Midway questions

[jonnymacbrown]

What is a deployment box? I played out the Philippine Sea scenario and never saw it come into play. Nor is it mentioned in User Guide. Doesn't seem to be any land based air in the scenario either. Finally it seems that the Zero and Hellcat are pretty equal (exactly equal?). How can that be? Unit morale, ship morale doesn't seem to play any part either.  jonny

[Stejones82]

A "Deployment Box" is a scenario design feature. The scenario designer can define a geographic area "box" for initial placement of ships/units. This feature is nice so that any given scenario does not play the same way each time.

For example, if you play the "Getting Started" scenario in Midway more than once, you will find that the Japanese fleet does not always appear in the same place.

You are right in that there is no way for the player to know this unless it is mentioned in the scenario description.

I have not yet played that scenario, so I cannot address the Land Based Air question. Land based air units are possible in the game.

And again, it is not always easy to compare units, but if you open the "help" menu and then click "Database data" you will find the significant parameters for every unit. Aircraft are towards the end. A quick check shows that the two are fairly equivalent, with a slight speed and dogfight advantage to the Hellcat.

You are correct in that morale and training quality do not enter the game mechanics.

Hope this helps!

[jonnymacbrown]

And again, it is not always easy to compare units, but if you open the "help" menu and then click "Database data" you will find the significant parameters for every unit.  Aircraft are towards the end.  A quick check shows that the two are fairly equivalent, with a slight speed and dogfight advantage to the Hellcat.  

You are correct in that morale and training quality do not enter the game mechanics.

Hope this helps!

I let the A/I play out the whole Philippine Sea scenario. Japan lost 200 planes and the USN 400. It was a reverse Turkey Shoot! The IJN never managed to launch an attack while the USN did. I'm going to play the IJN and let the A/I play the USN. Is there a way to figure out range or is it eyeball?
I just bought this game because I thought it was an update. It's exactly the same as it was 15 years ago when I first bought it.
jonny

[Gary McClellan]

A few notes.
First of all, training *is* in there, just fairly deeply hidden. If you look in the pdt files there are values (in the Misc Values) section with a dogfight value for the respective sides. (Likewise with AAA values a bit higher up)

So, in the scenario you're playing he US value is 1, and the IJN value is .5. If you look in the manual under "Dogfight Resolution", the base equation to do damage is Dogfight(T1) x Vunerable(T2) x Training Modifier.

The TM is defined as Dogfight Mod1/DogfightMod2

So, to wit, in the scenario you are playing. An A6M5 Zero has a Dogfight of .5 and a Vun of .4, with a DM of .5. A F6F is Dogfight .6, Vun .4 and a DM of 1

So, let's go through this. The way it works is that each side has its planes shoot, and a hit takes down a plane.
As the TM is defined for each side's shots (USN shots have one value, IJN shots have another). For the USN, the value is 2 (1/.5) while for the IJN it is .5 (.5/1)

Thus, an A6M5 Zero shot is .5*.4*.5 =.1, so a 10% chance of getting a hit.
An F6F in those circumstances is .6*.4*2=.48 so a 48% chance of getting a hit.

If you notice, the main issue there is the Dogfight Value per side.


Next, assuming you're talking about the 1st Day scenario, there's a full air group at Orote field for the IJN. Not sure why you are saying there isn't any Land Based Air.

to figure out ranges, it is mostly eyeball, but there are a couple of helpful tricks
1) Turn on the Range Grid, with "Distances set in Nautical Miles"
2) Turn on Distances which will draw a series of circles from your currently selected ship at chosen intervals. Between the two you can come reasonably close.

[Gary McClellan]

As for Deployment boxes, Steve has the basics of it. I'd have to go in and look, but if I recall correctly, i used deployment boxes for ANY hypothetical scenario, and then noted the ones (like the PS one) where it was a historical scenario that used them. (If you note, there is also a "historical location" scenario as well.)

[jonnymacbrown]

As for Deployment boxes, Steve has the basics of it. I'd have to go in and look, but if I recall correctly, i used deployment boxes for ANY hypothetical scenario, and then noted the ones (like the PS one) where it was a historical scenario that used them. (If you note, there is also a "historical location" scenario as well.)

Thanks for the analysis. Very helpful. Yes there are land based attack bombers on Guam: I forget that you have to double-click in this game. jonny