Troubles with fleet organisation

[TallTroll (OP)]

I still don't quite understand how task groups and fleet organisation fit together. I've got Fleet Headquarters, which has Expeditionary Fleet under it, 1st Fleet under that, and finally 1st Battle Squadron under that, which actually has ships assigned to it. When I build more, I can create 2nd Battle Squadron, also under 1st Fleet, and attach ships to it.

But what if I want to give orders to 1st Fleet as a whole? So far as I can tell, unless a formation has ships directly assigned to it, I can't issue it commands. What am I missing?

[Bgreman]

I still don't quite understand how task groups and fleet organisation fit together. I've got Fleet Headquarters, which has Expeditionary Fleet under it, 1st Fleet under that, and finally 1st Battle Squadron under that, which actually has ships assigned to it. When I build more, I can create 2nd Battle Squadron, also under 1st Fleet, and attach ships to it.

But what if I want to give orders to 1st Fleet as a whole? So far as I can tell, unless a formation has ships directly assigned to it, I can't issue it commands. What am I missing?

There are really only two levels in the hierarchy: task forces (like your fleet headquarters) that give bonuses to task groups they contain, and task groups (which contain ships, also known as 'fleets' in the inconsistent terminology of the game).  Any levels between them on the Naval Organization is merely an "on-paper" container, with mostly roleplay uses (or to keep things a bit more sane if you've got tons of task groups).  Only task groups can be given orders.

[Lav]

I still don't quite understand how task groups and fleet organisation fit together. I've got Fleet Headquarters, which has Expeditionary Fleet under it, 1st Fleet under that, and finally 1st Battle Squadron under that, which actually has ships assigned to it. When I build more, I can create 2nd Battle Squadron, also under 1st Fleet, and attach ships to it.

But what if I want to give orders to 1st Fleet as a whole? So far as I can tell, unless a formation has ships directly assigned to it, I can't issue it commands. What am I missing?

You probably know this, but if you want to give orders to 1st Fleet, click on the top of the 1st Fleet branch (ie the name 1st Fleet) then choose "Branch + Sub" and you'll have a TG with all of 1st fleet in it.

[TallTroll (OP)]

I did not know that, but it may be the bit I was missing. So, once I have more ships, I can detach units for indepedent ops into their own TG, then reconstitute 1st Fleet (minus detatchments) the same way?

[Hawkeye]

Say you leave Fleet Headquarters as you standard TF

Inside you have 1st, 2nd and 3rd Fleet

In each Fleet, you have one CruRon and two DesRons

Your Tree would look something like this:


Fleet Headquarters
  -1st Fleet
    -CruRon 01
      CG Belfast
      CG Ajax
      CLE Achilles
    -DesRon 01
    -DesRon 02
  -2nd Fleet
    -CruRon 02
    -DesRon 03
    -DesRon 04
  -3rd Fleet
    -CruRon 03
    -DesRon 05
    -DesRon 06

Assume you want to form 1st Fleet. You select 1st Fleet and hit "Branch + Sub".
This will create a TG named "1st Fleet" with all ships in CruRon 01 and DesRons 01 and 02

Now, assume you want to detatch DesRon 02. Select DesRon 02 and hit "Branch"
This will create a TG named "DesRon 02" with all ships that are in DesRon 03.

To put the dispatched ships back into the fleet, I use the "join" command
You can also use the "Branch + Sub" button, but as there already _is_ a 1st Fleet, you will get a TG named "1st Fleet #2". If you hit the Branch + Sub again, it will change to the correct name (the original 1st Fleet no longer exists)