New Player Q's: Torpedoes, Fuel Type, Campaign

[tortugapower]

1) TORPEDOES:
(A) I've had enemy ships dead-in-the-water and wanted to command a nearby destroyer to finish them off with a torpedo or two. How does one do that? I set the DD to manual control and moved him at the enemy ship, but the DD only used his guns. I read the thread entitled "When do DDs launch torps?" but am still unclear.

(B) A DD launched a torpedo (!!), and the graphic went through an enemy ship within the minute "turn progression", but at the end of the turn there was no hit with the torpedo. What should I take away from the graphical display on the map, considering the torpedo passed through an enemy ship?

(C) related to (A), I'm only familiar with WWII tactics, but is there a way to send ships on a torpedo barrage of oncoming ships in hopes of getting lucky? "Not available because of tactics at this time" valid response if true


2) FUEL TYPE:
As I understand, the only difference between oil and coal is oil is lower weight but higher cost, but am I missing something? Is access to one location providing oil sufficient for all fuel needs?


3) CAMPAIGN:
I'm only in the middle of my first campaign (USA), but...
(A) Do enemy nations fight each other, possibly I'm unaware of it or it's factored in the background, or is it "let's take turns beating up the Human"?

(B) How do I stop enemy convoy raiders? I have a fleet of ships as "Active Fleet" but the enemy raiders in the same area continue seemingly unmolested. The only convoy defense mission I received was one with total fleet involvement, from Battleships down, and I'm not sure it even contained the guilty parties (i.e., the raiders).

(C) How does running out of fuel work on the world map? Is it a random chance based on my range (short/medium/long)? Does the use of the "colonial" modifier aid this (based on text from the manual to the effect of seemingly operating more independently)? Or is there a hidden timer, e.g., 2 turns for short, 3 for medium, 4 for long? If the latter, I guess I should return my raiders to friendly waters every X turns to refuel.


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Thanks a lot guys. More questions to come, surely!  When I return home and play some more...

Also, it's really nice to see Fredrik here on the forums and commenting on people's ideas and such. That gives the feeling of an intimate community.

Good hunting! ~Tort

[trenton59]

Hope this helps:

1.A: On the squadron overview there is a button to fire torpedoes manually, but I think that it is only present in captain difficulty

1.B: I think that means the torpedo either missed, or was a dud. As far as the tactical display I think it will only remove torpedoes if they detonate ore reach their maximum range.

1.C: If you are asking if you can tell your destroyers to attack en-mass, then there is a button on the squadron overview which will do that, select the squadron the destroyers are screening/supporting, and click the button labeled 'Flotilla Attack' it can take a few minutes for the attack to form, but it should not be limited by tech, as far as I know.

2: I don't think there is anything that you are missing, and yes, one location can fuel an unlimited number of ships.

3.A: It's factored into the background, but only if a nation is allied to you and you end up in a war; then your ally can gain VPs and sink/lose ships, but only through events.

3.B: You are doing about all that can be done, occasionally you will get events where one of your BC/CA/CL class ships will intercept an enemy raider, this is usually a 1v1 engagement and is the only way to directly kill raiders that I know of.

3.C: I think it is random based on the range and maybe engine reliability.

[tortugapower]

Thanks trenton! Another thing: OOB (order of battle)

There are definitely many times when I want a Division split into several different parts. Ideally, I'd like separate control of each ship sometimes, but the main time when I disagree with groupings is when it is between two different ship designs. Is there any way to split up a battle division?

Mainly this applies when I have a 17 knot Battleship paired with a more modern 23 knot one. Also, I've had it where one B was hit and I was given the option to "Detach" -- but I assume this sends the unit home, when I only want that B to idle until she gets her flooding under control. I don't want the whole division penalized waiting for her until then, though.

Maybe I just have to be careful not to put two different Battleship designs in the same region (which would be the least pleasant solution, but quite doable!).

[trenton59]

You can, but only if a ship is sufficiently damaged. Otherwise, you are stuck, but there is nothing stopping you from increasing the squadrons speed until the slower ship cannot keep up, if it falls far enough behind it will usually detach on it's own, but will re-attach itself if it gets close enough.

[director]

At the beginning of the game, when techs are primitive, torpedo attacks are hard to deliver successfully (unless you are the AI and I'm driving one of my newest battleships - but I digress).
Set the flotilla up as best you can, make sure the target is set to the ship(s) you want and leave them be - they'll eventually get a solution, or not. In early turns it helps if the target is going very slow or stopped. As an example, in my last battle I had the Byzantine battle-line out for a cruise and ran into the Spanish steam-powered armada. They kept pushing in and closing the range with a group of old, weak B's. My lead ships were all semi-dreadnoughts, so I proceeded to knock them silly. Then it got dark so I turned my B's away but my destroyers decided it was time... final score, they lost 1 B to a shell in the magazine and 5 more to torpedoes. My flagship took a torp in the fracas in the dark but limited flooding and made it out OK.

Watch your 'in service' list. Usually (but not always) a ship will show a * by its status when it is getting low - then you should immediately move it back to a friendly area. Obviously having long or extreme range (or a friendly base in the area) helps. Getting a mechanical malfunction is, I think, just random chance but if you don't have a base there you will be interned (or scuttled).

All of the missions come up somewhat randomly, so stopping a raider just means that one of the missions was selected. Think of it this way: in the 1900's a blockade could be pretty loose and it was not impossible for ships to run in or out, you just sometimes catch one.

Your divisions are set up for you and you have to fight what you get (or know when to turn around and cruise back to port). When the Russian Baltic Fleet sortied for the Far East the civilian bosses attached a lot of old, slow ships to Rozhestvensky's squadron, over his protests. They slowed his progress a lot, meaning Port Arthur (his fleet base) fell before he could get there, and they were worthless in the fight at Tsushima.

[tortugapower]

Thanks trenton and director both!

Yes, director, I seem to get hit by torpedoes quite frequently; that's why I ask the question. I'm still in only my first campaign as USA in prolonged war against Great Britain, victory points are about 22k me/USA vs 9k GB. Unfortunately, ~8 of their 9k is probably from torpedo damage.

I'm good at sponging up torpedo hits, maybe ten or so(!), but I've only ever even fired that ONE torpedo that I mentioned -- the one which I guess leaped a wave in choppy water right in front of the enemy ship and then plunged right under the hull...

Another question for you all! "Obsolete" (Mind you, I feel I'm getting decent at this game, but I'm a very inquisitive individual.)
I have ships with an (O) after their year, e.g., 1899 (O), which surely represents Obsolete. Is the (O) just a reminder, or does it notify of an impact to ship performance in any way? I could find no mention within the manual.

[trenton59]

It leads to increased maintenance costs, and I think it also impacts the chance that events will take the ship out of action for a few months for repairs, additionally, it may increase the chance that the ship suffers engine trouble in battle.

[Roumba]

They also perform more poorly in the ASW/Costal Patrol role, if I am remembering the Dev correctly.

[director]

O 'means only that she's growing old' to quote the maudlin song of yesteryear. I believe it happens to any ship over 10 years of age but it seems to strike MS hardest - they die like flies. You can always open up the design for a rebuild... I got very good value out of a fast, cheap rebuild of my battleline with the latest fire-control. When they went up against the Spaniards, who I think had not gotten the latest system - well. I enjoyed it very much.

The ship icons are (I think) about twice their actual size. Plus if you look at the historical record there are endless cases of a torpedo missing a ship by just a few feet. In one of my recent games my 'Constantinople' got torpedoed - by a dud. That's information you get on the receiving end that the attacker never knows. So what looked like a torpedo passing safely under a ship might be that or it might just be a very close miss muddled by the icon being twice too big. Or the depth setting was wrong, or something went wrong with the machinery that keeps the torpedo running level. There are no magnetic exploders in this time; you have to hit the target or nothing happens.

Later, when your DDs get double and triple and quad mounts, and you can build DDs of 1000 tons and up, you'll be able to put enough torps in the water to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies. Until then, it's just luck.

I have found that I have to keep my aggressive instincts in check or I get torpedoed. Especially in night and/or bad weather... sometimes my DDs rush to the front and threaten (or make) torpedo attacks; sometimes the enemy does. Generally speaking, the elephants need to keep a wary eye on the mice, and if the critters come rushing at you, TURN AWAY. At least that's what I'm doing, and it seems to be helping. But until 1915 or so (depending on when you get techs), your 'small boys' will need a slowed or stopped target.

What really chaps my... um, upsets my digestion is when my battleships straggle all over the ocean, leaving my flagship and perhaps one other to take on the entire enemy line.

[JagdFlanker]

tip regarding obsolete ships - you can do a 'dummy refit' on them by selecting 'open design for rebuild', saving without changing anything, then rebuild all the ships in that class

you actually gain budget by doing this since (usually) the refit costs less than the ship maintenance if it were still in service, which might be a little bit game-y (i don't abuse it, but i'm sure it could be)

i do this with all my MS - i build 40 at the start of the game and they last me through to the end of the game since you never need 'better' coastal patrol ships