Here's something we are putting into the Battle of Midway missions to make it more interesting.
At dawn the morning of the battle, both sides sent out scouts. The Japanese were skeptical about there being an American fleet nearby. The USN knew of the Japanese plans and only had to locate Kido Butai. They also knew that 320 was the most likely radial of approach.
So the US Navy sent 10 Catalinas aloft from Midway. You will fly one looking for the Japanese fleet.
And the IJ Navy sent float planes on search patterns to the east. They flew by dead reckoning (Distance = Rate X Time) to their turn around and returned. They could not type M to see where they were.
In Rising Sun Phase Two, you cannot skip these missions...because like every naval aviator on either side, plotting where you were going (on our plotting board) did not just mean victory, it meant you would find a friendly deck rather than a deep lonely ocean at the end of your flight.
As you know, on the game map (M key) there are coordinates. On these scout missions, you must do two things: Dead Recon and find the coordinates on the map. (Hey! You want a flight simulator or Donkey Kong?)
See the numbers along the margins? Those are Latitude and Longitude.
PLOT 1: In this shot of the plotting board, we will take the US Navy problem. You know where your ships are. That is the blue dot. You know where the PBY reported the Japanese fleet to be. That's the red dot.
Draw a line between them...or just line up a pencil or the side of a piece of paper.
PLOT 2: Then keeping it oriented the same, move it down to the compass rose at M for Midway. That's the heading from Enterprise to the enemy fleet.
PLOT 3: Then turn the line so it is vertical. Use the lines of latitude to measure the length of the line. Each division is 5 nautical miles. That is the distance.
Time to send the strike. Their course is 295 for 70 miles.
But how do you know when you are there? Dead reckoning. If you are going 120 knots, that is two miles a minute. In 35 minutes, you should be seeing smoke from the stacks. (or that's 4 minutes and 20 seconds at X8)
So, why are we doing this? First, it's fun. Second, it gives you something to lose...your time if you screw up. Third, it brings home what was really going on. Nobody was being vectored in to lock on. The GIB wasn't thumbing the camera around to select a target. These men on both sides were navigating over huge distances without any course guidance to find and strike targets then return home with only enough fuel to get it right. Sometimes they had to find their ship in the gloom of night in horrible weather...or die in a raft on the sea.
If you don't know the story, it's just a game. There's plenty of violence and short flights. You can count on that. But we think if you know "who" you are simulating and not just "what", you will appreciate the mission more.