New to SAI - How to Assign Ships Correctly and Other Things

[blarglol]

So having played RTW2/3, I wanted to check out Steam & Iron to explore operational as opposed to strategic gameplay. So far I like the idea of it and the potential it has, but I am just caught up on some of the more functionally-opaque things.

First and most importantly - how exactly do I allocate ships precisely to different missions/objectives/assignments/what-have-you? I see you can activate a given vessel (or division, or fleet) either by right clicking or with the button on the UI, but which objective will it be positioned towards?

For example, I say I want a minelaying mission in addition to the main objective (sink X amount of Y ships, etc.). I "load mines" on a mine-capable ship, and activate it too. How do I make that vessel go lay mines, and how do I have ships deploy with it in the correct position, as opposed to the main fleet?

When I select an objective and the "S" appears next to it, do any ships I "activate" are then assigned solely to that objective? Basically, what is the point of "selecting" an objective, as from what I have seen, ships seem to deploy in a blob together anyway.

[vonfriedman]

When you select an objective you simply enable yourself to collect the corresponding VPs.
After that you must activate the ships you deem necessary to achieve that objective, taking care that they are not less than the minimum required. e.g. if you need to reach point X with 4 dreadnoughts, you can also activate the whole fleet, but you have to make sure that at least 4 of your dreadnoughts pass through that point sooner or later.
Ditto for laying mines. You can do this with the required minimum of unescorted minelayers or activate more along with other ships that will escort them.
At this point you are able to move the divisions and/or flotillas you have activated and you can do whatever you want with them, except detach ships. They - until damaged - always remain part of their division or flotilla.
This - in my opinion - is half a bug in the game, perhaps mirroring WW1 practices, but unrealistic. Furthermore, ships at the limit of autonomy cannot be sent to refuel in a nearby port, and then go back to sea. Once they enter port they are lost for the game.
During the game, when some enemy ship is sighted and the emergency activation icon lights up (top right), you can click on it and activate some or all of the remaining ships, at a halved OP cost (this is a big plus).
I hope I was helpful.

[vonfriedman]

I add this too.
To assign ships to different objectives, there are two possibilities.
The first is that the ships belong to different "Forces" (ed. Battle Cruiser Force for the objective "Sink X ships of Y type" and Harwich Force for minelaying)
The second is to take advantage of the emergency activation, which allows you - repeating it several times - to create other task forces, almost at will.

[blarglol]

@vondfiedman - yes this is helpful for sure. But one thing I don't understand is how the game separates the units and initially deploys them on the map. For example, I assigned the battlecruisers with accompanying escorts to go sink some ships, while I also activated a minelayer and three accompanying DDs to lay mines.

But the issue is the minelayer and escorts, while part of a different force, were lumped into the same initial deployment as the battlecruisers and had quite a ways to steam (this is as the Germans). Is there a way to make the minelayers and DDs start closer to the objective?

The other issue is determining what gets the flag for the minelaying force, as I often get messages about the BC flagship being out of range and the minelaying TF defaulting to AI control, making it hard to actually complete the objective.

[vonfriedman]

Your answer makes me think you are playing in Admiral Mode, with very limited control over dependent task forces.
I prefer to play in Rear Admiral mode. In this case (at the risk of repeating myself) when you activate your ships, at the beginning of the turn, you can get a single independent task force for each "Force" (e.g. playing as UK: one for the BCF, one for the Grand Fleet, one for the Harwich Force; max three task forces with relative flagships). The ships of each task force always sail together, according to their roles and the movements assigned to the flagship. So, if you want to have a task force with some minelayers, which operates independently of another task force made up of battleships or cruisers, you need to make sure the minelayers belong to a different "Force".
However, you can get around these limitations with Emergency Activation. Practical example: at the beginning of the turn you set sail with the minelayers and some DDs, in order to fulfill the objective of laying a minefield somewhere. Then, at the first opportunity, you activate other warships OF THE SAME FORCE in order to protect the minelayers, or for any other purpose. Thus you will have two task forces to maneuver independently of each other, even if the "Force" to which they belong is the same. And you can repeat this "trick" as many times as you like.
Emergency Activation offers another benefit, besides halving the OP cost per ship: playing with 2 weeks per turn you can use ships that were under repair with 1 week remaining of work at the start of the turn.
Finally, to answer the last question, at the start of each turn the ships are at their own bases and there is no way to start them from other locations. Ditto (obviously) for the case of emergency activation. However, with the "preempt" option, ships start the turn from a point at sea closer to the enemy's bases.
The "reassign" and "rebase" options may also be used to transfer ships between bases before the turn start.