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Post by garrisonchisholm on Jan 14, 2019 22:58:24 GMT -6
There will be floatplanes, you can add a varying amount of them, and yes, they do provide benefits. Both abstractly in raider hunting but also tactical scouting in battles. Very cool! I can't wait! I blew the dust off my old copy of RTW last night in anticipation and am in the middle of a campaign as Japan right now (I still binge on it occasionally). Fun times! Looking forward to carriers! Before you get lost in Japan, good sir, allow me to admit my avatar envy. I came across 'you' while I was compiling the AAR thread and wished I could put together something like that; very classy, bravo!
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AiryW
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Post by AiryW on Jan 14, 2019 23:02:38 GMT -6
Catapult-launched aircraft were used for spotting for gunnery, scouting for the fleet and in the case of convoys, Catapult-Aided merchantmen used for convoy protection in the case of aircraft attacks. They could also be used for the delivery of important personnel, transfer of personnel and the movement of supplies. They could also be used for bombing but that was never successful. Now I want to see an auxiliary ships crammed full of catapult bombers. Take a dozen 20 kTon oilers and cram them with 40 bombers each. The ships would have no recovery equipment; the bombers would need to land on dry earth and be loaded with dockside cranes. Useless as an offensive weapon but think of the possibilities of being able to deploy a swarm of 500 bombers to some tiny airstrip you are worried about defending.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 14, 2019 23:15:13 GMT -6
Catapult-launched aircraft were used for spotting for gunnery, scouting for the fleet and in the case of convoys, Catapult-Aided merchantmen used for convoy protection in the case of aircraft attacks. They could also be used for the delivery of important personnel, transfer of personnel and the movement of supplies. They could also be used for bombing but that was never successful. Now I want to see an auxiliary ships crammed full of catapult bombers. Take a dozen 20 kTon oilers and cram them with 40 bombers each. The ships would have no recovery equipment; the bombers would need to land on dry earth and be loaded with dockside cranes. Useless as an offensive weapon but think of the possibilities of being able to deploy a swarm of 500 bombers to some tiny airstrip you are worried about defending. Well, how about the IJN Nisshin which carried 25 Kawanishi E7k Type 94 and Nakajima E8N and Mitsubishi F1m Floatplanes. Five of the aircraft were spares.
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Post by garychildress on Jan 15, 2019 0:17:22 GMT -6
Very cool! I can't wait! I blew the dust off my old copy of RTW last night in anticipation and am in the middle of a campaign as Japan right now (I still binge on it occasionally). Fun times! Looking forward to carriers! Before you get lost in Japan, good sir, allow me to admit my avatar envy. I came across 'you' while I was compiling the AAR thread and wished I could put together something like that; very classy, bravo! Thank you. I appreciate the compliment, sir. EDIT: I used JASC Animation Shop but I believe GIMP (freeware) also has the functionality to create simple animations out of still frames.
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AiryW
Full Member
Posts: 183
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Post by AiryW on Jan 15, 2019 13:04:30 GMT -6
Now I want to see an auxiliary ships crammed full of catapult bombers. Take a dozen 20 kTon oilers and cram them with 40 bombers each. The ships would have no recovery equipment; the bombers would need to land on dry earth and be loaded with dockside cranes. Useless as an offensive weapon but think of the possibilities of being able to deploy a swarm of 500 bombers to some tiny airstrip you are worried about defending. Well, how about the IJN Nisshin which carried 25 Kawanishi E7k Type 94 and Nakajima E8N and Mitsubishi F1m Floatplanes. Five of the aircraft were spares. Not nearly crazy enough, it's a purpose built ship. Seaplane tenders are imho a disappointment since if converted to light carriers they could carry more numerous and useful aircraft. Besides, the seaplanes can be spread out among non dedicated ships. What I find entertaining is the notion of making a catapult ship from a civilian vessel without really building it. Just shove a bunch of planes on there and hope for the best! Or they could try putting a few catapults on oilers while still using them as oilers. Call them the Balkans class.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Jan 15, 2019 14:38:21 GMT -6
Well, how about the IJN Nisshin which carried 25 Kawanishi E7k Type 94 and Nakajima E8N and Mitsubishi F1m Floatplanes. Five of the aircraft were spares. Not nearly crazy enough, it's a purpose built ship. Seaplane tenders are imho a disappointment since if converted to light carriers they could carry more numerous and useful aircraft. Besides, the seaplanes can be spread out among non dedicated ships. What I find entertaining is the notion of making a catapult ship from a civilian vessel without really building it. Just shove a bunch of planes on there and hope for the best! Or they could try putting a few catapults on oilers while still using them as oilers. Call them the Balkans class. (Mind you, I gave this my Like not because I thought it was a good idea, but because it was indeed suitably crazy. )
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Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 15, 2019 14:49:20 GMT -6
Well, how about the IJN Nisshin which carried 25 Kawanishi E7k Type 94 and Nakajima E8N and Mitsubishi F1m Floatplanes. Five of the aircraft were spares. Not nearly crazy enough, it's a purpose built ship. Seaplane tenders are imho a disappointment since if converted to light carriers they could carry more numerous and useful aircraft. Besides, the seaplanes can be spread out among non dedicated ships. What I find entertaining is the notion of making a catapult ship from a civilian vessel without really building it. Just shove a bunch of planes on there and hope for the best! Or they could try putting a few catapults on oilers while still using them as oilers. Call them the Balkans class. Seaplane tenders are not aircraft carriers and were not intended for that purpose. Their purpose was maintenance, and trust me, seaplanes and floatplanes take a lot of maintenance. As far as improvisation, it goes with the territory.... war does that to you. If you need more ASW support, say along a coastline, then taking a commercial vessel and converting it to carry seaplanes and floatplanes makes perfectly good sense. You do what you must, to satisfy a need in any operation. That is the way real war works, not games. During the war, if you wanted to setup a base quickly, you could send in tenders, seaplane tenders included. They provide maintenance, medical services, food, rest areas and many times command centers. This was their main purpose until the island could be developed by our Seabee's.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 15, 2019 15:41:07 GMT -6
Just some of missions that the seaplane tenders were asked to perform. The Nisshin along with five destroyers were sent to Guadalcanal to provided heavy heavy weapons. The tender McFarland carried 200 drums of av gas and twelve torpedoes for Guadalcanal. The Ballard was sent to Vanikoro in the Santa Cruz Islands to provide service to the flying boats. These are just three of the missions that seaplane tenders were asked to do during the early days of the Pacific War.
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Post by jwsmith26 on Jan 15, 2019 18:37:21 GMT -6
In RTW2, seaplane carriers are quite useful in the early game. They become available well before aircraft carriers, but until catapults are researched they must stop to crane out and launch their planes from the sea. Even so, the advantage of sending seaplanes out in front of your fleet can be significant. After playing with aerial scouts I can tell you that you feel quite blind when starting a 1900 game with no aerial scouting available until the teens. They are still useful later when their floatplanes can take over some of the scouting duties from valuable carrier planes.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 15, 2019 18:50:57 GMT -6
In RTW2, seaplane carriers are quite useful in the early game. They become available well before aircraft carriers, but until catapults are researched they must stop to crane out and launch their planes from the sea. Even so, the advantage of sending seaplanes out in front of your fleet can be significant. After playing with aerial scouts I can tell you that you feel quite blind when starting a 1900 game with no aerial scouting available until the teens. They are still useful later when their floatplanes can take over some of the scouting duties from valuable carrier planes. If I am developing an air wing for my carriers I will ensure that it has two dive bomber squadrons, one specifically designed for scouting. The dive bombers can fly faster, higher and have the same range plus they can carry a bomb, possibly a 500 lbs. bomb and use it on targets of opportunity.
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Post by zedfifty on Jan 31, 2019 20:27:58 GMT -6
Will it be easy for planes to spot coal-fired ships? Historically, the Washington Treaty led to the disposal of many of these ships. Hypothetically, however, the risk of airplane spotting could have been the death-knell of the dirt-burners.
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Post by galagagalaxian on Feb 4, 2019 2:00:10 GMT -6
I think ease of spotting Coal fired ships vs oil fired ships was already in RtW 1. I know the smoke from coal fired ships was being factored in other ways (Smoke obscuring accuracy and such depending on wind direction).
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Post by mycophobia on Feb 4, 2019 12:59:39 GMT -6
Well, how about the IJN Nisshin which carried 25 Kawanishi E7k Type 94 and Nakajima E8N and Mitsubishi F1m Floatplanes. Five of the aircraft were spares. Not nearly crazy enough, it's a purpose built ship. Seaplane tenders are imho a disappointment since if converted to light carriers they could carry more numerous and useful aircraft. Besides, the seaplanes can be spread out among non dedicated ships. What I find entertaining is the notion of making a catapult ship from a civilian vessel without really building it. Just shove a bunch of planes on there and hope for the best! Or they could try putting a few catapults on oilers while still using them as oilers. Call them the Balkans class. While likely way out of the scope of the game, you can insist that rocket assisted captapult like the ones British used to be installed on Every merchant ship.now your convoys can act like mini aircraft carriers XD
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Post by jwsmith26 on Feb 4, 2019 13:48:48 GMT -6
Well, how about the IJN Nisshin which carried 25 Kawanishi E7k Type 94 and Nakajima E8N and Mitsubishi F1m Floatplanes. Five of the aircraft were spares. Not nearly crazy enough, it's a purpose built ship. Seaplane tenders are imho a disappointment since if converted to light carriers they could carry more numerous and useful aircraft. Besides, the seaplanes can be spread out among non dedicated ships. What I find entertaining is the notion of making a catapult ship from a civilian vessel without really building it. Just shove a bunch of planes on there and hope for the best! Or they could try putting a few catapults on oilers while still using them as oilers. Call them the Balkans class. Surely you meant to say,"Call them the Sangamon class". The Sangamons were a class of US Navy escort carriers that were built from oilers. They retained much of their oil capacity and were used in a dual role as carriers and as fleet oilers.
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