Observation aircraft and OOB rules

[Jack Tar]

As observation planes are no longer represented on the table and give no bonuses for combat or initiative. (i gather the new rules are optional?)

This means that a ships aircraft are only good for ASW operations as mentioned on p 3 and p 16.

Seeing as subs have an AA rating for when on the surface, how can they shoot down said ASW "observation" aircraft if the plane isnt on the table?

At what range can subs use the AA against something you can't measure the distance to?

Also, observation planes may be outfitted for ASW - what use are they is they aren't used for ASW?

 

[Ben2]

If aircraft are used for ASW then they are on the table. Starting on page 19 any aircraft with type as patrol/ASW are useable as observation craft fitted for ASW. So a Royal Navy player can buy a patrol point of Short Sunderlands as ASW aircraft and launch them from the ships.

OOB isn't as clear on this as it should be. Particularly given that three navies don't have a patrol/ASW aircraft and the German one is the FW-200 Condor.

If this isn't clarified at some point soon by someone else I'll look into it in further depth, but I'm writing an RJW list at the moment. I've a feeling the rules clarification may already be out there. I know the idea of one free ASW craft per ship with aircrat was mentioned on the VAS playtest list.

 

[Jack Tar]

Thanks for the reply - i agree that it needs to be clarified a bit more, especially what to do with ships that have planes, but no ASW capability.

 

[mbtanker]

I was confused by the new rule as well. So any plane with spotters automaticlly gets the bonus or there is no spotter bonus anymore?

 

[BuShips]

I was confused by the new rule as well. So any plane with spotters automaticlly gets the bonus or there is no spotter bonus anymore?

If by that are you asking if any ship with spotters has no bonus for initiative or combat? There is no longer a spotter bonus or combat modifier. As mentioned above, the ship's floatplanes can be used on the table for ASW sorties.

 

[Jack Tar]

With the introduction of spotter planes now being ASW only, then maybe they can be used as spotter planes in campaign/map games to locate the enemy fleet as per the rules under the "Hunting the beast" scenario.

This way players may be convinced to try more than one off games, and it gives a bit more use to ships' planes.

 

[BuShips]

With the introduction of spotter planes now being ASW only, then maybe they can be used as spotter planes in campaign/map games to locate the enemy fleet as per the rules under the "Hunting the beast" scenario.

This way players may be convinced to try more than one off games, and it gives a bit more use to ships' planes.

Precisely. They still have a job to do. For example, early war Japanese fleet air search doctrine relied on floatplanes for searches. They tended to not wish to use potential carrier strike aircraft for search duty.

 

[DM]

As said earlier this is a good excuse to get into campaign gaming instead of one-offs

 

[DSV1]

Does this mean if I have Bismark I can start the game with 4 ASW arados in the air now instead of 4 spotters

Still seems to clutter the table to me, or was it intended to have just one up per ship ?. Which means having umpteen obs planes on Yamato is now pointless.

Umm and where does it say I have to buy/allocate points for my obs plane/asw for my battleship, I can't see where it says so :/

Perhaps a rule that only one can be airborne unless you aplaying a specific scenario ?

Just a thought or am i not reading the new OOB properly

 

[GeekEGuy]

I'm resurrrecting this post because I to find the wording in OOB confusing in terms of assigning observation aircraft to ASW duties. The book states:

"Ships with the Aircraft trait may assign their observation aircraft to ASW duties before the first turn, and will have one depth
charge-equipped plane to use against submersibles."

The way I understand this is that no matter how many observation aircraft a ship has, only ONE may have an aerial depth charge to attack a sub, but the others can still fly around and attempt to detect submerged submarines.

Is this correct?

 

[rcbecker1]

It would realy help if the clirafications were posted or in the mag.
Ray