Task Force Admiral trial tantalisingly close

That rumble you can hear is the sound of Drydock Dreams Games’ aft elevator lifting a public TFA demo into the sunlight. If all goes according to plan, by this time next month the ascender’s wings will have been unfolded and locked in place, and its cockpit gauge needles will be pointing in the directions they need to point to guarantee trouble-free take-offs for trialists.

The demo release is set to coincide with the launch of a nine-tier Kickstarter campaign. Folk who choose to back at the ‘Commander’ tier or above will eventually* receive a boxed edition of TFA complete with the sort of history-rammed printed manuals that were standard fare when MicroProse was publishing PTO sims back in the1990s.

* 2026

Judging by this feature list, the demo will – with the exception of an intriguing dogfight mode prototype – be pretty similar to the beta build I’ve been toying with for the past week.

Assuming it does resemble the beta, potential demo-ists would be wise to exercise their screenshot digit in readiness for January. While, most of the time, the strat map is the most sensible way to monitor proceedings, staying in the windowless flagplot when stuff like this…

…is unfolding outside, takes real willpower.

People planning to try TFA via the imminent trial possibly need to brace themselves for a succession of bloody noses too.

Invariably, the IJN AI seems to locate and leather my flat-tops before I manage to locate and leather his. I’ve tried denser search patterns and beefier Combat Air Patrols. I’ve tried baiting my opponent with small decoy taskforces. Nothing seems to work. Any tips, Amiral Crapaud?

(EDIT 22/12/24)

DDG have kindly provided this failing faux Fletcher with the following advice:

“The scenario in the beta makes certain that the two taskforces will find each other (with so far a rather convincing average 1 for 1 exchange that isn’t too far off the historical outcome) but we might also feature another “easier” scenario for the US player if time allows. Until then:

You can try to run in a certain direction at night. Although doing this makes things harder for enemy scouts, it potentially complicates your own search efforts too. In theory additional sea planes will be there in the final scenario, so it will be hard to escape the vigilant eye of the IJN.

Pre-spotting your strike before you get a first contact is the only way to make sure you will launch in a timely fashion (but only do so after you’ve launched your first CAP of course).

You could try sending only SBDs against the enemy to make your strike packages smaller (and the launch duration shorter) but it’s not very historical, and the torpedo bombers won’t be around to attract the attention of the enemy CAP.

Separating the two carriers following initial contact might lead to one of the two getting completely pummeled and the other surviving, but it will potentially divide the CAP cover too.

If you’re feeling lucky, sending your fighters far away to kill the snooper before it finds you might prove advantageous, but as your taskforce is big there’s a chance  another snooper on an adjacent sector might come across you too.

Catching the dive bombers and the torpedo bombers before separation means that you can play with your food when they are all grouped together. The moment they split for their target runs, you’re dealing with at least* four threat vectors at two altitude levels (with the Kates in a high speed run) and leakers are unavoidable. Killing as many as possible when they are grouped together, possibly using two waves of fighters (one entertaining the Zeroes, and one going for the throat) and sacrificing all semblance of strike escort could yield better results. But there’s a reason the fighter air groups moved from an 18-craft configuration at the time of the Battle of the Coral Sea to a 30+ complement by the end of 1942; Coral Sea & other engagements  showed how inadequate the original numbers were. Historically (but it can’t be done in-game, as we don’t have the AI logic for it), Ted Sherman had some of the SBDs fly CAP duty as an anti-torpedo patrol, with mixed results (big losses, and a life-defining event for bomber pilot “Swede” Vetjasa aside).

* Possibly even more if they divide up and attack two targets separately.

Obviously once we fusion the strategic game with the air-to-air module, those who like that sort of stuff will get to influence the outcome dramatically. Ultimately one of the stretch goals is playable AA mounts, so one day it may also be possible to do it the Doris Miller way. Really, our goal is to make the adrenaline injection level fully customizable, so that nobody (grognard or battlestation-er) will get their feelings hurt.”