                              Command : MISSION

 SYNTAX:
   [##:##] Command: mission <type>  <UNITS>  <s|i|e|r|a|c|q>  [<op  sector|.>]
[<radius>]

The mission command is used to assign ships, planes, or  land  units  to  mis-
sions.  The  available missions are: support, 's' (planes only), interdiction,
'i' (any), escort, 'e' (escort or intercept capable planes only), air defense,
'a'  (intercept  capable planes only), and reserve, 'r' (land units only). You
may also use 'q' (query) to check on the mission of something, or 'c'  (clear)
to wipe the mission of a land unit/plane/ship.

GENERAL CONCEPT

Missions are things that your planes/land units/ships  can  do  automatically,
such  as  bombing/shelling.  You  assign a unit to a mission, and whenever the
right conditions occur, the unit attempts to perform its  mission.  Note  that
missions don't allow a unit to do anything it normally could not do, they sim-
ply allow them to do  it  in  an  automatic  fashion.  In  some  cases,  units

                              Command : MISSION

performing missions might not be as 'smart' as  they  would  be  if  you  were
operating  them  personally.   That's  the  price you pay for having automatic
defenses.

IMPORTANT NOTES

No missions occur during updates.

Planes flying missions will be intercepted normally. (i.e.  if  you  fly  over
enemy  territory,  you'll get intercepted. Any misison except air missions may
also be intercepted by planes on air defense missions)

Planes of less than 40% efficiency will not fly missions.

Planes assigned to missions are NOT eligible to intercept normally. For  exam-
ple,  if  a fighter is assigned to an escort or air-defense or interdiction or
support mission, it will NOT rise  to  intercept  an  intruding  enemy  plane.
(planes on air-defense missions will intercept planes flying in their op-area,
in accordance with the air-defense mission, but will not intercept one outside
their op-area, even if it is within their normal range. Be sure you understand

                              Command : MISSION

this before using plane missions.)

OPERATIONS SECTORS

Some missions require the designation of an 'op sector', short for  operations
sector. This is the center of an area that the mission is focussed on.  The op
sector may be any sector that is within the unit's range.  (Firing range,  for
ships  & land units, flying range for planes, changeable with rangeedit).  The
unit will exert influence in a radius around the op sector.  By  default,  the
radius  will  be  as  large  as  possible,  i.e. the biggest range so that the
unit/ship/plane could legally act there.)  For example, a ship with a range of
4 could designate any sector up to 4 away from it as it's op sector, and would
affect anything within 4 of it's op-sector, provided it was also within  4  of
the ship.

If a smaller radius is desired, it may be specified on the command line. If it
is not specified, it will not be prompted for.

The area affected by a unit is known as that unit's op-area.

                              Command : MISSION

If a '.' is given as the op-sector, the op sector will be the location of  the
unit.

Additionally, if the unit's op-sector is the sector the unit is  in,  and  the
unit  moves  without losing its mission status, the operation sector will move
with it. (Normally, of course, the only way for a unit on a mission to move is
to be carried on a ship, so this mostly applies to planes on carriers) Thus, a
tactical bomber on a ship could have an op-area centered on the  carrier  that
moved with the carrier.

Otherwise, if the unit moves without losing its mission status, the op  sector
will stay where it was designated.

For example, suppose that land unit 4 is an artillery unit, range  5,  located
at 0,0.

   [##:##] Command: mission land 4 int .

This would make the unit interdict anything passing within 5  sectors  of  its
location.

                              Command : MISSION

   [##:##] Command: mission land 4 int 4,0

This would make the unit interdict anything passing within 5 sectors  of  4,0,
provided it was also within 5 sectors (the unit's range) of 0,0.

   [##:##] Command: mission land 4 int 4,0 2

This would make the unit interdict anything passing within 2 sectors  of  4,0,
provided it was also within 5 sectors (the unit's range) of 0,0.

The op-sector/op-range concept  allows  you  to  restrict  a  unit's  area  of
interest  to  a small, important area, or just let it shoot at anything within
range.

MOBILITY USE

When a unit is given a mission, it immediately uses 1/2 it's maximum mobility.
For  example, if a plane unit (normal max mobility 127) is given a mission, it
immediately loses 64 mobility. From then on, whenever the  unit  performs  its
mission,  it  uses less than the amount of mobility is would normally use. For

                              Command : MISSION

instance, if a land unit is given a reserve mission and then reacts to a  sec-
tor, it pays only half the normal mobility cost of combat.  A plane performing
a mission would pay only 1/4 the normal amount of mobility to fly a mission. A
sub  torping as part of a mission would pay 1/2 the normal amount of mobility,
etc. Learn by doing.

A unit stays on it's mission until you cancel it, OR the unit acts.  Any  type
of  action  not a part of a mission is sufficient, so marching, navving, tran-
sporting, flying, reconing, fortifying, bombing, mining,  paratrooping,  being
attacked, being paratrooped on, retreating, etc, will all cause a unit to lose
its mission status, but the unit could bomb/shell/etc AS PART  OF  A  MISSION,
and  still retain its mission status.  Also, land units with a reserve mission
can react to a threatened sector and fight, and (assuming they win) return  to
their original sector without losing their reserve status.

DEFENDERS

The  defender's  planes  will   intercept   planes   flying   missions.    His
ships/forts/units,  however,  will  NOT  fire at ships/forts/units firing on a
mission.

                              Command : MISSION

INTERDICTION MISSIONS (ships, planes, land units)

When giving a unit a interdiction mission, you designate an  op  sector.  From
then  on,  whenever an enemy (defined as something belonging to a nation which
you are at war with) moves in a sector in that unit's op-area, the  unit  will
try  to shell or bomb it (as appropriate). Almost any kind of movement, except
for distribution movement during an update, and the tiny amounts moved by  the
supply routines is enough.

For  example,  an  enemy  land  unit  marching  up  to  the  front  would   be
shelled/bombed.  An enemy moving commodities around would have the commodities
automatically shelled/bombed. A ship  navving  into  a  sea  sector  would  be
shelled or bombed, depending on it's type (obviously, only depth-charge or ASW
capable units would affect a submarine, and  a  submarine  would  only  affect
things  it  could torpedo) In general, units can only affect things they could
normally affect. For example, if the enemy was transporting a  plane  along  a
highway,  and  you  had  an artillery unit and a light bomber interdicting the
highway sector, the land unit would fire and the bomber would  fly  there  and
bomb, and the total damage would be applied to the plane being transported. If
it was still alive,  it  might  be  moved  to  another  sector,  there  to  be

                              Command : MISSION

bombed/shelled again (assuming the new sector was  also  in  both  units'  op-
areas)  If  a  different unit later moved in, it would be shelled/bombed. This
happens as long as the interdicting units have mobility left.

Damage done is divided amongst all units/ships/commodities moving.  For  exam-
ple,  if  6 ships were moving, and the interdiciton mission did 18 pts of dam-
age, each ship would take 3.

Note that only ships with sonar and ASW planes can interdict subs.  Also,  the
units may or may not detect the subs, so it's kind of random. The sub also has
a chance of escaping the damage, depending on the visibility of the sub.

Only planes with the 'tactical' ability can fly interdiction  missions.   Only
planes  with  'ASW'  ability will fly vs. subs. Planes with 'ASW' ability will
not fly interdiction vs. other types of ships/planes/units/commods.  Interdic-
tion  has  no effect on flying planes. Interdiction affects only things moving
on the surface.

Note also that forts will fire at enemy ships coming within range.  You  don't
have  to  set  anything  for  this, it happens automatically. (Forts firing at

                              Command : MISSION

enemy ships naving happens before ships/planes/units interdicting ships, so if
the enemy is using an area a lot, a fort will hurt him without costing you mob
from planes)

SUPPORT MISSIONS (planes only)

When giving a plane a support mission, you designate an op sector.  From  then
on,  whenever a sector owned by the plane's owner (or by an ally of the plane-
owner, if the ally is also at war with the attacker) in that  plane's  op-area
is attacked, the plane will attempt to fly to that sector and give ground sup-
port.  If the plane's owner (or an ally of the plane's owner, if the  ally  is
also  at  war  with the country attacked) attacks a sector in that plane's op-
area belonging to a country that the plane owner is at  war  with,  the  plane
will  also  attempt  to fly there and give offensive support. (see info attack
for more information on how support works in land combat)

Only planes with the 'tactical' ability can fly support missions.

ESCORT MISSIONS (planes only)

                              Command : MISSION

When given an escort mission,  an  escort  or  intercept  capable  plane  will
attempt  to  escort  any  plane flying a support or interdict mission from the
same airport.  If even 1 plane flys a support or interdiction mission from  an
airport,  all  planes  on  escort duty at that airport will attempt to escort.
Planes with escort duty will NOT attempt to  escort  planes  taking  off  from
other  airports,  so  it  pays to put your bombing planes and escorting planes
together.

Only planes with the 'escort' or 'intercept' abilities  can  fly  escort  mis-
sions.

AIR DEFENSE MISSIONS (planes only) When  given  an  air  defense  mission,  an
intercept  capable plane will attempt to intercept any enemy plane (defined as
any plane belonging to a country you re at war with) flying  into  its  opera-
tions  area,  irregardless  of  whether the enemy planes are flying over owned
sectors. For example, if a plane is given an air defense mission  with  an  op
area  covering  some  owned  sectors,  some sea, some allied sectors, and some
enemy sectors, it would try to intercept over any of them.

When a plane enters a sector, any planes with air defense missions that are at

                              Command : MISSION

war with the owner of the plane will fly there to fight it.  The  air  defense
planes  encounter  normal  interception along the way (but do NOT trigger more
air defense missions, but MAY be intercepted normally).  Once the air  defense
planes get to the sector, they fight the plane. Then, if the owner of the sec-
tor is hostile to the plane, still more planes may intercept it.

Example  Groonland wants to run a recon flight over Bannannarama. Joeland  has
a jet fighter with an air defense mission and an op-area covering part of Ban-
nannarama. The 'j' sector belongs to Joeland, and is the base for the fighter.
The 'b' sectors belong to Bannannarama, which has 1 fighter in the center sec-
tor. The 'g' sector belongs to Groonland. Assume that all countries are  mutu-
ally at war.

The Joeland fighter's op area is centered on the 'B', radius 2.

                              Command : MISSION

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
     . . . . . j . . . . . b b . . . .
    . . . . . . . . . . . b B b . . .
     . . . . . . . . . . . b b . . . .
    . . . . . . . . . g . . . . . . .

The Groonland player enters  a  path  of  'uujjjbgbggh'.   The  first  sectors
entered  is sea, and is not in the Joeland aircraft's op-area, so nothing hap-
pens.

Next, the Groonland plane enters the sector adjacent to Bannannarama.  This is
within the Joeland aircraft's op-area, so it flies to intercept.  It takes the
shortest path there, and fights the Groonland plane.  Let's say that both take
20 points of damage, and neither aborts.

Next, the Groonland plane overflies a Bannannarama sector. The  Joeland  plane
flies  there,  and is intercepted by the Bannannarama plane. Let's say that it
comes through the fight without being aborted. It then  fights  the  Groonland

                              Command : MISSION

plane. After this combat, if the Groonland plane is not  aborted,  it  may  be
intercepted  again  by the busy Bannannarama fighter, assuming that that plane
is still efficient enough, has mob enough, etc.

A good use of this mission is to provide a wider CAP around a carrier, so that
enemy  planes  get intercepted several times on the way to the carrier, rather
than just once, in the carrier's sector.

Another use is to provide air-cover for an ally who has temporarily  lost  his
planes.

RESERVE MISSIONS (land units only)

A land unit given reserve orders has an increased ability to  react  to  enemy
attacks.  A  reserve unit has its reaction radius increased by 2.  (Note: this
is cumulative with the +1 modifier for being at an efficient headquarters,  so
a  reserve  unit  at an HQ would have a +3).  In addition, a reserve unit pays
1/2 the normal cost for fighting a battle.  (It still pays the normal cost for
moving to the threatened sector) See info attack for more details on reaction.

                              Command : MISSION

Note that units with a reserve mission retain this status,  even  though  they
move  to  the threatened sector and return. This is an exception to the normal
rules on losing your mission status. If, however, the land unit is  forced  to
retreat  from  the  combat  (see  land  combat for details), it WOULD lose its
status.

When a unit with a reserve mission is listed, the op sector is the sector  the
unit is in, and the radius is the units maximum reaction radius, including the
bonus for the reserve mission and HQ (if applicable).  Note  that  the  unit's
actual radius might be different if it was changed by lrangeedit.

Final note: information gained from planes flying missions  is  not  automati-
cally  added  to your bmap (due to annoying programming problems) However, you
may use the bdesignate command to add the  information  manually,  if  you  so
desire.  (See info bdesignate for more information on bdes)

See also : ship-types, plane-types, land-types, attack, bomb

