Hi Marc. I was hoping for your input on this.
What you are saying is very true. This is why I’m proposing to simulate NB’s servicing ships/fleets with a “radius”. The ships do not ever have to enter the actual sea-zone where the NB is located.
Therefore, if you have a chain of Naval Bases, your ships can stay at sea forever, as long as they stay within range of a base. A range of 3 sea zones would be several thousand miles.
Ships would only need to actually go to a Naval Base to get repairs.
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The Japanese also had their ships out on very long missions. Example being their carrier fleet around Java back in '41. But they were able to do that with a very nice series of Bases leading all the way back to the mainland to service them.