HPS Midway questions

[mister T]

First try with this game on the "getting started" scenario. It was quite fun but have some questions about aircrat control. (and sorry for my english)

Playing US side, after finding the japanese CV, I wanted to create a big strike mission with the VB3 squadron + some of the VS3 squadron ( i just used 2/3 of the VS3 squadron for naval search). But I was not capable to assemble them, so I sent them in 2 strikes with the same target. Is it possible to do this in one strike ?

It became quite hard when I wanted to assign F4F escort to them, don't know exactly why but I saw my first strike (VB3) unescorted and the second one (VS3), less powerful, escorted by my F4F. I tried to reassign the fighters to the VB3, it seemed to work fine but there was too much distance between them. I tried to speed up the fighters to join the VB3 squadron.
When they actually reached them, my first strike met the japanese airplane strike which was travelling to my CV ! So a little dogfight happened, I lose some bombers but was quite surprised that my fighters followed the japanese strike instead of escorting my bombers ?

Most of the japanese fighters were down, but my strike was unescorted again :rolleyes: ... at the end, it succeeded in going through the japanese CAP and let the CV damaged :) . And the second strike finished the work (heavily damaged).

After these succesfull strikes, I had two search flight in the area so I tried to assign them a strike mission against a lonely japanese CA. It seemed to work fine, but don't know why I saw them attacked the ship but they never dropped their bombs. I tried several times to assign them a strike mission against this target, I could see them go staight for it, heard the "dive bomber " sound but they never dropped their bomb ? Can someone explain me why ?

And about my CAP, I was able to give manual vector against the japanese incoming strike, but after this how to avoid that they are scattered all over the map ?

I let myself be overwhelmed with just one CV to manage, I can't imagine what can happen in a Midway scenario with 3 or 4 CV at the same time

[Compass Rose]

Gary McClellan who was one of the Scenario Designers for Midway asked me to relay this information to you.

To assign aircraft from multiple groups to a single strike

1) Choose your first attack group (Dive or torpedo bombers generally)
2) Be sure to name that Strike something unique (it's under the "Package Name")
3) When you assign missions for groups from other squadrons, that mission name should be there in the dropdown. Choose it, it will cause all the assigned aircraft to be attached.

For fighter escorts, give them a Patrol Mission, and assign them to the same Package Name.

The tendency of Escort Fighters to break off from their escort duties and try to "bounce" an outbound enemy strike is known and historical (it happened several times in the war, especially for the Japanese).

I'm not sure why the Scouts wouldn't have attacked. I'd want to see a file on that one.

If your CAP is manually controlled and starts scattering, the way to regather them is to form a New Patrol Mission (having selected them on the map), and give them orders. That or simply give them RTB orders, if they're ready to go to the barn (low ammo or whatever).

[mister T]

thanks for your help. Sorry I have no save to send, but I'll do it if the thing happen again.

[Liebchen]

Haven't played the game, it's on order, but I was wondering why scouts would be loaded with bombs. Wouldn't they want to maximize their fuel efficiency for maximum scouting range and loitering time?

[Gary McClellan]

That's certainly an option, but carrying bombs is also historical. For instance at the Battle of Santa Cruz, US Scouts managed to knock the Zuiho out of the battle. Typically, US scouts would carry a 500lb bomb, instead of the standard 1000lb used for strike aircraft.

Further, on the IJN side, the USS Princeton at Leyte Gulf and the USS Franklin off Japan were hit by solo aircraft that managed to get in undetected. It's unclear if they were scouts or what though.

[mister T]

  Wake_error.zip (Size: 22.36 KB / Downloads: 3) I need help about aircrafts control :

in the Wake scenario, I have 3 strikes, each is followed by an escort of F4F.

But it's not working at all. I checked the "assign Dialog, everything look good,
but 2 of the escort flights don't follow the strikes. They flight in another direction, it seems that they want to regroup with the other F4F flight.

Sorry if it's not clear, so I take a picture of what happens:



the save is the attachment.

What am I doing wrong ??

[Gary McClellan]

Hrms... you know, it looks to me like you're doing everything right on this. At least I can't figure it out. I'm going to send this up the line and see if I can find out anything.

[mister T]

thanks for your quick reply.

I continue to check on this save, even if I delete the missions and try to create new ones, I can' t assign the escorts flights to the strike I choose.

In fact, it seems to go well in the Package dialog, but as soon as I create the 2nd and 3rd escort, they go and follow the first one (or only the VB3)

generally, aircrafts missions works, but if I want to change them during play, or after I 've taken some of them with manual control, it starts to go bad ??

Another thing: during air to air combat, my fighters attack the ennemy bombers one (or 2) time and then go away. Sometimes they have still munitions but are quite asleep. I have to control them if I want them to attack several times ! Is it normal ?

[Gary McClellan]

I'd have to see a replay of what you mean about your fighters. Once you do ANYTHING with your fighters manually, they'll get dumb until you give them new orders, so that might be the issue.

[mister T]

OK, so maybe too much manual control over my units.

Have you got any news about my escorts problems ?

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I've started an AAR (in french, sorry ;) ), with pictures and animated gifs. But just for eyes pleasure, you can have a look here:
http://www.leqg.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=12042