Surprise attack force dispositions

[doktor57]

I'm playing as Japan.  When war begins, I accept the opportunity to launch a surprise attack.  My forces start widely separated.
The DD divisions, which I would like to use in a torpedo run, are under AI control.  The AI usually vaporizes a TR, using the torps,
and then impales itself upon 11" coastal batteries.  Is there anyway I can get, and keep, control of the DD divisions at the start
of an engagement?

[galagagalaxian]

What mode are you playing? If you select Captain's Mode you should be able to switch them over to manual control. You can also do that in Rear Admiral's mode (I believe) but the division has to be in visual range of your flagship to be switched over.

[Sven]

if you play on admirals mode, you can also give the order to retire after the Torpedos are fired!

[elouda]

Jul 27, 2015 5:02:12 GMT -6 Sven said:

if you play on admirals mode, you can also give the order to retire after the Torpedos are fired!

Alternatively if you want them to fall back and reform on the main body (if you want to use the BBs to finish things for example), you can just assign them to 'Support' whatever your lead BB division is, and turn off flotilla attack if its still active. This generally takes a short while, but means they wont just run off.

[dessard]

I find that, because torpedoes can't seem to target ships at dock, it's best to run them back to the battleships *immediately* and come in for torpedo runs later. I've literally never hit a ship not yet underway, but sunk plenty of battleships and CAs with them later.

[tc27]

I think this is something that needs to be looked at as it never works as intended - like the OP my experience is they expend all their torps on the first ship they find (usually a TR or MS just outside the harbour) and then proceed to make endless spirals under the enemies guns...very annoying.

[gornik]

Jul 28, 2015 3:53:50 GMT -6 tc27 said:

I think this is something that needs to be looked at as it never works as intended - like the OP my experience is they expend all their torps on the first ship they find (usually a TR or MS just outside the harbour) and then proceed to make endless spirals under the enemies guns...very annoying.

First part of your experience is, in my opinion, very historical - in night attack it is very hard to find proper target, so wasting torpedoes to insufficient ships is intended. Second part, however, sounds reasonable - ship tendency to "lock" near enemy (sometimes whole DD flotilla runs around sinking merchant, while other ships fight with enemy fleet) is bug, I think.

[ccip]

I think ships on "independent" assignments have always been a little wonky in SAI. I don't usually run into this because after the attack, I simply switch them to "support" and they quickly fall in on the formation. However, I think behaviour of these forces on "independent" tasks should be looked at - might be worth looking into a "support" fallback autoswitch for these missions to avoid the confusion.