Task Force Admiral News

Dear Fans,
Dear Followers,
Old & new,

Welcome to this October 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.

Some new progress to show this month. Most has been showcased in our previous weekly updates on our social platforms, but as these are usually limited in terms of length of text and media quantity, this update is an opportunity to put that all somewhere, where it matters, and where it will last!

We will actually start with the main dish. Those who have been following us know that we have been making steady progress in the development of the GUI & gameplay-related functions over the last few weeks, bringing Task Force Admiral every day a bit closer to an actual game, rather than a mere tech demonstrator, if I was to be say it in a silly way. Here's a series of comments we posted regarding our scouting system and how the AI interacts with it, which will offer some insight in what we've been doing.



First of all, we've been teaching our Artificial Intelligence engine the ropes of carrier combat - and carrier combat 101 says that a good battle starts with some good scouting. This was also the opportunity to test our basic friendly fog of war. Indeed, we wanted to make sure that you actually lose contact with your scouts (at least as a permanently spotted, accurate plot on the map) the moment they leave your immediate sighting and radar range. That worked. And when they come back, they are also coming back as unidentified aircraft, so that works too. So far so good.

Still, it would be a bit unfair to leave you with no clue whatsoever in regard of where their position is, so we added a small icon on their flight plan which tells you where they should be if everything went well. Naturally, if they got shot down without sending a report, them not returning at all will be your first hint that perhaps not everything went so well on that specific search sector...



In other cases, we also had contacts spotted before a radical turn, and with the original spotter shot down shortly after its first report, the AI was not updated and sent its aircraft out there in the void. An embarrassing episode for that Japanese raid indeed, missing its target by a whole 50-60 miles. Bad luck, but all too historical actually!



By recreating the conditions for the random blunders of the era, we sure hoped to see our game recreate them organically, with as little intervention on our part as possible. Fortunately, our theory in terms of design did deliver ultimately, and we had our first small AI carrier vs AI carrier engagement proceeding as it should - that is, absolutely chaotically. We have described it below:



Ok, it wasn't really a full-fledged carrier battle, as we're still adding feature after feature, but that was the first time carriers actually engaged each other in some remotely comprehensive way that involved a full day of scouting & attacks, before retiring at night (which was helped by the fact that these ships cannot sustain damage as of now - again, upcoming features).

What was more interesting was that it was a full AI on AI battle, with no human intervention, and it was pretty fun to see how things evolved organically from very similar, remotely different standpoints using our observer mode. It might look like much from here, but believe me it tells some beautiful stories, really, and ends up being a happy confirmation that the gameplay certainly has much original potential.
The day started with a scouting mission programmed for each side. Both carrier task forces had an "interdiction" task set for them, which implied that they would search a given sector, either provided by the scenario maker (the case here), the player (if it's a friendly TF) or generated from known data (that is, around the area the AI would expect the enemy to be the day following a loss of contact later during a scenario).



As scouts went on their respective business, they both encountered the enemy and reported its position. The scouts on the IJN side were sent up faster (as the US carriers started in a recovery mode, necessitating a few extra minutes of rearrangement of the aircraft on deck). That mere factor changed a lot of things, actually.



As the scouts left the vicinity of the enemy force (ultimately you will be free to order them to loiter & shadow relevant enemy forces, but it wasn't part of their instructions here), strikes were prepared on both sides. The scouts weren't shot down (we haven't programmed automatic CAP yet) so they went to the end of their research leg and returned. The info having reached the Japanese carrier force first, it meant that the Japanese raid went out first and cleared the decks before the return of the US scout above the Japanese TF.



On the other hand, the US strike was still assembling when the Japanese scout came back, and it was shot down by a fighter.



This resulted in the Japanese losing sight of the US force, while the US side didn't. As both carrier task forces changed their heading a few minutes after that to remain in range of the enemy, the US acout came back in time to report this change, but nobody was now in position to do so on the Japanese side. The result is that despite faster reaction times, the Japanese strike was sent on a wild goose chase. As the Japanese bomber slipped by the US force, missing it from 50-60 nautical miles, the US force went straight for the enemy. Yet, the US force also experienced its own issues: it was now approaching the Japanese carriers with part of its escort lagging behind after having attacked the snooper...



These events are actually reminiscent of actions that took place on different sides in 1942 (the afternoon IJN raid at Eastern Solomons, which missed completely the US force for the first one ; the catastrophic distraction of Hiryu's escorting force at Midway, going out of its way to intercept lagging SBDs on the ingress leg, along with a comparable event at Santa Cruz for the second). And it is refreshing to know that these kind of SNAFU events can be generated by the flow of battle as long as the conditions are met to recreate their causes. That's what happens with a handful of aircraft in the air - imagine when there will be dozens of them, with their comms & doctrine fully implemented. Can't wait!



As October went along, we added feature after feature to the engine. The AI is now capable of setting up CAP patrols and is actively engaging incoming strikes all by itself.



We are also working on AAA (anti-air artillery) logic. We are testing guns on a few platforms first, so as to make sure that they will be properly calibrated in-game. But even with just a mere two ships firing, the results are pretty convincing, if not impressive at times in terms of volume of fire... Approaching a US Task Force will ill intents will be costly, as it should be!
















It's all very work in progress of course, but it's a good taste of things to come. This one is quite buggy, because the ships did not have a hitbox yet, and the aircraft don't explose on impact just yet, but here's a Val getting shot down on its dive and hitting the water just a few feet away from the carrier, like it happened so often in 1942. Hopefully this aspect will be functional in time for the next dev update - and I'll happily try to record a Val attack from Yorktown's vulture's row!



And, last but not least, a few shots of the Japanese strike getting home. Or at least, whatever is left of it after overstaying its welcome over the US task force (and yeah don't worry, Shokaku's antennas will be lowered during air ops, eventually!)







Ok, that was a long trek already. Now for those who like nice looking models, we had a new addition to the roster with Wasp, re-made with much love by our 3D artist Rizki. I am quite sure those among you who know about that one lady will appreciate the research he went through so as to recreate all aspects of her specific construction.



Her peculiar side elevator has always been a fan's favorite. It will be around for sure, at least, when we'll have understood how to animate it properly!



She's getting the full treatment, and is nearly ready for integration. With some more objects added...



... and her basic skin applied, she will soon encounter the digital paintbrush of Julien, our 2D artist, for her second life, a little more than 80 years after her dramatic loss.



Now, as a final shout-out, I wanted to mention two videos of importance released this month about Task Force Admiral. First, obviously Stealth17's blockbuster who brought us quite a few new fans from all around the world. If you were interested in hearing a second opinion about our July gameplay trailer, search no more, that man has you covered!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

And yet, if the perspective of a longtime UAD player wasn't close to enough, let me introduce you to Tim Migaki's take on the very same trailer - only this time for a full hour, and coming from somebody who's into real-life naval matters. About that, if you're into Navy stuff of all sort, and especially literature, don't hesitate to pay his great blog Fair Winds & Following Seas a visit!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Big thanks to both of them for their kind coverage

That is all for today Folks! Thank you all kindly for your attention, dear followers. Hope that extended gibberish made sense. That was another long one, but don't worry though - unlike what has been claimed by some out there - to my bewilderment really... - these updates do not affect in any way the pace of development, besides providing our single dev with some comfort to see his work being acknowledged and archived (who knows, we might need that for a making-of some day!). Our online presence is fully handled by yours truly, the producer, who doesn't get to write a single line of code or author a single stroke of virtual brush. Besides contributing to keep our feet firmly on the ground, while developing a sense of responsibility in regard of the feedback we offer our community and our publisher, these updates are a handy way to maintain a presence online and reassure those who might be wondering about the state of development of our baby. Hopefully, some of you do enjoy these monthly rendezvous. At the very least, we do!

As always, if you aren't too fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.




Cheers & see you for our next update!

The Task Force Admiral team.

Dear Fans,
Dear Followers,
Old & new,

Welcome to this September 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.

Life’s been sweet to us in September, at least by the standards set by 2023. We didn’t have much to complain about, we were among our loved ones, doing our work. That work, unfortunately for most of it wasn’t very graphic, and as such can only be mostly explained through the unabashed use of walls of text and a few diagrams. Yet, it was an important step in the direction of providing Task Force Admiral with a soul beyond its pretty face.

Operation Barebones, the codename we gave to our basic playable slice, is well on its way. This month was all about artificial intelligence & its strategic implications, along with efforts to provide the game with its strategic layer. With each passing week, Task Force Admiral is morphing into an actual game, and like many of you might think - clearly it was about time!



So as to make sure that the enemy and friendly AI in Task Force Admiral behaves in a believable fashion, we need to reconstruct carefully a scheme of thought. The AI will be asked to adhere to this logic, that tries to emulate the process you would expect from a commander faced with dilemmas, over and over again, and reacts dynamically to them – with some sense, but often with some wrong assumptions of his own. It means developing a specific set of tasks which will identify clear goals, whether these are dictated by the original mission objectives or by the ever-evolving combat situation.



Another department where some sweat was expended in no small measure is our interface for the Naval Search missions. Separate from defensive and offensive missions, this tool will ultimately allow you to program your sector searches, the ubiquitous opening move of any proper carrier battle during which both sides send scouts to locate their opponent before launching a strike.



Yet, although it is a common matter treated by all games about the topic, Naval Search ended up being a remake of the irreconcilable "the chicken or the egg" kind of conundrum: setting up a flightplan based on a given sector you wish to investigate (aka populating it with your aircraft) vs. generating a sector from the aircraft you have available. Sounds kinda simple & harmless enough, but it ends up being a rather game design-defining choice, and a tough one at that!

Each system had a few issues of its own when it came to providing us with the tools needed for the job. The latter is actually what people usually have in games like that - say, in Carriers at War, Task Force & Pacific Air War, for instance. You add aircraft from your pool, sub-sectors are created each time and add to each other, and there you go, that's the good old Microprose way many of you have been used to, easy to use. I'd know that, I could use it when I was 9 and set in another language, so it must have been pretty handy after all!



On the other hand, you also have the rarer breed of the sector taking precedence over aircraft themselves, 2by3's War in the Pacific being one example. But even then, a squadron is limited to one sector search at a time, which means that you need two units when you need to cover two sectors. Mostly, each technique encountered can be either put under one or the other doctrine, with their own limitations. These are limitations we attempted to solve in TFA, hopefully with some luck, observing the best practices and learning from our illustrious forebearers. Here's the preliminary result we came up with.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

After some experimenting, we ended up convinced that the mission itself (aka the area to search) shall be the defining item, rather than the result of the air assets you have in hand - and if the latter don't work to cover your needs, then you'll have to revise your needs to take your limitations into account. Similarly, using a mission-based system rather than a plane-based system allows you to create as many search plans as you like, including two-phased ones or sector searches going in opposite directions, yet worked on separately by aircraft from the same squadron.

This done, the next stage will now include the vital doctrine-related & behavioral choices we want to inject in the gameplay, so as to allow you to brief your scout pilots - simply, but with some clarity - regarding what you expect from them. We will hopefully cover that in the next update, if all things go well in October, that is!



While Jean Baptiste our coder was busy trying to assemble the brains of our game, one cog at a time, obviously other had his own workload.

Now that most of the fleet is on its way to finalization, our 3D artist had some spare time to dedicate for a smaller task – and by that we don’t mean a matter not less important in the larger scheme of thing, but purely something that doesn’t involve big ships, but little men.



Our local pixeltruppen, that is our digital sailors, officers & other crewmen, are often requested as a feature in the comments left & right in our social media. Do understand that they are a concern for us all the same, but we are looking for the right most satisfying and balanced way of including them to the game without incurring a disproportional workload that would possibly affect our overall timetable and pipeline. For now, we will probably settle for static crewmen which will certainly add some bits of life to the scenes, despite their unequivocal stillness.



Adding animated models would require the opening of a different can of worms we can ill afford right now, but obviously our wish is to get there at some time down the line, especially if we were to be successful at release. It is, when all things are said and done, in the category of pure eye-candy, but this is the sort of feature that contributes its own valuable little step towards an improved overall immersion.



In the same fashion, don't expect these soldiers above to jump out of their Daihatsu barge and storm a beach. For now, it is all about adding some more immersion to the mix, and we will certainly develop this further as time goes once the game will be seating on solid foundations. But until then, at least we won't be afflicted with that silly "ghost ship syndrome" most of you dislike so much! Better than nothing, like they say.



As for the 2D front, we’ve been painting new ships one after another, while still researching better rendering techniques for our vehicles. As our skins are all layered with different effect, working on a given layer in order to improve a given effect doesn’t impact workflow as much as it used to back in the day when a single overall skin was to include everything you needed to dress up your model. Rivets in particular are a tough customer. Whether they are visible or flushed, they still require an extra bit of attention to render properly while being optimized so as not to slow gameplay to a crawl when a wave of 50 SBD is about to dive on the Kido Butai. The progress is probably more apparent with pics rather than words, so I’ll let the pixels speak!



And that will be all for this update! As a final word, yet again, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.



Cheers & see you for our next update!

The Task Force Admiral team.

Dear Fans,
Dear Followers,
Old & new,

Welcome to this August 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.

Hopefully we'll keep it short and to the point, with a recap of a few items of interest that have been explored this month, including some that were kept for this very update.

First of all, the video of the month, this time courtesy of our 3D artist Rizki. As people often ask us questions about our ships and how they're done, our artist filmed himself while recreating a ship from head to toe. Nothing fancy, it is an auxiliary, so it is comparatively simple - yet it is probably a good introductory video for those who might be interesting in trying out their skills in 3D ship making. Everybody has to start somewhere - might as well start with him!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

His technique was mostly self-taught, like it is the case with many artists out there, so it certainly doesn't mean that there's a single right way to get to the final result. Yet, as Task Force Admiral will have to display massive engagements over a very large area, we made sure that all elements in the pipeline were as optimized as they can get. At the end of the day, this ship is a good example, as a game ready model which required less than 30,000 triangles. Sometimes the perfectionism, especially when it is all about applied knowledge, is about doing more with less rather than the other way around.



Featured in the video is AD-15 Prairie, as a good example of the auxiliaries you will find in-game. As a Dixie class tender, she shared a hull with USS Dixie (AD-14), but also in most part submarine tenders USS Fulton (AS-11) and USS Sperry (AS-12) and to some extent USS Curtiss (AV-4) - which requires a big fat hangar on the stern - all of which at one point or another contributed to the battles and theaters featured in Task Force Admiral vol.1, and will show up where they are supposed to be. And if they don't, well, you'll be free to tailor make some scenarios to make them shine! They will be joined by a large family of other smaller combatants, merchants or specialized vessels. Often ignored in the domain of gaming, auxiliaries were actually the most common sight even at sea or off the coast of Guadalcanal. Giving them the attention they deserve is paramount to making Task Force Admiral a bit different from what came before it, hopefully all for the best.



Note that Prairie and her sisters are only halfway to her homeport. It is time for Julien our 2D artist to ride the pipeline and use the assets produced by our 3D artist to give the ship her final look. In a game like Task Force Admiral, it is important to make the most out of the 2D art itself so as to complement, enhance the 3D model. Now that the original skin has been produced by Rizki, Julien can work his magic and start providing the ship with as many liveries as required - as you can see here with Kongo Maru, another one of these ubiquitous designs that you will often encounter in the game, and bomb accordingly.



The amount of work Julien accomplishes when fine-tuning 3D models into the ships you will have in-game is absolutely paramount to the end-user experience. You can very easily compared the result between the base 3D model of Yamato (1941) when she was fresh from the 3D shop in the July update, and how she looks like now, after a few good strokes of paintbrush and a huge load of talent. Hopefully we'll get to show you Prairie in her new clothes soon enough too!



Don't worry though, the art team wasn't the only one hard at work this month. Despite a short Summer respite so that we could spend a few quiet days with the family, one cannot say that time wasn't used productively



First of all, performance tuning is still on-going, and we did step it up a bit further. After the 50 v 50 dogfights of a few months ago, we wondered how it would scale beyond that, with, say, 200 aircraft and 50 or so ships in the same scene. We're happy to say that it is still going fine, with zero bug in sight. A most important matter when a battle like Midway entails having around 500 aircraft and 40 ships maneuvering in such a tight space. If they were to all meet in the middle of the ocean, one would have to take into account the workload of the AI and the effects proper, but when it comes to displaying these numbers, we are not too afraid.



On the GUI (Graphical User Interface) front, we have started the design process on the counters you will be using on the strategic map. Although the old tabletop-like wargame counters you could see in the original trailers were kinda cool (at least to yours truly ^^) and worked fine in our prototypes, it quickly became obvious that they were unfortunately a cul-de-sac design-wise. They wouldn't indicate the heading of the relevant task force or contact, would definitely loose clarity when zoomed out, even when rescaled... And last but not least, we just did not find a satisfying way to have them coexist when two forces are so close to each other that some sort of merging was required.



As such, we had to stray away from a purely skeuomorphistic approach by abstracting them to some extent. This will have the combined advantages of making the mission of the task forces clearer, and more obvious to the untrained eyed, while the round shape allows us to put a directional indicator along the ring. Although these below were early prototypes, we are definitely heading that way. Note that the large space above the ships will probably be used for a nationality flag to add to their readability. The facing will also help our color-blind players to more easily distinguish between friends and foes, beyond the colors themselves. As for the other information, it will be displayed in a dedicated pop up window during fly overs, not unlike what you had in games such as Task Force 1942 or 1942: The Pacific Air War.



Once the display system will be in place, at least sufficiently for proper testing, we will spend our time on the AI logic that brings these forces in contact and in conflict. Task Forces types, Tasks and waypoint types and everything they cover will finally be designed and implemented fully. As for the rest, it's reaching a point that I might call "mature" enough for dedicating our next round of effort to substance rather than looks. Getting there boys!



August was also, naturally the 80th anniversary of Operation Watchtower, which marked the beginning of the Guadalcanal campaign. Like all the rendezvous of 1942, we couldn't let that go without a small homage.



It came in the form of Julien's latest painting, depicting the last moments of unfortunate USS Quincy, sunk 80 years ago off the coast of Guadalcanal in the first of many bloody surface engagements in what was to become the Iron Bottom Sound. CA-39 sustained crippling damage during the engagement, leading to a dramatic loss of life, leaving more than half of her complement dead, wounded or missing in action.

Those who have an interest in learning more about her fate can read her official damage/loss report, available online at the Navy History and Heritage Command at this address.



Click here to download the high-res JPG version of Julien's work.



Finally, a shout out to Jochen Heiden, a noted War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition who has taken a liking to Task Force Admiral and has begun to cover us, and has kindly offered us shelter on his discord server too!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

His tutorials are the top of the crop when it comes to taming that tough beast that is WitP:AE, so don't hesitate to subscribe to his channel if you are among the few ones who got acquainted with this monument these days, as it is sitting at a formidable -80% discount for an extra few days. If you're a PTO fan, that one game was very much worth its $80 - you can expect it to deliver all the same at $16! ːsteamthumbsupː



That is all for today Folks!

Thank you all kindly for your attention, dear followers. Wishing you all a fine life September, especially to all those who study and work at school – days ahead remain tough, but there's one thing you can be certain of, is that we're way too far in development to let you down. Hopefully, we'll see each other again for great news by the end of the Fall. By the way, if you don't want to miss a thing, and aren't fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.



Cheers & see you for our next update!

The Task Force Admiral team.

Dear Fans,
Dear Followers,
Old & new,

Welcome to this July 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.

As always, the last few weeks have been filled with honest progress. A specific care was given to the optimization of the game environment, in regard of the tech of course, but the GUI in its larger meaning too. Let’s go over the contents of the last months, including some new cool stuff released just yesterday.

The part of the GUI relevant to player user experience has been discussed already at length in the previous video – although we do have a new version now, with a spoken narration. We also added some extra trivia regarding our vision of how history can be made to speak to you through the diegetic interface we have been designing. It might be worth a look if you haven’t seen the original video – and even then, we have thrown in a few more gameplay sequences at the end that might sweeten the deal!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Talking about behind the scenes contents, we just had an interview with the right honorable Wolfpack345 some of you no doubt know well for his adventures over the Russian front, the Solomons or the bottom of the Norwegian sea. He was kind enough to extend an invitation to us for this new feature, and we went for it. Obviously our game designer is no professional interviewee, but it was a first for Wolfpack, so we were in good company! We did throw in there a lot of original contents, especially some nice sequences of Rizki, our 3D artist, and Julien, our 2D illustrator hard at work. The complete videos will be released later in early August – it will be a treat for whoever among you is into naval architecture using Blender, or digital painting.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Finally, in regard of non-player GUI, we also made a lot of progress on the integration tools we will be using ourselves when calibrating ships and aircraft in the game. These tools, readily available in the general interface of the engine, will be available to some extent to those among you who might want to tweak around the ships – or add your own creations. Task Force Admiral in its current form will be a single player game, so there is little incentive to prevent you from playing around the properties and try your own stuff. We are of the opinion that good games inspire people to mod them – while great games actually give them the tools to do so. We’ll do what we can to steer in the direction of the latter.



In the meantime, these tools are practical for those in our team who can now give a hand to our developer without prior experience with coding & all the sweet programmer stuff. It will certainly improve the workflow – all these 90 ships and 40 aircraft ain’t going to get right into the game all by themselves, are they! Talking about the former, let's finish this update with a few screenshots of the latest additions to the Japanese roster. Not all ships are at the same level of finish just yet, and the textures are the main mapping (that is the clothes that come with the 3D model) not the final deal just yet. But we know we have a few Nihon Kaigun enthusiasts in here who will not say no to some more additional relevant eye candy... So there you go, enjoy it all thoroughly!








Thank you all kindly for your attention, dear followers. Wishing you all a fine life & a safe Summer – take good care of yourselves, and of all those you love!

Cheers & see you for our next update in late August!

The Task Force Admiral team.

Dear Fans,
Dear Followers,
Old & new,

Welcome to this June 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.

It is coming late in June, but it’s still June!
Don’t worry, what we are showing to you today was certainly worth the wait. As the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway went by, we did not rest – quite the opposite. That is the sort of event that gives you wings, and tells you that it is about time to go public about a certain number of points.



It just so happens that our builds are starting to really feel like, look like, play like a real game, so why not go all in and give you a sneak peek? We’ve run the game for a good 10 minutes, in order to showcase a few features which are nearing their completed stage. We are not showing everything – we are actually only showcasing some of the basic functions, and a lot of contents were either not finalized or not ready just yet for a demonstration. A few disclaimers are below the video in the description section - don't be too scared, it is all very much Work in Progress, and it is not entirely representative of the final state, beyond the underlying big chunks of code at work.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Still, consider these bits of contents as the tree that hides the forest, as there is still much more depth left to explore: search ops, attack operations, anti-air artillery, strategic movement & tasking, surface combat, chain of command & communications, submarine encounters... It is all there at different levels of completion, and all will come in due time, but fear not, we’re getting a bit closer, and it kinda shows.



This video aside, our collection of loading screens dedicated to the Battle of Midway have got larger with two new artworks from Julien. One of them depicts the workhorse of the Patrol squadrons, the Catalina, which played a pivotal role during the battle, contributing to the final victory in no small measure. The machine depicted is PBY-5A BuNo 04982 (callsign 8V55) from VP-44, which was the first to report the invasion force on June 3. Another PBY (BuNo 04975) sharing this callsign & this search sector was shot down and forced to ditch the next day by three F1M2 observation planes from Chitose, becoming the only combat casualty of the Patrol squadrons during the battle.



Another one depicts the final fight of Chikuma's n°5 Aichi E13A “Jake” scout floatplane, shot down by a Combat Air Patrol from Task Force 16 in the early afternoon on the first day of the battle. I will let John Lundstrom, the author of the First Team describe the action so much better than I would:



Both are very representative of the kind of action you will go through yourself when playing Task Force Admiral. Catalinas will be there to serve as the eyes of the fleet, and will sometimes be your last hope to find and fish out of the drink one of your precious airmen (who happen to be worth a few victory points too!).





As for the snoopers of all sorts, being shadowed by the enemy is always a bad sign and the first signal that things are going to turn sour very quickly. Jakes are nimble aircraft, and not so easy to down when there is plenty of cloud cover around... Don’t underestimate them, truly, sometimes shooting them down might very well buy you a few extra minutes of respite, and will possibly be the difference between life and death for your Task Force. Just make sure to only shoot down enemy "seagulls", not one of your own...!



That’s all for today! We do hope that you will enjoy our little video. We will probably write more in the next update, and add some updated visuals too. Stay tuned for our July contribution, hopefully a bit earlier than on the last day of the month this time!

Cheers and take care

The Task Force Admiral team.