Assign Taskforce groups.

[stevethecat]

Quick Disclaimer: I haven't played all the way through the timelines yet so if this a later 'unlock' then sorry in advance!

Have found having fleet battles with an almost randomised mix of ships that were in no way designed for working together to be a bit irritating, having 3 BBs + 2 BCs and an assortment of other craft in an area and yet the game with pick one BC and a few minesweeping DDs for a combat mission.

So it would be nice to be able to designate task forces, these ships (maybe with total tonnage available linked to the Fleet tactics research tree) would be assigned to each other and chosen as a group. Being able to 'lock' my fast BCs and torpedo focused DDs together into a taskforce so that they always get picked for battle together, like they were designed to be, would be pretty useful and immersive imho.

Thanks.

[rimbecano]

The rationale given for the way things are is that on-paper force structures don't always translate into what actually is present when contact with the enemy occurs, though I do agree that the game could do a better job of allowing us to specify the on paper force structure, with messages at the beginning of battle saying what's different (e.g, "No destroyer division in the theater has enough ships ready to sail, destroyer division 20 has been assembled from available ships.").

And even if it didn't affect combat at all, some means of assigning ships to divisions would be *wonderful* for reducing micromanagement (keep a division on station, but pull individual ships back for refit, and when they're done, they automatically return to the location where their division is stationed, even if the division has been moved since they went in).

EDIT: Even better, assign RF/MB status to an entire division, and when ships in the division come out of refit, they go back to RF/MB, instead of ending up on active duty.

[hoffmads]

Even if we continue to receive randomized collections of ships for battles, it would certainly be nice to be able to assign them to divisions before a battle begins. Last night, in my current game (Royal Navy, 1951), I got into a battleship action against the Germans. My main forces were a division of three fast battleships and two divisions each of one CV. My screening forces were led by two Dido-class CLAAs and three Town-class CLs. These ships were designed basically like the historical ships of the same name, the Towns being surface action ships with 4x3 6" main armament, the Didos being CLAAs consisting mainly of a turret farm of 5" DP in twin mounts with little armor protection. The game assigned my CLAAs to screen the battleships and the Towns as carrier escorts. Though I tried to keep the two Didos out of the fray, I ended up having to order a flotilla attack when it became apparent that the three BBs were facing no fewer than right German BCs, with the ultimate result being the sinking of the CLAAs. I'm ok with getting the ships I get for a battle, but no admiral would have put this best surface warship cruisers with the CVs and his anti-aircraft ships with the surface force.

That being said, I would also be quite happy with the task force system suggested in this thread, which I feel would encourage the construction of the specialized ships built historically

[brygun]

One could have a check on reliablity within a taskforce and possibly add non-task force ships as visitors. Odds should favour a taskforce so the logic could go somehting like:

- Is this a solo battle? if no check for a task force

- If one or more task force present

- If no task force assemble a task force (which the game seems to do)

- Can this be a TF vs TF battle?
(problem... TF of player and AI could be of very different sizes making for lop sided battles)

- When a TF is selected do a reliablity check. Usually a maintained ship will appear. Odds increase with the * maintenance considerably. Reliable engines more likely to appear, speed engines more likely to be missing.

- Query: what if this is battleship or carrier task force and one or all of the key capital ships fail the ready check?

- To balance play add other nearby ships as visitors

[sonofperdition]

Bump, because I wish there was a way to create taskforces, if only to help with micromanagement. It's a pain to remember which class of ship was designed to be sent with which others and what their role was supposed to be and where I wanted to send each particular ship. Whereas creating a taskforce or even a fleet would make that much easier.

[cplrumrunner]

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I send ships to an area specifically to act as a Fast CV TF (2 CVs, 2 BBs, a mix of support cruisers and DDs). When I get an action its 'defend friendly convoy' and I have control of 1 BB, 1 CL, 3 DDs, the other BB is AI controlled with the convoy and wont come help, and the CVs are nowhere to be seen. I end up getting overtaken and stomped by the AI BC squadron. Had my ships performed as intended (CVs attack and maim the enemy capital ships, then my BBs move in to clean up), it would have been a totally different outcome.

Please devs, please give us some kind of way to designate TFs and fleet organization. Randomization isn't just a-historical, its mindbogglingly frustrating.

[felixg92]

Yeah random is too random. Sometimes it works then there is the other times.

6 Fast BB's and 1 destroyer showed up once, the enemy admiral thought this was ok apparently.

Igot 2 bc, 2 bb 2 ca and 4 cl and 12 dd and it gives me a cl and a desdiv to face a heavy surface action group that outnumbers, outguns and outweighs me? One capital would have been likely and nice.

Right. I would be finee with it except for the Damn near uselless torpedoes, that are buggy and usually miss even when you are at 1000 yds, that is if you can even launch because there is always no solution or animaginary friendly ship in the launch path or may only launch once this turn even though you last launched 3 turns ago. Yeah my next class of DD will be rams, no torps just engines hull and guns. Lol. Maybe oars. Pyrrhic victory results i lose everything but kill enough of them to win. Which is an idiotic result for a naval battle that had no surviving ships on the winning side but was not to prevent an invasion.

But I digress......

Criticism the mildest form of compliment.

[dohboy]

What I would like is the ability to build a task force which will always appear together (minus ships rebuilding/repairing/refueling) or not at all, and not appear with other task forces except in fleet battles that were presumably seen coming. All battles that the task force is too large for would have to be made up from another task force or unassigned units. Some types of battles (like fleet battles) you should be able to assemble your fleet at the start of the battle, with the availability of other task forces besides the largest one on a die roll.

The ability to see a weather report before the battle begins would be nice too, if we get to choose the forces we put to sea with it might influence our selection.

Some battles you see coming and should be allowed to prepare for. Others you might have already prepared for by putting the right task force together. I get the arguments about the imbalance against the stupid AI to a certain point, but the answer is to make the AI smarter, not to tie my hands behind my back.

[felixg92]

i sure did not want to send my hard built task force from San Fran to the Phillipines so everyone could have chota pegs and play volleyball, and let my garrison KE, DD, and Cl do the imperative heavy lifting, but thats what happens.... And i didnt send em to be piece mealed away in penny packets either and thats happening too much to my disgust as well. However.

The ai screws itself too....I could win the war with what it misuses. Its building and deployment results are unbalanced mostly, 29 bb but only 24 dd and like 8 ca and cl unbalanced fleets that dont function well sometimes in scenario's.

It can be fun unintentionally too, beating a bb with a ca is awesome! Stuff like that totally makes up for a lot of the i could just shoot myself in the face moments.
Getting a bonus like stumbling on their relatively unescorted carriers with your bb's is another feel good moment when you realize they are sheep not wolves, but only because the deployment and forces were a bit iffy to begin with did it even happen at all.