Combat Mechanics

[bugwar]

I may have missed a post in my forum search, but I do not see anything on the

details of the combat mechanics. In particular, that dealing with naval combat.

My query comes from the results of a naval battle. Three BB's and five level two

DD's against a lone level one cruiser (CA?). The cruiser sank, but not before doing

11 points of damage to the opposing fleet (luckily, spread out over most of the

ships, so I lost none).

I was expecting the CA to hurt a couple of ships, maybe even sink one or two,

but not become a whirling dervish of destruction! :-)

Is this an AI thing, or are lone wolves that dangerous to battlegroups in general?

[Scott_WAR]

Sounds like the cruiser fights each ship one at a time, and somehow it survived long enough to damage several ships before going down. If so, maybe a ship needs to do less damage as it takes damage.............

[Brit]

I may have missed a post in my forum search, but I do not see anything on the

details of the combat mechanics. In particular, that dealing with naval combat.

My query comes from the results of a naval battle. Three BB's and five level two

DD's against a lone level one cruiser (CA?). The cruiser sank, but not before doing

11 points of damage to the opposing fleet (luckily, spread out over most of the

ships, so I lost none).

Wow. Your ships were grouped together in a fleet?

I was expecting the CA to hurt a couple of ships, maybe even sink one or two,

but not become a whirling dervish of destruction! :-)

I would expect the same thing as you. I can check if there's some sort of bug in the combat code. Or maybe the cruiser just got really, really lucky.

Is this an AI thing, or are lone wolves that dangerous to battlegroups in general?

No, lone wolves shouldn't be that dangerous. And the AI doesn't get any combat advantages. (I don't like the idea of AI-players getting combat advantages because it makes it difficult to judge your odds of winning beforehand.)

[bugwar]

"Wow. Your ships were grouped together in a fleet?"

Yes, it was a combined fleet for the final push on the enemy's sole remaining city.

"Or maybe the cruiser just got really, really lucky."

That is my hope, but without knowing the mechanics of combat, I have no way

to tell if it is a fluke result, or within the nominal range of values from a chaotic system.

As it stands, the cruiser commander deserves a medal, and the battlefleet leader should

get a drumhead courtmartial based on the combat results. :-)

[Kelly's Heros]

If you look at the levels of the units, this outcome makes no sense. A level one cruiser should have been wiped out by that battle group with little to know damage on the battle group.

There may be an issue with the battle code algorithm. If it was a level 3/4 CA, well, then I could see this result as a possibility. Imagine what a CA in today's Navy could do to WW2 ships. It's very possible that a single CA in today's navy could wipe out a significant WW2 era fleet with enough ammo.

[bugwar]

Well, in defense of the AI, the human DD's were only up a level on the CA.

The BB's are a bit harder to justify in combat terms.

All I can think of is the first battle of Savo Island. The Allies had 6 heavy and 2 light

cruisers to the Japanese 5 heavy and two light. The Allies also had 15 DD's to

their opponents single one.

Even with this disparity, the Japanese managed to sink four cruisers and damage

three other ships, while suffering no losses, and 58 crew deaths. A stunning

testament to daring competence over numerical odds. Maybe that scenario is

what I ran into. :-)

[Kelly's Heros]

Savo island is an interesting example because the IJN won for 3 reasons: American overconfidence, surprise, and exhausted American crews. Unfortunately, EOS does not model any of these attributes in the combat results, so I doubt that was the case in your battle.

I believe the combat algorithms need some work. But then again, what do I know :-).