Struggling with Task Force usage

[Cavgunner (OP)]

Ok, so I've finally figured out how to make separate Staff Officer positions and how to move these staff groups to other planets, or in my case, to another ship.  So according to the screenshot below, it appears that I have a fully functional staff officer group that is now assigned to a mobile ship with a Flag Bridge.




Now, what I'm trying to do next is to assign a combat fleet to this command unit in order to take advantages of the bonuses from the command structure.  What I have attempted so far looks like this: 




So... is this correct?  If I have the ships listed above in the same system as the ship with the flag bridge, will they receive the corresponding bonuses of their assigned staff officer group?  I'm concerned because in the first screenshot above, it's still showing that no task groups are assigned, even though according to the second screenshot, there definitely is (or at least I think so).

Help!  What am I missing?  I've tried looking online but the Wiki is garbage on this topic, and even SerBeardian in his recent video touches on the subject only in passing.

[TheBawkHawk]

The naval organization tab is purely for organizational ease, it doesn't actually have any function aside from that (afaik). To assign a fleet to a task force, you use the "Task Force" drop down menu in the top left of the fleet screen. Your fleet is currently assigned to the "Fleet Headquarters" task force.

[Cavgunner (OP)]

How can you tell that?  According to the 2nd screenshot above, the Expeditionary Fleet and Fleet Headquarters appear to be organized as separate, parallel commands.  You're saying I need to assign my Expeditionary Fleet HQ underneath Fleet Headquarters?

I also want to reiterate that my main goal here is solely to ensure that my combat fleet can take advantage of the bonuses from the officers on a Flag Bridge.  So... how do I make sure that happens?  If we can ignore the organizational tabs entirely, I'm happy with that.

[chokuto]

In the second screenshot in the top left there are: Empire, Name, Location, Task Force
The Task Force there needs to be changed.

This has made me realise I haven't done that in my current game

[Cavgunner (OP)]

My command ship is already assigned to the Expeditionary Fleet in that screen.  I don't understand what you are saying.

I appreciate your replies guys, but I don't think it's quite answering my primary question, or maybe I'm just not understanding.  So let's forget the org tabs and everything else.

Understanding that a staff officer command only grants bonuses to ships that are in the same system, how do I make sure that a fleet receives the command bonuses from a ship with a staffed Flag Bridge? Assuming that all ships are in the same system of course.  Does the Flag Bridge merely need to be present in the same system as the ships it wishes to affect, and not assigned in any particular fashion?

[Lamandier]

My command ship is already assigned to the Expeditionary Fleet in that screen.  I don't understand what you are saying.

I appreciate your replies guys, but I don't think it's quite answering my primary question, or maybe I'm just not understanding.  So let's forget the org tabs and everything else.

Understanding that a staff officer command only grants bonuses to ships that are in the same system, how do I make sure that a fleet receives the command bonuses from a ship with a staffed Flag Bridge? Assuming that all ships are in the same system of course.  Does the Flag Bridge merely need to be present in the same system as the ships it wishes to affect, and not assigned in any particular fashion?

Assigning the command ship and only the command ship to the Expeditionary Fleet TF isn't enough. Every ship that you want to benefit from those bonuses must be in the same task force, as Chokuto and BawkHawk explained. So for all those ships to benefit from the bonuses, they must be in the same system as the CO and assigned to the Expeditionary Fleet task force(using the 'task force' drop down menu in the upper left of the task groups screen). This has nothing to do with the org tabs; I don't even touch the org tabs in my games.

Not sure why you have the command ship in its own separate task group, either; sounds like the makings of an organizational nightmare.

[Cavgunner (OP)]

Well it's really simple, this feature of the game is impenetrable and I don't know what the flying flip I'm doing, much less how to get the results I want.

So are you saying I simply need to do THIS (Command Ship and subordinate combat ships all assigned to the same Task Force, but may or may not actually be in the same Task Group):





Or do I simply need to do THIS (raise hands up in the air in frustration and simply assign all ships to the same Task Group):

[Garfunkel]

Dude, you were given the answer 

Here:


You have to manually change that drop-down menu from Fleet Headquarters - your original TF - to Expeditionary Fleet. If you have multiple TGs you want to have under Expeditionary Fleet, you can use the Naval OOB tab to create them so that they already belong to the Expeditionary Fleet TF:



Also, more information on how to use the Naval Organization Tab can be found here:
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=7615.0

[Cavgunner (OP)]

Thank you for clarifying that.  As far as I can tell, once I did what you suggested the commands are reporting correctly now.

Geez. 

[Michael Sandy]

Something interesting you can do is create dummy task forces, and have your command ship shuttle task force command staffs, with or without officers assigned to it, to drop those command staff positions on colonies in different star systems.

Then, any time you need to get the task force bonus in a particular system, assign officers to the task force (which I recommend that you name after the system they are stationed), and assign task groups in that system to the task force.

[iceball3]

Does changing task forces reset task force training? I forget.

[Garfunkel]

Unless my memory is faulty, it does not. Task Force Training is sort of a misnomer anyway.

[Father Tim]

Does changing task forces reset task force training? I forget.

Reduces it by half, rather than reset completely.

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=1126.msg9043#msg9043

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=1011.msg8317#msg8317

[Garfunkel]

Hmm, either I've switched Task Forces before starting training or that has been changed.

EDIT: Yeah, I always use the Naval OOB to create my TGs so they have always been in the right TF to begin with. That explains why I haven't noticed the 50% loss.