Question About Headquarters

[Anthropoid]

In sum the question is: Do you get the Naval HQ bonus to repair and TF loading if the HQ that is present is only a squad?

I suspect that a Naval HQ needs to have the same Command Organization affiliation as the port/base in order for it to work, but other than that, I don't know why a single squad from a naval HQ will not provide the repair and loading bonus.

Now that I'm really kinda getting a grip on the map, and have played US enough to see what that is all about, I'm having a go with enginneer's Western Citadel mod playing the Japanese against the allied PO on Very Hard. I understand the cards are stacked against me in this mod, so I'm trying to eek out every last erg of performance from my forces.

Consequently, I'm actually examining the Japanese HQ array for the first time and putting some planning into how I want to arrange them.

A clever ploy occurred to me, and I was curious if it will work . . .

I noticed in the manual that ports repair (and load TFs) faster if they have a Naval HQ of the appropriate command organization in town. If I understand what I'm seeing in the info bar when I hover my cursor over base hexes, Japan has several cities that have a varying amount of shipyard capacity:
Hiroshima 23
Osaka 34
Toyko 71
Maizuru 110
Okayama 104
Kitakyushu 23
Nagasaki 47
Shimizu 3
Takamatu 1
Sapporo 6
Sendai 2
Hakodate 18
Truk 10

So here was my clever ploy: Take a bunch of those small AKs (2500 capacity, which is only equal to about 400 or 500 AP load points), and break off chunks of one of the less critical Naval HQs (one with a radius of 1), send these detachments out to each of the ports listed above, and then reasign them to Home Defense Force. Will eat up quite a few Political points, but over the long haul might be a very valuable bonus to ship repairing?

[Helpless]

manual:

A Fleet HQ in the port gives a bonus equal to increasing the port by the support in the HQ divided by 50 (generally 2 or 3).

[Anthropoid]

Thanks. I just knew it couldn't be that easy to milk it.

[Anthropoid]

Helpless, I understand that ship repairs work like this:
 
(a) If a port that has a damaged ship docked in it then a repair check roll is made to see if any repairs are made on the ship (gathered this from WiTP threads, does not seem to be said in the manual).
 
(b) If this check is successful, then _some_ damage is repaired.
 
Question (1): I cannot seem to find anywhere that says if this is always 1 point of damage, or potentially more, but based on what is said in the forums I'm guessing that each repair check roll can result in only 1 point of damage being repaired.
 
(c) Port size influences the possibility of the success of this roll (WPO manual p. 131), with a maximum "effective port size" of 14 (from Terminus on the forums).
 
Question (2): it would be really nice to know the mathematical function (even if only roughly) relating port size to the probability that the repair roll will be successful [for example if a size 1 Port has a 1% chance to repair then it is pretty much pointless, whereas if it has a 5% chance to repair that is much different. At the other end of the continuum if the difference between a size 14 and 10 is 100% for port size 14 and 75% for for port size 10 that is important to know, versus if the difference is 155% for 14 versus 100% for port size 10]
 
(c) The presence of Fleet HQs, ARs (and if a ship is a sub or DD an AS and AD respectively) can all up the effective port size (WPO manual pp. 140, 142).
 
(d) Damage or destroyed weapon systems can only be repaired/replaced at port >/= size 5 (WPO p. 131)
 
(b) Each turn a port that has a shipyard in it will accumulate "local shipyard repair points" equal to the total shipyard repair points for the port (minus damage to the shipyard) (manual p. 140).
 
(c) "Unused points may be accumulated up to four times the number of shipyards" (man p. 140).
 
Question (3): I take this to mean that the TOTAL shipyard repair points that can be accumulated in ALL shipyards can be up to four times the total number of shipyards, not (as I have seen some guys say on the forums) that each shipyard can accumulate up to four times its total repair shipyards value. For example, in the Western Citadel mod, Japan has 13 shipyards with repair shipyard values ranging from 1 (Takamatsu) to 110 (Maizuru). Each turn repair points are accumulated, so in ten turns during which no repair shipyards are occupied by a damaged Takamatsu can accumulate ten repair points, with no effective max on how many Takamatsu can accumulate.
 
(c) If a damaged ship is docked in a port with a repair shipyard, then an additional repair roll can be made.
 
(d) "If the shipyards unused are greater than the durability of the ship being repaired, the repair rate is doubled and repair points equal to the durability of the ship are expended."
 
Question (4): The phrase "shipyards unused" could mean one of three things:
(4i) the number of ports with repair shipyards that do not have a damaged ship docked in them (e.g., in the case of Japan in the WD mod, up to 12 [13 total - 1 occupied = 12]. This does not seem possible given that some of the ships have durabilities in the ~100 range, and this would effectively mean that repair shipyards were worthless.
 
(4ii) the total number of accumulated shipyard repair points, shown as the same value on any given turn in under the row "Shipyard Repair" in the right column of information in every industry screen.
 
(4iii) the total number of "Local Shipyard Repair Pts," which is the fraction of the total accumulated "Shipyard Repair" points shown a couple rows below in the same window as (4ii).
 
I tend to think that correct answer is (4iii) but it sure would be nice to confirm this.
 
Question (5) "the repair rate is doubled." This suggests that either:
(5i) the presence of a repair shipyard would allow only up to 3 repair points per turn [one from the standard roll, then double the standard rate of 1], or
 
(5ii) the presence of a repair shipyard would allow some more substantial number of damage points per turn to be repaired, and that the "repair rate" is a function of the port size, and/or the accumulated local shipyard repair points.
 
Based on the fact that following Coral Sea Yorktown was ushered back to Pearl where she was repaired almost miraculously in ~48 hour period, I tend to think that (5ii) is the correct answer here.
 
Question (6): "repair points equal to the durability of the ship are expended." This suggests at least one of two possibilities
(6i) when all the conditions for a repair shipyard to add its bonus to repairing are met, the local shipyard repair points that are accumulated at the port are depleted by an amount equal to the durability of the ship, and then damage points equivalent to some other function (e.g., derived from port size?) are depleted from the damage to the ship, or
 
(6ii) each local shipyard repair point that is depleted fixes roughly one damage point.
 
I tend to think (6ii) is the correct answer.

[Helpless]

As you guessed right ship repair mechanics depends on multiple factors. Unfortunately, not all of them well described in manual. Also there is no chances to get any kind of exact formula.

I'm suggesting you to check WITP "must read" threads. For ex. this one
tm.asp?m=1217165

[engineer]

In a current Scenario, the Lexington got a torpedo from a Japanese DD and limped into Midway.  Midway has been built up into a raider base to harass Wake (Port = 4, 2 AR, 2 AS, and 1 AD in port).  Lots of US shipping has accumulated in the port which is staging TF's for Wake:  BB's, cruisers, DD's and subs with single digit systems damage. 
 
The Lex had 70% systems and 70% flotation damage when she arrived.  The plan was to get the flotation damage repaired so she could sail back to the West Coast without foundering for permanent repairs, but there was so much other work for the repairs that after dropping to the low 60's, the flotation damage started drifting up.  When it reached 78, I ordered every ship with non-zero systems damage out to sea so the AR's and the port would only work on the Lexington.  In about four turns, the flotation damage was reduced to 47 and a point or two of systems damage had been repaired. 
 
Damage repair can be inscrutable, but one lesson learned here is about dissipating efforts in a port.   

[Anthropoid]

I have created a data notation sheet using excel (basically just a piece of paper to make notes on) and for a few turns have been keeping track of local shipyard repair points, and the change in damage in ships at port. I have a few tentative answers to the questions I posed, and I think some of these questions cannot be answered without having even fewer X-variables (specifically, having only ONE damaged ship in ONE port, not dozens of damaged ships in a dozen different ports).

Question (1): I cannot seem to find anywhere that says if this is always 1 point of damage, or potentially more, but based on what is said in the forums I'm guessing that each repair check roll can result in only 1 point of damage being repaired.

It is not ALWAYS one point of damage that is repaired in a port. With several damaged ships in a port, I have observed sum reductions in damage for one turn of up to 8 (in Tokyo an effective port size of 14 with 2nd Fleet present). Generally individual ships are fixed one pt per turn, if that. The largest damage reductions on an individual ship is 2pts off of a ship per turn, but this only seems to happen in ports with at least some shipyard capacity.

Strangely, these “accelerated repair” events, during which a ship drops by 2 pts of sys damage instead of only one are associated with net changes in the local shipyard pts at the port that are in some cases increases, and in other cases decreases
Port Eff Size Rep Pt Chng
Okayama 8 +19
Tokyo 14 -10
Nagasaki 6 +1
Osaka 14 -1
Hakodate 5 -8

Without having ONLY one ship in all ports it is impossible to say if the function relating repair pts expended is limited to a specific port or to some overall function having to do with all the shipyards that are occupied.

Question (2): it would be really nice to know the mathematical function (even if only roughly) relating port size to the probability that the repair roll will be successful . . .

Here are the avg rates of total repair in ports with at least some shipyard capacity, and the avg rate of repair failure (meaning, no damage was reduced on any ships):
Port Eff Size Avg Repair Rate Avg Fail Rate
Tokyo 71 14 7 0%
Osaka 34 14 10.75 0%
Hiroshima 23 14 1 0%
Truk 10 8 3 0%
Okayama 104 8 2 0%
Nagasaki 47 6 2 0%
Kitakyushu 23 6 1.25 0%
Shimizu 3 6 .33 67%
Sendai 2 5 0 100%

Note: The “size” of the shipyard repair facility at each port is listed. As you can see, there does not appear to be a solid correlation between bigger shipyards having a higher avg rate of repair. Based on observations of how local shipyard repair pts sometimes go up and sometimes go down relative to the total rate of repair in the port, I question if the function relating repairs is dependent strictly on the available number of local shipyard repair pts and the durability of the ship. I suspect there are “X-variables” that factor in here like random chance, leaders, and HQs. Clearly bigger ports have lower failure rates, and overall higher repair rates, but unless only ONE damaged ship is in a port (and maybe only in the case that only one damaged ship in in ANY port!?!?) the total repair yard size and available points do not show a clear association with the rate of repair overall, or the rate of accelerated repair on individual ships. This is an incredibly painstaking process, and I’ve only kept records for a total of five days of game turns (thus in some cases 4 days worth of repairs, but in other cases only 3 days of repairs), so the sample size is small. I’ll record a few more days, but beyond that, it is making my game progress too slowly to be fun.

Here are the avg rates for ports without any shipyard capacity
Port Eff Size Avg Repair Rate Avg Fail Rate
Sasebo 11 .33 67%
Pescadores 5+2 0 100%
Tainan 4 .33 67%
Takao 4+2 0 100%
Saipan 1 1.25 0%
Tinian 1 1.25 0%

Note: These are observations over 3 to 4 turn cycles. Based on my observations of how repairs seem to slow down the turn after additional damaged ships are disbanded into a port, these rates might be contaminated with that effect. Also, the repairs at Tainan and Saipan were reduction of Flt damage to fairly heavily damaged ships (no fires). Also note that Pescadores is a destroyer base where the only damaged ships are 6 destroyers (and one MSW) and there are 3 ADs. Takao is a sub base where the only damaged ships are 5 SS and there is 1 AS.

Based on these preliminary observations, there appears to be a threshold effect. At size 6 port and above, suddently the rate of repair, and rate of failure changed dramatically. In the case of the AD and AS equipped bases


Question (3): I take this to mean that the TOTAL shipyard repair points that can be accumulated in ALL shipyards can be up to four times the total number of shipyards, not (as I have seen some guys say on the forums) that each shipyard can accumulate up to four times its total repair shipyards value.

The total shipyard repair points accumulated apparently cannot exceed the total. In the case of Japan, the total shipyard repair points at all ports = 455. The total shipyard points in a port CAN accumulate more than four times the port’s total shipyard repair capacity. Okayama has 104 shipyard repairs. Its accumulated total stayed at 416 for 3 turns straight, then on 6-12-26, it went up to 485. This is the single event where I’ve observed this, and on the following turn it dropped back to 450. It is possible this was a notational error, but I doubt it, because even in the current turn I have open (6-13-26) Okayama has 450 accumulated.

Here are the changes each turn in total shipyard repairs accumulated and total damage change

Date Total Repair Pts Total Dam (all shipyard ports)
6-9 1293 not recorded
6-10 1309 (+16) -7
6-11 1226 (-83) 23
6-12 1317 (+91) 20
6-13 1299 (-18) 29

Question (4): The phrase "shipyards unused" could mean one of three things . . .

Question (5) "the repair rate is doubled." This suggests that either . . .
Question (6): "repair points equal to the durability of the ship are expended." This suggests at least one of two possibilities . . .

Really not enough data as yet to address these conclusively.