Firstly, really liking DH. Already at version 1.02 it is superior overall to AoD 1.07, whose devs seem to have gone MIA for the last several months.
However, like all versions of HoI2, naval combat still has some significant issues.
1. As far as the engine is concerned there is no difference between a ship being shot up by 4 CAs with an attack of 10, or a BB with an attack of 40. It just registers 40 shots being fired, determines how many hit and applies a constant amount of damage.
As a result I have often seen BB led fleets being overwhelmed by CA fleets.
IRL the 8" guns of a CA would have mostly bounced harmlessly of a BB, whilst the reverse could not be said about at BBs 14-16" fire.
IIRC AoD models with by by multiplying the damage inflicted by a hit by the attacking ships sea attack, and dividing it by the ship beings hit sea defense. The result is that small ships can't overwhelm BBs unless the battle is truly lopsided, and BBs become the terror in surface engagements that they should be.
This, or something else that achieves a similar effect should be implemented in AoD.
2. Carriers act just like ships with really long range guns that can be upgraded. They apply damage against opposing ships sea defense, when really they ought to be contesting with the opposing ships Air Defense. The result is that BBs are excessively resistant to attacks from CVs, and CVs have had to given a much higer sea defense than they deserve to make them survivable in Carrier v Carrier combat, but which also makes them a bit too durable when caught by surface ships.
3. The other big deficiency with carriers is that at present they don't really do much to protect a fleet from aerial attack. Because ships can only shoot at planes that are actively attack THEM, as opposed to any air wing attacking their fleet, the carriers high Air attack is often wasted.
I suggest that an additional combat modifier be added for air wings attacking a fleet, a penalty to be applied to the aircraft when the fleet under attack has carrier support. This would allow carriers to properly fulfill one of their main roles in the war much better than the present system. IRL the defense role of carrier aircraft was more about distracting and disrupting an enemy attack than shooting them done.
If the devs wanted to go fancy, the malus could even change depending on the ratio of carriers to attacking aircraft and/or the allow it to to influenced by doctrine tech.
4. A minor complaint, it annoys be that every fleet with a Carrier is designated as a CTF and won't attempt to close with an enemy fleet even when there would be overwhelming advantage in doing so.
A button to manually instruct a fleet to be treat as a SAG instead of CTF would be great. Another less flexible method would be to say that if the number of BB+BC is greater than twice the number of CV, it will be treated as a SAG.
Some sort of algorithm which would let Admirals recognize an overwhelming advantage in surface firepower and close to that range instead of holding off at carrier range would be great. It would also cut don't on the nonsense where small transport fleets get away from CTFs with minimal damage because theu slipped out of range after 1-2 rounds of combat.
anyway, that my two cents
what say everyobe else?
However, like all versions of HoI2, naval combat still has some significant issues.
1. As far as the engine is concerned there is no difference between a ship being shot up by 4 CAs with an attack of 10, or a BB with an attack of 40. It just registers 40 shots being fired, determines how many hit and applies a constant amount of damage.
As a result I have often seen BB led fleets being overwhelmed by CA fleets.
IRL the 8" guns of a CA would have mostly bounced harmlessly of a BB, whilst the reverse could not be said about at BBs 14-16" fire.
IIRC AoD models with by by multiplying the damage inflicted by a hit by the attacking ships sea attack, and dividing it by the ship beings hit sea defense. The result is that small ships can't overwhelm BBs unless the battle is truly lopsided, and BBs become the terror in surface engagements that they should be.
This, or something else that achieves a similar effect should be implemented in AoD.
2. Carriers act just like ships with really long range guns that can be upgraded. They apply damage against opposing ships sea defense, when really they ought to be contesting with the opposing ships Air Defense. The result is that BBs are excessively resistant to attacks from CVs, and CVs have had to given a much higer sea defense than they deserve to make them survivable in Carrier v Carrier combat, but which also makes them a bit too durable when caught by surface ships.
3. The other big deficiency with carriers is that at present they don't really do much to protect a fleet from aerial attack. Because ships can only shoot at planes that are actively attack THEM, as opposed to any air wing attacking their fleet, the carriers high Air attack is often wasted.
I suggest that an additional combat modifier be added for air wings attacking a fleet, a penalty to be applied to the aircraft when the fleet under attack has carrier support. This would allow carriers to properly fulfill one of their main roles in the war much better than the present system. IRL the defense role of carrier aircraft was more about distracting and disrupting an enemy attack than shooting them done.
If the devs wanted to go fancy, the malus could even change depending on the ratio of carriers to attacking aircraft and/or the allow it to to influenced by doctrine tech.
4. A minor complaint, it annoys be that every fleet with a Carrier is designated as a CTF and won't attempt to close with an enemy fleet even when there would be overwhelming advantage in doing so.
A button to manually instruct a fleet to be treat as a SAG instead of CTF would be great. Another less flexible method would be to say that if the number of BB+BC is greater than twice the number of CV, it will be treated as a SAG.
Some sort of algorithm which would let Admirals recognize an overwhelming advantage in surface firepower and close to that range instead of holding off at carrier range would be great. It would also cut don't on the nonsense where small transport fleets get away from CTFs with minimal damage because theu slipped out of range after 1-2 rounds of combat.
anyway, that my two cents
what say everyobe else?
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