[Consim-l] Avalanche SWWAS fuel (was Flat Top question)

[Markus Stumptner]

On Sun, 18 Feb 2007, Pat Collins wrote:
>>> Well, for Coral Sea Lexington starts with 5/13 boxes empty. Now, you only
>>> burn a box for 24 zones entered, so even that doesnt seem to inspire any
>>> Fletcher like concern for fueling. DDs tend to have 7 boxes.

It was always the DDs that caused the most concern (including to 
Fletcher).  7 boxes at full speed is not much more than a day's endurance 
(and that about fits).

>> There's more to it than that:
>
>> This system is decidedly clunky, because it one has to keep track of 
>> fractions of a
>> box and carry these over from turn to turn.
>> 
>> BUT, it turns fuel consumption into a matter of concern, and counteracts 
>> the wargamer
>> urge to move all units at top speed all the time, because at 4 zone/turn, 
>> you would
>> be burning a box every turn and definitely run out of fuel before the game 
>> is over.
>
> This is true. BUT I was thinking about carrier Ops, where you might just want 
> to move one zone a turn, and maybe not even then.

Keep in mind though that 20knots is recommended for sub-infested waters. 
(Don't know how many zones per turn that translates to at SWWAS scale, but 
you'd be using up that much fuel even if you're just steaming in boxes 
waiting for your planes to return.)

The other aspect is that, ironically, flight operations would force you to 
steam fast (and into the wind, too) if you want to launch planes.

> Unless you need a high speed run to the target, it seems not a huge issue for 
> the size of the Coral Sea scenario.

Of course the Coral Sea situation is the one where you would normally want 
a high speed run to the target, since most game's scenarios start with the 
historical option for a carrier raid on the Tulagi anchorage.  This is one 
of the areas where non-doubleblind games let one down - in a real (read 
double blind) carrier game, you would run in and then race away hoping 
that the other side is not close or does not react quickly enough to get 
back at you.  And the other side could go after you as quickly as possible 
since at some point you may take a turn that lets them get in range.

In SWWAS, you may in the end not be able to hit them because you have not 
"found" them (i.e., not rolled a successful search result), but you know 
if they're in range or not, and whether that chase is worth it. 
Conversely, on the US side, you will know how far away other task forces 
are.

With what fuel allocation does the Yorktown task force start that battle 
in the Avalanche game?

Markus