[h2]Them fair ladies[/h2]
Hello there, kind Task Force Admiral fans!Last time we gave them tough ladies of Carrier Division 5 the spotlight. Time now to go back to their gallant opponents, starting with the most elegant of them all, USS Lexington.
Lady Lex as some of you know too well from other, erm, mediums (ammarite
Shikikan!) is a most elegant and gracious design. Formerly built upon the fast and efficient hull of a battlecruiser, she was still the longest warship in the world by 1942 (yes, a few feet longer than Yamato, indeed!). She used to pack quite the firepower at flight deck level, being provided with a cruiser battery of eight 8 inches guns in four turrets for self-defense. In that regard, she wasn't different from her Japanese cousins, Akagi and Kaga, which both retained large naval guns even following their full conversion to full-deck carriers. Unlike the sponson mounts seen aboard the Japanese carriers, Lexington and Saratoga's arrangement had the dubious characteristic of not being allowed to fire over her board side, as any salvo might damage the flight deck and make it inoperable - not a very nice prospect for a carrier I guess.
Useful weapons in the early 30s, when fleet exercises would often put her in jeopardy close to the enemy battleline due to the anemic range of aircraft at the time, these had outlived their purpose by the time events like Pearl Harbor demonstrated that a properly managed carrier task force would more often than not manage to stay safe from any big gun.
Following her first deployment to the South Pacific, these guns were removed at Pearl Harbor and became shore batteries instead. As dual-purpose 5 inch double mounts were not available at that time, these guns were replaced by 1.1 "Chicago Pianos", a much more fitting piece of equipment in the age of carrier battles. She was in that configuration when she went down in the last act of the Battle of the Coral Sea, in early May 1942. We are currently working closely with a friend of ours for a future collab, so we made sure to keep her in her February configuration as she was during her raid against Rabaul, which is the reason why she still has her main battery up and running.
These are older shots - the Lady is still in the works, as she had to go through the our usual acceptance trials. If you see a wrong gun or mast please remain calm, we'll get there eventually. You will get to see hopefully the final result by the time we post the longer update. As you can see below, as usual, our super team of rivet counters is hard at work and without mercy
(don't forget to pay them a visit on their respective websites, by the way - worth a visit for all of you warship loves! This way please:
Lexington wasn't the only one entering the world of Task Force Admiral over the last few days. Hornet, the last of the Yorktown sisters. Now the family is truly back together and ready for a fight!
More on her fine plastique below, in different light conditions. She is in the configuration she had at Midway, following her deployment from the East Coast which culminated in the famed Doolittle raid against Japan.
Remember that these two posters, including the great Hornet scene by our artist Julien are both available for download. Just click
here for Hornet, and
here for the whole family!
As you can probably see for yourself, a lot of work has been invested in making our carriers look the act, as you will certainly get to admire them from up-close and quite often. With the Yorktowns & Lexington ready, we just need to process Saratoga's own refit and finish up Wasp, and the complete 1942 USN carrier line-up will be there for your pleasure.
[h2]Boaty McBoatface learns to fly[/h2]
Of course, Task Force Admiral is not only about ships - it is also about planes!
We conducted some more experiments as of late, most of them involving water and landing problems.
We were very busy teaching our planes to land on an island, and we realize that we needed to teach them how to properly enter water too, whether they had floaters - or not. Job done! Soon, our lovely lagoon has a couple of new reefs to spare...
As one can guess for a PTO game like ours, ditching will be a most viable tactic for your pilots running out of fuel somewhere on their way back to the carrier. As the Flag Officer, you will have to decide whether the mission and the safety of your task force come first, or if the life of your airmen is worth an extra search. Posterity having been more preoccupied with the reputation of Admirals in that regard, expect to be well-rewarded for any crew you will recovered - and penalized for all those you might have saved, yet didn't.
Still, it's not all about castaways today. In regard of floating, let's not forget the kind which is made to do so on purpose!
The new kid in the block would be our Kawanishi H6K Mavis flying boat, which just joined the family yesterday. Her lovely lines now grace the skies of Task Force Admiral in time to join Lexington on a fateful February cruise. Here you can see her in her all-silver garment, inherited from the pre-war era, before a well-known dark green coat was to cover this shiny skin of hers.
We wouldn't do the South Pacific any justice by ignoring these ubiquitous mastodons, which were a common sight on both sides of the war. Her non-less famous American counterpart the Catalina, along with her bigger sister the Kawanishi H8K Emily will also feature eventually. It will naturally be your job to make sure to keep around an eye in the sky around your enemy, while preventing enemy snoopers from shadowing your task forces.
[h2]In the news this week: Naval Games galore![/h2]
A small word in regard of the hectic week everybody has lived till now. If you are reading us, you are probably also well-aware of
Killerfish's latest PTO-focused opus hitting the shelves. In that regard, firstly, we can now happy state (with some relief!) that our own design philosophy in regard of Task Force Admiral hasn't been rendered obsolete just yet - quite the contrary actually, so you're welcome to stick around, we're only just starting!
More importantly, being Devs ourselves might certainly preclude us from giving a critical opinion of
War on the Sea, but we wanted to use this opportunity to remind our audience that we would probably never even have started the development of Task Force Admiral if it wasn't for the perspectives offered by Killerfish's own successes years ago, the inspiration and the confidence they provided us, first with Atlantic Fleet, then with Cold Waters. So be patient, be kind, and support them in their new endeavor, for it is good for our community, it is good for our genre, and it is good for our collective karma to make sure they will keep going! Same with the team behind
Victory at Sea Ironclad which just released a demo of their upcoming new title. The team behind Victory at Sea Pacific is now exploring new territories, and will certainly appreciate some feedback and support. Go have some fun!
And about the fun, last but not least, don't forget to pay a visit to our dear bros from Triassic Games, made of former Killerfish crew, hard at work on the already famous
Sea Power. They posted a great dev update just yesterday, have a look if you haven't already, it is worth the click!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1286220/announcements/detail/3052847052557404331
It's now time to say goodbye - sorry for this long monologue, we'll try to keep it shorter and tighter next time. The next update will be posted on our website, that we encourage you to visit
if you want to know (much) more about Task Force Admiral.
As always, stay safe & healthy, and see you soon for more contents!
The Team
