noobee (1) series of frustrations and questions

[djeezman]

I see I am a late starter of this game. I dreaded the complexity at first..but now I have time to dive into it.[:'(]

Questions/frustrations:

1) I read that aircraft of certain commands cannot be shiptransported . Fair enough. They can get rebased within their own zone. SUper.
But why the hell [:@] can't I ship troops of these commands WITHIN its own zone ??? Australia gets invaded in its pacific islands and I can't take in troops from continental Australia ? I can't move ABDA or US philippines troops to concentrate them at important places!!!Bizar !
(the zones are under human control)
Don't tell me I have to wait to accumulate enough political points to move command for each and every troop.

2) In reallife a TF that is chasing a nme TF would keep its sights on that TF and catch up on it if its speed is faster (sight of smoke plume, radar and planes help of course).
You'd expect the follow TF button to apply to this feature. But it seems to me that the follw TF is only meant for friendly TF.
That's weird. The TF commander learns about a nme TF at noon, tells his helmsman to steer in a certain direction, then he tells all other crew to close their eyes and go to bed, and when they wake up the next morning they have reached the waypoint only to discover that the TF is not there where they expect it to be ... gjeeh. Is this realistic ?

3) What is the game idea of creating barges ? (the reality I understand)
I can make invasions with AK vessels (the japs do it in the game without ANY problem, without ANY AK being severely shot and sunk by coastal guns..realistic? ..neey) so why the need to convert supplies into LCV and other barges ?


4) loading troops in AK.
Say the AK's and AP's together add up to a capacity of 20000.
I have various troops ARTY, ARM, INF and perhaps a few aircraft.
Upon loading the troops i see different values per troop for AK, AP and such ships.
I click a number of troops, see that their combined capacity is under the transport capacity in EITHER combination taking into consideration the selected vessels.
Still the result is that far less troops get loaded than based on my experience and mastering of mathematics.
So how does it work ?

5) Troop marching.
5.1) I found that a ABDA troop marching in the jungle/trails (Sumatra) march far slower than a british troop in the jungle/trails of Malaysia/thailand/Burma.
As in 1 mile/day versus 20 mile a day or so. Both with little or no vehicles, both in malaria zones.
Please explain.
5.2) ALso I learned that US troops in Philippines that I wanted to march out of a non contested hex were stuck to the value "marched 59 miles of 60 miles" for some two or thee days. They just didn't move.
Why not ?
Because on the fourth day the Japs arrived from sea to slash them!!!!!![X(]
Is this a joke or a bug ? Or a way to give the Jap AI a bonus ?


6) When you take via a land hex/assault a nme naval base that was mined by the nme, have the nme mines then automatically disappeared or do you still have to send in MSW to clean up ?


That's it for now.
More things later as I progress in this game[8|].

[aztez]

1) You need pay PP to move the troops even within their own "zone". Only way to move them is via land.
 
2) Follow command works on friendly TF. Set the slowest TF to be on the leading role. Most of time these ships wohn't get separated.
 
3) I think barges unload much faster.
 
4) AK's are suited for tanks and supplies. AP's for troops. Make two separate TF of each and then combine them. That way you have troops on AP's and Supplies on AK's. AP's do unload much faster.
 
5) I haven't noticed these things so I can't comment.
 
6) I don't the all the mines go away so you better use MSW patrols there.
 
 

[Sardaukar]

4)APs load troops better, AKs load equipment and supplies better. That's why values are different.

6) No, mines won't go away except deteriorating by 1% per day. Send MSWs.

[rockmedic109]

My answers may not be perfect, but I will try.
 
1.
If you could put Australia Command troops on a ship, there is nothing in the code that would prevent you from dropping them off anywhere...say Pearl Harbor.  Fixing this might cause other problems.  I would rather live with it.  If the command is unrestricted, then you do not need to expend political points before moving them.
 
2.
The Follow Task Force command is only for friendly units as you surmise.  All things being equal, you are correct in that the faster tf should be able to run down a slower tf.  All things are not equal.  Norfolk and Suffolk were faster than Bismark, yet Bismark successfully escaped their prying eyes.  A carrier ducked into a squal at Santa Cruz or East Solomons {bad memory} and was not attacked.  Hiryu was on the other side of the formation at Midway and not attacked.  Having enough variances in outcome to handle such events is one of the strong points in this game. 
 
3.
Landing craft can dump ALL of their load in one turn.  It may take several days for an AP or AK to disgorge it's troops and this entails more losses and disruptions and potentially the loss of an AP or AK which is certainly more valuable than a Landing craft.  I believe barges produce no VPs for the opponet if they are lost and they can only be aerially attacked by Figher Bombers at 100' {I think}.
 
4.
Works better to form a tf for each unit you want to transport...then when all are loaded, merge them into one tf.  There is no way to break down the difference in AP/AK when loading the unit if you are looking at the capacity of the tf.  I usually just use all AK or all AP and work around this minor problem.
 
5. 
I believe leaders, size of trail, supply level, exp of troops, fatigue and disruption all have impact on how far a unit moves.  The 59 mile thing {if not related to the above} was a bug of prior to version 1.3 {I think}.
 
6.
You need to send MSW.  Read the rule carefully regarding minesweeper missions.  They have to be on patrol/do not retire {I believe}.  I think DMS will work in a bombardment tf that is moving through a hex containing a minefield.  Also, if you set an offensice minefield in a port and then take that port, your mines become unfriendly to you and may damage your own ships.
 
Welcome to club.  Enjoy the game but ignore your wife/girlfriend at your own peril.  You might want to have a standing order at a florist to send her a dozen roses every month or so.

[rtrapasso]

1.
If you could put Australia Command troops on a ship, there is nothing in the code that would prevent you from dropping them off anywhere...say Pearl Harbor. Fixing this might cause other problems. I would rather live with it. If the command is unrestricted, then you do not need to expend political points before moving them.

The Devs/Frag said this was to prevent gamey stuff like putting everyone in the PI (or wherever) on a ship, then keeping them there until they had PPs to get them to switch to another command.

5. - The 59 mile bug is still around in some forms...

[bradfordkay]

"The Devs/Frag said this was to prevent gamey stuff like putting everyone in the PI (or wherever) on a ship, then keeping them there until they had PPs to get them to switch to another command."



Seems to me that the IJNAF is enough to prevent that from happening (you'd have a lot of troops swimming in the harbor if someone were so foolish).

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

"The Devs/Frag said this was to prevent gamey stuff like putting everyone in the PI (or wherever) on a ship, then keeping them there until they had PPs to get them to switch to another command."



Seems to me that the IJNAF is enough to prevent that from happening (you'd have a lot of troops swimming in the harbor if someone were so foolish).

Park them in SF or Sydney or somewhere. They wouldn't be found (about 99% chance).

[djeezman]

thanks for the responses.

The thing with the loading of ABDA or Aussie troops is that on the window of troops to load, they don't even appear, although there are troops in the same port hex.
I try with bringing it back to computer control for a day or so .. and see if the computer loads troops.[:)]

[bradfordkay]

You will not see them on a list of troops to be loaded (on the load TF screen) until they are assigned to a non-restricted command.

[SireChaos]

3.
Also, in Uncommon Valour at least, Submarines and surface ships can´t attack barges with certain kinds of weapons - 6" or bigger guns, and torpedos. Submarines end up engaging the barges with their guns, and I found that, doing that, the barges have a roughly 10-20% (IIRC) chance of doing some serious damage to the submarines with their own weapons.
Also, again in UV, IIRC fighter bombers and skip bombing only can target barges.

So, to summarize, they´re relatively slow, relatively inefficient way to resupply bases, but they´re relatively safe even in areas with enemy air superiority.