constant struggle to prevent the AI from doing really stupid stuff. This is like being in a junk yard with 100 two year olds and being singlehandedly responsible for their safety. Don't touch that! Don't go there! What's in your mouth!? I'm absolutley exhausted.

It sounds like you had react on. The AI doesn't check to see if you can do anything, it just reacts to enemy CV TFs.

Sorry to hear that, but did you have the TF set to react? If so, it did.

I had react on, but I also didn't want my TF to just sit their and get pummelled either. Is that what they would do if react was off? An appropriate reaction would be nice. This react function has been giving me headaches. Transport TFs will flee if a carrier is spotted thousands of miles away, needlessly delaying supplies. Is there some way to make 'don't react' the default setting? Would my ships still fight? If they arent going to take land based air cover into consideration I'd prefer they stay put. You don't just steam up to Rabaul to sink a straggling AP.

Hi Rich,
Most players keep react off. Yes it would be nice to have that as the default. When I form a AC task force there are several checklist things I do. Make sure right commander is used, react off, do not retire set, CAP set(well that should be #1!!!!), strong AA ships used as escorts. Just what you have to do.

The only time I use react on is when I'm chasing an enemy CV force and I want to get that last couple hexes closer. Otherwise its just asking for trouble. FYI your CVs still can react 1 hex even with react off.

If you have your CVs in the same hex as a transport TF you want to protect set your CVs to follow the transports. Then they will not react the 1 hex.

I don't know how to keep transports from running when a CV is sighted. Most of the time I'm happy they do.

Don't worry about getting pummeled with react off. Your airgroups will still fly as ordered. For me forgetting to set do not retire has been a problem also. I steam my carriers where I want them only to find they ran away back home.

So I use do not retire and react off. I move my CVs every turn to avoid subs. You are just going to have to keep track of enemy LBA range yourself.

Cheers,
Quark