Post by rimbecano on Jun 18, 2019 23:40:57 GMT -6
So I just started a large coastal raid on France, with 4 capital ships present. One is a 25 knot BB, two are 28 knot fast BBs, and one is an oddball BC, that might better be called a "BAV", at 24 knots.
The "BAV" is a concept I developed to improve my fleet scouting capabilities and extend the service life of an old BB that was to big to become a CVL and didn't have quite the refit-freeable tonnage available to refit into a decent CV. For brevity, I'll describe it as an equivalent to the refit of the Japanese Ise class: armament removed, large floatplane complement added.
Anyways, back to the battle: My capital ships are divided up into two divisions, a Battle division containing the three BBs, and a lone battlecruiser division containing the BAV. Now, given the exact use doctrine I have for the BAV, this isn't too bad, except that I'd probably actually, for a coastal raid, prefer to leave the 25-knot slow BB behind entirely, given that only one spawned for this battle.
However, my general doctrine in this game has been to design alternating classes of fast and slow capital ships, and accepting whatever classification the game gives them (BB or BC). There was a period where my slow heavies were still fast enough to be classified as BCs and 12" of belt wasn't yet necessary for a satisfactory immunity zone against my heaviest guns, so during that period both slow and fast units got classified as BCs, and, of course, later in the game, with high quality 16" and beyond, you reach a point where even an underprotected, fast capital ship carries more than 12" of belt armor and gets classified as a fast BB, so everything I've built for a while has been either fast or slow BBs.
As a result of this, as well as general trends with time towards faster ships in any type, I have some 28 knot+ BBs, and one class of 23 knot BCs. If I'd had these in the same sea-zone, it's not out of the question that this battle would have ended up with me having a 23-knot battlecruiser division and a 28-knot fast BB division, which is a bit absurd. On the other hand, I actually *want* this to happen in the specific case that the BCs in question are old, slow units rebuilt as aeroscouting vessels.
Accordingly, I think a good algorithm for assigning a sensible capital division structure would be something like the following:
1) Determine the number of capital ships that will take part in the battle.
2) Determine which capital ships will be selected for the battle.
3) Look for ships with floatplane complements over a certain value (say 5, or perhaps a value set by the user in preferences), create a BC division, and assign them to it, regardless of whether they are BBs or BCs.
4) If there are large disparities in speeds between the remaining ships present:
a) Assign the fastest ships, regardless of actual classification, to BC divisions. If any of them have about the same speed as the floatplane BCs, assign them to that division, or one following it as core.
b) After the BC divisions have been assigned, assign the remaining ships to BB divisions, regardless of actual classification. If the number of ships assigned to the BB divisions would be much less than the number assigned to BC divisions, and they are about the same speed as the floatplane BCs, assign them to the floatplane BC divisions instead.
5) If there are no large disparities in speed, assign to BB or BC divisions as appropriate to the battle type and unit speeds.
The "BAV" is a concept I developed to improve my fleet scouting capabilities and extend the service life of an old BB that was to big to become a CVL and didn't have quite the refit-freeable tonnage available to refit into a decent CV. For brevity, I'll describe it as an equivalent to the refit of the Japanese Ise class: armament removed, large floatplane complement added.
Anyways, back to the battle: My capital ships are divided up into two divisions, a Battle division containing the three BBs, and a lone battlecruiser division containing the BAV. Now, given the exact use doctrine I have for the BAV, this isn't too bad, except that I'd probably actually, for a coastal raid, prefer to leave the 25-knot slow BB behind entirely, given that only one spawned for this battle.
However, my general doctrine in this game has been to design alternating classes of fast and slow capital ships, and accepting whatever classification the game gives them (BB or BC). There was a period where my slow heavies were still fast enough to be classified as BCs and 12" of belt wasn't yet necessary for a satisfactory immunity zone against my heaviest guns, so during that period both slow and fast units got classified as BCs, and, of course, later in the game, with high quality 16" and beyond, you reach a point where even an underprotected, fast capital ship carries more than 12" of belt armor and gets classified as a fast BB, so everything I've built for a while has been either fast or slow BBs.
As a result of this, as well as general trends with time towards faster ships in any type, I have some 28 knot+ BBs, and one class of 23 knot BCs. If I'd had these in the same sea-zone, it's not out of the question that this battle would have ended up with me having a 23-knot battlecruiser division and a 28-knot fast BB division, which is a bit absurd. On the other hand, I actually *want* this to happen in the specific case that the BCs in question are old, slow units rebuilt as aeroscouting vessels.
Accordingly, I think a good algorithm for assigning a sensible capital division structure would be something like the following:
1) Determine the number of capital ships that will take part in the battle.
2) Determine which capital ships will be selected for the battle.
3) Look for ships with floatplane complements over a certain value (say 5, or perhaps a value set by the user in preferences), create a BC division, and assign them to it, regardless of whether they are BBs or BCs.
4) If there are large disparities in speeds between the remaining ships present:
a) Assign the fastest ships, regardless of actual classification, to BC divisions. If any of them have about the same speed as the floatplane BCs, assign them to that division, or one following it as core.
b) After the BC divisions have been assigned, assign the remaining ships to BB divisions, regardless of actual classification. If the number of ships assigned to the BB divisions would be much less than the number assigned to BC divisions, and they are about the same speed as the floatplane BCs, assign them to the floatplane BC divisions instead.
5) If there are no large disparities in speed, assign to BB or BC divisions as appropriate to the battle type and unit speeds.
