Screen ships really need to be ahead of the capital ship

[brygun]

Its become even more of a problem with how missile attacks work. The DD that are supposed to be screening are behind the BB.

Well BB is now the primary target for all the incoming missiles. This is BAD. The BB is the high value target the DD are supposed to protecting.

Also.. .the DD can't attack properly. It was annoying in the torpedo age but manageable to run the DD ahead. In the missile age the attacks take place much quicker on sighting by radar. The DD can't fire its missiles due to the friendly ship in the way... the BB its supposed to be protecting.


The screen logic needs to make use of the scouting logic. In that the screen like the scout should be ahead of the protected ship. The screen would be "close" while the "scouts" are far away. Close enough that it would usually add HAA. By being ahead the DD can fire the missiles.

A BB needing to fire the missiles could put the DD on support which would mean close behind (screen being close ahead).

I think changing screen to close ahead using code similiar to scouting makes it more manageable in man hours for the devs to put in.

[vonfriedman]

In the movements that preceded the night battle of Matapan, the Italian destroyers found themselves behind the cruisers, with fatal consequences for the latter. Among the reasons given for this violation of the navigation rules at night was the difficulty of reaching the head of the formation after a 180° change of direction.

[brygun]

Jun 15, 2023 3:00:16 GMT -6 vonfriedman said:

In the movements that preceded the night battle of Matapan, the Italian destroyers found themselves behind the cruisers, with fatal consequences for the latter. Among the reasons given for this violation of the navigation rules at night was the difficulty of reaching the head of the formation after a 180° change of direction.

Handy tid bit, so thanks for the history. In relation to RTW3:

= Note that ahead of the cruisers WAS the expected position

= It was a hard turn that left them out of place. This is already modeled in RTW3. On the protected ship turning the screen would change course but then have to speed along a while to get back ahead.

So what happened historically is desired in RTW3 but currently its always trailing.