Sea Planes

[mvdh1@msn.com]

Hi Guys:

I have looked and looked but I can't figure out how to launch my planes from my sea plane carriers.

How does this work?

Thanks.

Mark

[AshesFall]

When you have your carriers selected, there are two kinds of "circles with lines" (movement indicators) that you can see from them. One is the green one (usually within the highlighted movement area) and another is a red one, usually appearing when you hold your cursor over the enemy, or an area in the fog of war after you have moved. The red one is "sending your airplanes". Use "properties - set mode" to choose a "mode" for your carrier, CAP (defend against incoming aircraft), "naval tactical" (strike against enemy ships) and so on. Do this before you move!

[Sapare]

When you have your carriers selected, there are two kinds of "circles with lines" (movement indicators) that you can see from them. One is the green one (usually within the highlighted movement area) and another is a red one, usually appearing when you hold your cursor over the enemy, or an area in the fog of war after you have moved. The red one is "sending your airplanes". Use "properties - set mode" to choose a "mode" for your carrier, CAP (defend against incoming aircraft), "naval tactical" (strike against enemy ships) and so on. Do this before you move!

To add to this, hold shift if you wish to send out planes without moving/before moving.(the indicator should change to the red colour)

[mvdh1@msn.com]

Thanks guys for your help!

[NWJB]

What are the seaplane carriers good for anyway? Always seem like a waste of money to me, since they can barely do damage and aren't good value for the MPP you spend from the events to get them.

[AshesFall]

Well, speaking for myself, they have -awesome- power in destroying enemy surface fleets. And also, they are excellent for scouting at sea, with a large basic field of vision and the capability to send "scouts" (your planes) into the fog of war.

Sea battles seem to be very decisive in SC, and knowledge about your opponents position absolutely key. Carriers = knowledge. Two carriers also wreck a battleship, and then sail home to merrily rearm fairly cheaply. With more naval warfare, they get way better (to the point where one carrier can wreck a battleship I think) unless the enemy invests in AA tech or carriers of his own.

[Will95]

^^ Important to note that Ash is talking about the WW2 scenario here, they are very different in WW1!

(far from useless but require considerable upgrading to be useful at destroying units as far as I can tell)

[Sapare]

For the carriers. They are not there for killing (or even damaging) units in WW1. They are purely scouting units(which is VERY important if both players are good because all sea battles are destined by who gets in the first good shots).

The only times they can really be used as an attack unit is if you need that 1 or two more damage on an enemy unit in port(your planes igonre port defense, much like submarines do)

[Bill101]

Sapare has it right, entering into a big naval battle with one or two to scout the enemy fleet will save a lot of casualties and enable you to plan your engagement better.

The damage they do is minimal, but their worth is in saving you from suffering damage due to not knowing where the enemy is.

[NWJB]

I guess they are okay at this role, all they can do is scout 2 or 3 tiles away. I did use them a bit to do 2 damage points in total during a fight with the German navy near the Belgian coast. The German navy seems a bit suicidal by the way, they charge their navy in at my giant fleet in the channel (they can't see it of course, they're spread through the ports of northern France and southern England) the second I do a coastal bombardment of a corp in Belgium.