The Horizon is Three Miles Out Darnit! x!;)

[Lancer]

You have a caravel, you are exploring the world. You've gone the extra distance and you're carrying an explorer and a settler! Things are good, and hope is in your heart. A sunbeam cuts through the curtains as a warm breeze wafts them aside. A Robin alights on the sill and sings a song...

Then, from nowhere, a storm cloud appears, cutting out the sun. Hark, who goes thar? It's another caravel, the only other caravel on the entire ocean, and it sees yours, attacks and sinks it. A peal of thunder cracks outside your window, a stunned Robin drops dead in your lap. A cloudbust and a gust of wind throws the curtains on the floor by your feet, the burst of rain sprays across your monitor. In a blaze of sizzle and sparks the monitor follows your trireme to it's doom, your head in your hands, you choke out a few desperate words...wtf happened?!?!...my caravel...my settler...my sunny day...arrrggg...(sniff)

What did happen?

Well, a ship that in the real world has a statistical chance of seeing your caravel about as great as that robin landing on your window sill just did so, and does so every time. Every time you're hauling caravans, every time you're moving troops by sea, if there's a ship there, it sees you. It should have about one chance in 10 of seeing you. One chance in 2 of seeing you next to coastline, or within X amount of spaces from a coastal city where coastal small craft and fishing boats increase the odds of detection.

What happened to the sunny day? Sudden climate changes do to global warming created a temperature inversion which brough warm moist air from the gulf...well never mind...


The horizon is three miles out. The ocean is endless in comparison.

[Chronus]

Gee Lancer ... I'm not sure I agree with your complaint nor can I foresee any solution that would suit my opinion.

However . . .

That is some mighty creative writing you've got there! Had me in stitches!

[Adm.Naismith]

Lancer, that remember me of WWII, where Italian Navy tried very often to send unescorted ships carrying troops and supplies from Italy to Africa.
They usually ends sank by Royal Navy or RAF.

Guess what? The Ally intercepted and decipher every code message Italians used (a bit like the Enigma well know history related to German Kriegsmarine).

Of course Civ II AI cheats as hell about intercepting routes, as usually does SMAC AI that find your Cloacked Unit hidden in fungus

To be a bit more fair, ship units represent a fleet of ship, that you can suppose can patrol a bit more than [i]3 miles rounds[/] of sea...
and don't forget bad charma!

Rules of engagement
1) Always escort Transport ships
2) Always escort Capital ships (Carrier)
3) Try to escort the escorter, to outnumber the enemy
4) Don't putt all your eggs (unit) into same basket (transport)
5) Well, it's only a game and you lose a ship: no one is harmed
6) Reload and change route... AI cheats, why you can't?

------------------
Admiral Naismith AKA mcostant

Actually at sea the horizon is about 24 to 26 miles. I served on the USS Navarro APA-215 and standing on the main deck you could see around 22 to 23 miles. Our main desk was about 15 feet above the water. On our 05 level you could see 26 miles away. On leaving Long Beach one-day young “Watch” was goofing off and was caught by the OOD. The OD told him if radar picked up a ship before he did, he would be written up for not doing his duty. Well he later call us on the bridge and said he saw a ship in the distance, we look at our radar repeater which was set at 25 mile search and did not see the ship on the scope, so I move it to 250 mile search and there was the ship 26 plus miles away from our ship. On our 05 level we were about 5 or 6 feet above an Aircraft Carrier flight desk. Land is visible somewhere around 30 to 40 miles out. If I remember right you can see automobiles at about 15 to 20 mile out.
At sunset one day, we where off the coast of China and Taiwan heading south, we couldn’t see any land. As the Sun went into the water we saw an outline of a mountain in the sun. When we ask how far we where from the Chinese coast, we where told 100 miles.


------------------