daddog made a post in the wishlist forum including the PBY Catalina that reminded me of something I'd thought about when last month's FSO was announced.
Historically, a HUGE part of naval combat was locating the enemy's fleet before he found yours. Such a scouting/search element would have given Midway an interesting twist, especially if we were to ever get dedicated scout and patrol aircraft such as the Catalina. Picture if you will how Midway COULD have been run:
Frame 1:
Both CiCs are given their own containment areas per usual. However they are NOT given the containment areas of the enemy fleets. Each CiC must assign scouts to look for the most likely position of the enemy task groups based on a general search area provided by the CM. Using one of the Allied objective maps for comparison, the Allied CiC would have received a map like this:
Rather than the locations of the individual locations of each task group, the CiC instead was given the "most likely" location in which the Japanese forces were operating. The Axis CiC would receive a similar map for the position of the Allied fleets.
In Frame 1 the Allies would have the objectives: Defend Midway, CAP their carriers, and locate the enemy fleets. The Axis would: Attack Midway CAP their own fleets, and locate the Allies. To successfully "record" the location of the enemy, the scout must successfully overfly the task group and report its position to the CiC. Some criteria for mission success (IE, screenshot) can be added to make this more difficult: perhaps a combination of KP location and screenshot, etc. At the end of the frame, the CiC would return a report to the CM of these sightings similar to how damage assessment has been tried in the past. The CM would compare the report to the location with the starting containment area of each fleet, and if the target was successfully identified, that fleet's position would be given on the Frame 2 objective map.
So for example, the Allies successfully report positions on the Hiryu and Akagi, and largely protect Midway from the Japanese attack. In Frame 2 the Allied CiC is given the containment area for those two carriers. Meanwhile, the Japanese fail to locate any of the American carriers. The Allies would now need to: Attempt to locate the other two Japanese carriers, CAP their carriers against enemy scouts, attack the Hiryu and Akagi, and defend Midway. The Japanese would need to defend their two identified carriers, CAP the remainder against enemy scouts, make a second attempt to locate the Americans, and attack Midway.
Frame 2 results in the sinking of Akagi, some damage to the Hiryu, and the spotting of Kaga by the Americans. The Japanese devastated Midway, and located the Yorktown.
In Frame 3, the Americans have three operable carriers but Midway is unusable. The Japanese have three remaining carriers. The American CiC receives the position of Hiryu (due to being spotted in Frame 1) and Kaga from the CM. The Japanese commander is given the position of Yorktown. The Americans must sink Hiryu and Kaga, while the Japanese are given the target of Yorktown. Since Midway has been destroyed it can no longer launch aircraft, and is not a target.
Additionally, in the case of a final frame in the tour the scouting/attacking phase are combined, so each CiC must hold some planes for scouting purposes. If one of the remaining carriers is spotted the CiC may organize a strike Only the previously spotted CVs (from Frame 1 and 2's scouting missions) are considered primary objectives that must be attacked before T+60, so the remaining carriers are considered secondary targets for bonus points if spotted.
In this sort of setup points would be awarded based on damage inflicted on the target and enemy aircraft shot down per usual. Additional scoring would be given for successfully locating an enemy fleet, and a bonus for downing enemy scout planes.
I DO realize there's a particular challenge with coordinating something like this, but it would be an interesting twist on naval ops.
Thoughts? Flames?
