USS Yorktown Repair Rule

[bcoopactual]

Something for a bit down the line but the patchwork repair of USS Yorktown prior to the battle of Midway was mentioned in a recent thread and I thought it would be an engaging feature if it could be added to the game.

Have a ship that has been damaged that would normally require several months of repair and designate it for emergency repairs to make it available for the next turn.  The ship would be available for use the next turn but would start any scenario missing about 15-20% of its structure and float points to represent that only the most critical repairs and replacements had been made to get it back into the fight.  

It provides the opportunity for a great story much like the historical Yorktown.

Obviously there would have to be limitations to prevent abuse or commonplace use that lessens the impact.
Possible limits for consideration:
-It would be expensive.
-It might require a minimum level of base capacity simulating the needed infrastructure.  
-Perhaps no other ships in that area get credit for repair time that month because the shipyard workers were all sent to concentrate on the designated ship.
-Could be performed on only one ship at a time and maybe have a cooldown time. It required rolling blackouts in Honolulu to support the electrical needs of the repair crews.  Not something a civilian populace would be happy about occurring repeatedly.


It would be helpful from a player engagement and storytelling perspective if the game forced a battle in that ocean area the next turn and included the ship.  After all, why go to those extreme lengths to get the ship ready if there isn't an impending operation for it.  That could be problematic to program of course.   

There would eventually be the need for a full repair and refit to restore the ship to 100% operating condition so something similar to a blank refit mechanism would be required to clear the damage to the float and structure points.   

[dizzy]

Ohhh! I like emergency repair idea! Can this be made a game mechanic? The OP post is awesome!

[mycophobia]

I second the idea, and will also be cool if the AI can pull this on the player as well. It will make for some good nasty surprise moments.

Even before carrier is relevant, it will be cool to see that damaged BC coming back when you thought you can press the advantage for a few months.

[alsadius]

It doesn't even necessarily need to be a player option. Just have it fire as an option before the combat starts.

"Our repair crews have managed to quickly patch up the HMS Example. It can be ready to participate in this fight, but it may be suffering from some lingering damage. [Yes]/[No]."

If they take it, they get the ship added to their OOB, with random damage between, say, 0-20% on each bar. If they don't, it repairs normally.

[dizzy]

Lotsa possibilities here!

[arminpfano]

Hm, do you really care if some of your ships are under repair for a couple of months? This happens all the time, mostly because of mines and sub torpedos. I haven´t encountered a situation where I frantically would have needed a certain ship back immediately. The only important thing is to get the own ships back from battle still floating, while the enemy lost his completely.

Additionally for a battle you do not get all of your available ships automatically, but only some of them. So even if your ship is repaired, you maybe won´t get it.

So I am not certain if this really adds much to the game. On the other side - why not, it should be relatively easy to implement...

[rimbecano]

The problem is that:

1) The one month turns in RTW make repairs, even from fairly heavy damage, quite quick to complete in game terms.
2) There's not really the modeling of the type of advance intel on enemy operations that let the USN know that getting Yorktown back into service ASAP was necessary.
3) The way battles are currently generated makes the selection of ships for a battle random enough that it wouldn't really producea noticeable difference.

[rob06waves2018]

Jun 6, 2019 14:29:41 GMT -6 arminpfano said:

Hm, do you really care if some of your ships are under repair for a couple of months? This happens all the time, mostly because of mines and sub torpedos. I haven´t encountered a situation where I frantically would have needed a certain ship back immediately. The only important thing is to get the own ships back from battle still floating, while the enemy lost his completely.

If you are severely outgunned and almost blockaded e.g. when fighting Britain, it would be really useful if a large capital ship hit a mine. A ship like that in a fleet battle can be the difference between winning and losing.

[alsadius]

Jun 6, 2019 14:29:41 GMT -6 arminpfano said:

Hm, do you really care if some of your ships are under repair for a couple of months? This happens all the time, mostly because of mines and sub torpedos. I haven´t encountered a situation where I frantically would have needed a certain ship back immediately. The only important thing is to get the own ships back from battle still floating, while the enemy lost his completely.

Additionally for a battle you do not get all of your available ships automatically, but only some of them. So even if your ship is repaired, you maybe won´t get it.

So I am not certain if this really adds much to the game. On the other side - why not, it should be relatively easy to implement...

That's a big part of why I suggested the variant that I did. It means that the repaired ship is always added to your OOB for the battle, so it'll make a difference if it happens.