Official SEOW

S! shades

here is an interesting one. As discussed on the weekend, im thinking about putting together a prelude campaign to Battle of Britain.

It is to be based on the early stages of the BOB when the germans tried to lure the RAF up over convoys.

So i went looking for details. Wouldnt you believe it. Sometimes the net is simply awesome.

I found the convoy names, the ship names, how many in each convoy. Starting point and ending point. Dates everything.It almost seemed like the brits were sailing a convoy each way ever second day.

Now using the Norway map there would be practically no ground movement apart from the shipping. Shipping doesnt carry guns apart from escorts.

Convoy size? Up to 40 ships.

If i load up a resupply point with 40 ships will the system have a nervous breakdown?

how will it deal with such a convoy.

Escorts ? couple of destroyers and a number of trawlers 5?

Let me know what you think.

Nice.

There are a couple of options here:

Option 1: Templated Convoys
As you'd expect, you could start your template with convoys already built and positioned as Statics. The first step once the campaign commences would be for the commander to form them into task forces, then move them off as desired. Easy. SEOW places no restrictions on the size or composition of sea convoys, apart from the overall limitation of 99 defined flotillas per side per mission. Of course, playability is up to the admin and players to handle.


Option 2: Reinforcement Convoys
You can also bring in new convoys through the usual reinforcements tools, but there is a workflow issue to consider. Once you create a new flotilla (containing a ship) at a Ship Supply point, that flotilla is placed exactly at the Ship Supply point on the map. Multiple created flotillas will, if left stationary for the next mission, overlap each other and will probably sink at mission start. So make sure you combine them into a task force and issue movement orders. SEOW will then disperse the task force members randomly (avoiding overlaps) and send them off on their waypoints. This should be robust enough, even for 40 ships, but it is worth testing. The main problem is that the commander will have no control over the task force dispersed formation - it may look pretty scattered and haphazard, but with 40 ships there could be a reasonably even spread over a 10 km radius.

Cheers,
4Shades