Drony

Can't find the right screenshot, but the button is in the menu where you launch planes from carriers or command cease/open fire. Look in the manual, it must be there as well Double check it. Usually at least 1 bomber is not deployed initially -- at least in every battle I had there were initially 15 bombers deployed out of 16 -- this must be your problem. When ALL units quit the battle ends automatically and you will have no Autobattle button to press at all.

Hard question. Since HBs are currently out of balance. They have almost 100% hit chance and fly too high to be shot down by flack efficiently. So there are very few moves you can take. 1. Bombers usually attack the first target they see. So deploy units in far DZ. Deploy as much AA platforms as possible -- DDs and light cruisers -- to provide thick flack. Set priority to bombers to 1. This will switch more AA fire to bombers, ignoring scout planes and Catalinas. Scatter your ships and maneuver hard. You will lose ships for sure so do not deploy your valuable BBs until bombers are destroyed. 2. Use fighters with AA rockets. They will not help much, but they will add some bombers to score. Try to attack as far from your ships as possible -- flak can shoot down your planes as well. B24 are more dangerous than B17. Attack head-on with your fighters, they are useless if are attacking from side or back. Next, when target is destroyed fighter selects next target automatically, but the algorithm is very strange. It will not select the closest bomber, which means it will fly through the whole line of bombers and will be destroyed 100% before reaching it's target. So pause (F12), direct your fighters manually again and again. It's painful, but it's the only way to make some damage to bombers. Other is kamikaze. And try to remove your carriers from the map as soon as all fighters are airborne -- it will save you carriers. Be ready to lose all fighters. You CANNOT destroy airfield, despite it was stated by Lesta. Did ALL your ships and planes retreat from battle ?

Well, it is not secret that PSA has two major additions 1. Hit location system (i.e. any vessel is split into sections and its damage is no longer a disappering lifebar, it depends on location of every hit very much). 2. UK as playable nation, diplomacy and trade Both features tend to change gameplay much and that's all I can say for now. EDIT: Ask Hunter for a change, he's definitely authorised to promote PSA

Well, in game BBs are now almost super-weapon. There are several reasons (one may call them bugs though): 1. They are immune to any artillery fire except BBs. Even shore batteries do them no harm. So only torpedoes/bombs can do something. 2. Carrier planes that should damage BBs are too weak. Try for example to send 20 B5N to attack Colorado with 4 escorting destroyers. It is doubtfully that any of planes would get through flak close enough to launch torpedo. Anyway, they will all die and BB will be only damaged at most. Dive-bombers cannot harm BB with HE or AP bombs at all -- another bug ;( And sometimes they simply drop bombs into the empty ocean -- yes, bug again... 3. BBs are faster than subs so they simply cannot get within launch range if player knows about their presence. 4. DDs cannot get within launch range because they are devastated long before. Only other danger for BB is Heavy Bomber, but Japanese do not have them in game. Now for real life. When the war begun US Navy was very confident with BBs and treated them as backbone of the fleet. However after Pearl this doctrine was denied. As you know, Pacific fleet was almost completely destroyed by aircrafts -- and only aircrafts. Japanese had shown supremacy of the carriers - indeed, carrier' airgroup attack range is hundreds of miles (BB can fire on approx 20000 yards) and cumulative impact of airgroup' strike is much greater and more precise than BBs big guns. Then it was a Coral Sea and Midway battles where BBs were found completely out of business and aircraft ruled the battle. Actually, read Nimits or Spruance memorandums, they explain everything from the first hands

You mean in game or real life ?

NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement)

I'm retired actually. Can play only on weekends, not every though. Coolest battle ? Donno. Maybe Bremerton with 60+ opposing B24 with my zeros armed with guided missiles Or maybe when I finally catched stranded US fleet with 7 BBs and tons of other stuff...

Yessir. But I will not tell If only Kilo made something like that He's very devoted boy

I wonder what took them so long... :

Reg. subs -- it's actually a cheat, when you reenter the battle with all your torps ready to fire again About modification. Let's add AA guns to Colorado First, you need to create modified ship. Go to Metropolis screen (where units are scheduled for production). Find Colorado in the leftmost (ships) column and click icon to the right http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h77/Drony/t.jpg The modification screen will appear. Sorry, I didn't find English one. And it's Iowa http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h77/Drony/t1.jpg Here you should select Colorado (if not selected yet) in the righ-bottom menu, copy it and then rename as you wish (i.e. Colorado_MK1). Select this MK1 unit (which is still equal to the original). Now you can add AA guns or anything you've invented to it. Upon completion, simply close this screen. Now you have modification your BBs can be upgraded to. Select all your BBs (or all formations, never mind), click modify, select Colorado, select Colorado_MK1 in the center menu, click modify. It will take some time, see logs on strategic level, it will say something like "units modification in formation XXX is complete"

Exactly. And not only deployment is time consuming, the retreat itself takes MUCH time -- they travel approx. 1/3 of the map to the exit point usually. But you didn't start battle just to retreat, did you ? Use Shift-F on strategic to get approximate numbers of opposing force at enemy base and you'll have no need to retreat. Just the rule of the game. You can modify them in any of three Metropolis bases and only there. No. You can repair units (planes as well) at any base. Repairs efficiency (i.e. how fast your unit gets 100% health) depends on number of engineers that are on this base and their skill. So I usually move some 10000 engineers to one of my forward bases just to make fast "field" repairs. Notation is deployed/killed/retreated units. So the above means 4 deployed/none killed/all retreated Also, if you have, say, "12/8" line it means that 8 out of 12 units where killed. It used for defending units that cannot retreat. And - yes, I spent some time to get used to it, frankly... ;D

Look, this is the story. When the battle starts all units are treated as acting on battlefield, never mind is it manual or auto battle. If you are attacker, you did not kill all enemies and you want to end battle you must remove ALL your units from battlefield. Example: you are attacker with 4 BBs, 10 destroyers, 2 carriers and 8 transports You go into manual combat. You deploy BBs, Destroyers and carriers. Then you choose to retreat. You order all your units Ctrl-W and eventually they disappear from map. Then you choose to quit to Strategic. Battle still continues because you have 8 transport still "in battle" even if they were not deployed initially. On the battle screen you can see that all military vessels have retreated i.e. "Battleship 4/0/4, Destroyer 10/0/10, Carrier 2/0/2" So if you now choose autobattle, all your transports will be thrown int battle and will most likely die. To end battle without losses you must go into manual, deploy transports and order retreat. When the last transport quits the battle is over automatically. Note also that retreat is really pain in the ... because all your vessels have single exit point (point, not line or zone !) and they will gather around it like sheeps... Only one more comment Sure you haven't. You should modify your vessels before war breaks out or when you are completely sure you can take part of your fleet from the front line back to Metropolis. I usually have enough time to get sonars and improved fire directors for ships before war begins. And -- must do -- you should add AA guns to base ships, you can double number of barrels without any tech developed !

No ! Ctrl-W works only if YOU are attacking. If you select unit and press CTRL-W, this unit will move to the edge of the map and retreat upon reaching it (simply removed from the map). So thay do not return to base acually -- they just quit the battle. If you are defending, you do not have this option -- YOU MUST FIGHT. You can only land your planes to carriers/airfields, but you cannot retreat.

Oops - you've added more while I was typing I'm not sure what exactly do you mean. If you mean -- how to order unit to retreat from tactics -- then it is Ctrl-W, but remember that defending units cannot retreat.

Now I see. First, it where 3 BBs, not 4. Next, assaulting AI sends BBs in battle in first line which is quite rare if AI is defending. Imagine if AI sends DDs/CCs first, you launch all your torpedoes and then BBs come to scene Anyway, this battle is really great, almost "must-be" example of how every battle must go -- AI forces are equal or greater then player's, so you must invent some moves to turn it to victory. And you made some important decisions to make it happen -- you don't build fleet, you capture a vast number of bases from the start. So your relatively small forces where splitted along the wide front and AI did find a weak place. Let me show you my stanard strategy for Americans (free campaign, I can't play "Historical"): Do not capture any bases except Panama, you'll have plenty of resources anyway. Build at least one Heavy bomber regiment for every base you have (16 HB in each, B-24), better 2 Build BBs This way, you don't have any problems with defending your bases, 16-32 HBs can cope with almost anything, including Zeros And if you have 2 fleets comprised from the units you have from the start, you now start finding weak places in enemy's defences yourself. You shouldn't fortify or even deploy engineers to the bases that do not generate resources -- they are completely useless and require oil all the way. Next, as soon as some of the key enemy bases are captured/destroyed its transport routes become stalled somehow. You will find tons of transports\tankers on many bases, fleets without ammo and fuel etc. Actually, you can try the most eefective way to victory, it will take you some 5 minutes to win the war. Collect all vessels you have and combine them in one huge formation. Send it to Tokio. Autobattle. You will win, trust me. Send the rest to Osaka. Autobattle again. Split the remaining fleet into two and put into both bases. Wait 2 monthes. War's over So as I now understand you must be very silly in strategic to make fine battles happen. I mean, you must help AI to build his own forces, otherwise game becomes a methodical massacre of defenceless enemy... And - two more comments to your initial post. Don't be afraid to modify your vessels with new techs. It's really easy, just get your vessels to Metropoly, select ALL formations and say change modification -- for all units. This is because the Carrier is in the Transport division. Transport/tanker divisions are usually driven by AI if you don't check off delivery options on the bases. So if you want to make, say, big transport fleet that you want to use to transport ammo/oil/troops manually, create a, say, destroyer division and fill it with transports/tankers. Such formation will never be taken by AI