Swordfish were famously known for being able to take a lot of damage and returning. Maybe we should be looking at the vital armor? Or each time one returns you get 1 victory point? I.e. do you really want to abort it giving him VPs?
Nah, that would be too clunky and too gamey. Veteran Bombers is easy, smooth, and other nation's use the ability. We don't need to make a mountain out of a molehill
Could we give Ark Royal an Expert-style ability that gives concealment to a squadron? (by concealment I mean an ability like Coastal squadron or Smoke) That would make its early war bombers much more effective (every AA attack would have a 1/6 chance of missing)
This ability could also be limites to aircraft with Armour 4 or less, or just Swordfish (since it might be a bit good on A Barracuda with Determined Attack)
University Student— Lover of Plato, Aristotle, War At Sea, Palestrina, and Mozart
Moving away from trying to fix the swordfish/weak aircraft...
Based on the action in the Battle of Spartivento (Operation collar), how about this:
Opperation Collar Ark Royal Aircraft Carrier 1939 Speed 2 Capacity 3 MG 4 4 3 AA 7 A 5 V10 H4
Evade Bombs - Once per game, when this unit is the target of a Bomb attack, you may roll a die. On a 4 or higher, the Bomb attack misses Distant Cover - Once per game, when you lose your Initiative roll, this unit may move at the end of the Sea Movement phase, instead of moving during your Sea Movement step Convoy Leader - While you have an Auxiliary unit in your fleet, you get +1 initiative Expert Torpedoes - Once per turn, you may choose a friendly Torpedo Bomber. That Torpedo Bomber rolls one extra attack die when making Torpedo attacks this turn
Nah, that would be too clunky and too gamey. Veteran Bombers is easy, smooth, and other nation's use the ability. We don't need to make a mountain out of a molehill
Considering that W@S was first and primarily a KISS Beer and Pretzels Game.
It’s the teams that have been consistently trying to turn it into an historical simulation, something its abstract system isn’t designed for. Remember its W@S’s gamey KISS style why we loved it in the beginning.
I agree with both sentiments but history is the basis of game. If we take that away we may as well play 40k. I know where I stand on this. It was an early war Carrier and as such only had Swordfish as a strike arm. Swordfish are too expensive in the game and too fragile to use so I would like a mechanism to make them slightly playable. My original idea, floated on the hidden forum was giving this a repair ability for the stringbag. I think I called it “Canvas and String” but a better name would be “Canvas and Wood” SA= any Swordfish plane from this aircraft carrier ignores a destroyed result on a 5-6 and in aborted instead from AA.
Focusing back on the Ark... what about instead of giving Flag2, Expert Dogfighter and Expert Torpedoes we go with:
Expert AWS: Once per turn, you may choose a friendly Torpedo Bomber. That Torpedo Bomber rolls one extra attack die when making ASW attacks this turn Fighter Cover 5: Once per turn in the Antiair phase, you may make a 5-dice aa attack against enemy aircraft within range 3. This attack is in addition to your normal Antiair. The escort ability works against this attack Scout Planes: At the beginning of your Air Attack phase, you may choose an enemy ship. Roll one extra attack die when making Torpedo attacks against that ship this turn
Flag2,Et, edf, replenish is currently my preference but scout planes is interestimg
So your preference is to make the identical Ark Royal with adding Flag 2 and replenish? Are you trying to retire the older version? (Rhetorical, sarcastic, and mean question... no need to answer.)
- Scout Planes gives the carrier a unique ability and that provides more than one torpedo plane a bonus, plus it is historically accurate since a plane off of the Ark Royal found the Italian fleet in the Med for the battle of Spartivento. - Fighter Cover 5 also gives a Fleet Carrier something generally reserved for escorts and is also something historically that the Ark Royal did. - Fighter cover 5 frees up a fighter to escort bombers while still protecting your carriers and nearby ships - These abilities give a completely different flavor to a fleet carrier besides the tired old ED/ET/EB abilities - You can still give it a Flag, but the Ark was not a Flagship during Operation Collar... if you must I can compromise at Flag 1. - I think replenish was being floated around to try and keep some swordfish around longer... if we make changes there - it's not needed here.
Just trying to get us away from the same old... and thinking outside the box.