Logistics

[jeffk3510]

Has anyone come up with a flawless..( [:)]), or great strategy for regularly scheduled convoys. I don't get the auto convoy and it frustrates me. I generally have a couple of nice sized convoys from the US that go to Pearl ever so often and then a handful of convoys at intervals that run from Pearl to different spots on the map..

I generally just run supply and fuel wherever, I don't really calculate how much per month... haven't figured out what each means, if it is per month they use it or.... I play a lot and always start over because I try so many things.

Just curious what other people have noticed for logistics. Generally running convoys to Pearl, and then ones stationed there out to the various areas and then from there......Someone mind sharing if I could come up with a better method and how to understand how much is needed where and the rate per month (I assume it is per month) that is used up?


Thanks!!

[Yamato hugger]

Well, I could tell you my secrets, but then I'd have to kill you.

But seriously, without getting into detail, I run my resources / supplies like a trucking company. I run ships out of "home" (where ever "home" might be, west coast, Japan, India, whatever) loaded with troops and/or supplies and fuel to a "central hub" like Truk or Pearl for examples. If this "hub" is in an area with resources (say Singapore for example) close by, they will go to the resource base, load up and head home. If not, then they head home empty.

Smaller convoys or single ship TFs will then distribute these supplies from the "hub" to bases in the area that needs them.

I also use this in reverse. Small convoys / single ships take resources from smaller bases and dumps them at a resource "hub" (like Singapore for example). This way I can run a supply convoy to Singapore and run a loaded resource convoy back while smaller forces shuttle supplies and resources around. I typically only have 4 "hubs" and I dont always make them such obvious places and I dont keep the same ones game to game.

[marky]

never trust the AI for supplying frontline bases, it WILL send convoys into enemy air base umbrellas for slaughter

and escort escort escort those convoys, APDs are deadly for ASW work, as well as the CVE for HK groups

[USSAmerica]

I effectively handle things much the same way as Yamato Hugger.  I've heard that the "Autoconvoy" system is "ok" for running only between way behind the lines bases, but I have never trusted it enough to try it out.  I'm happy to manage my shipping company first hand.  [:)]

[Oldguard1970]

I add one small twist to what YH and USS America suggest.  I keep a few small AKs loaded and forward.  That way I can run them to places that got "lost" in my feeble planning.

[engineer]

Ditto Yamato hugger and USS America.  There are big differences in emphasis between playing the Allies versus Japan, however. 
 
For the Allies, you really have no absolute supply problems after the first few months, it's a matter of distribution.  The massive depots with "hub and spoke" networks make good sense.  In a solo game, this is no problem.  A human opponent can wage a more effective anti-commerce campaign to thin your merchant fleet.  Historically, the USN was loading up merchant ships and using them as floating warehouses by 1944 and 1945 if you want to practice the historical strategy.  Once the US construction program gets afloat in 1943 and 1944, the US fast carrier forces can drain an amazing amount of fuel in a short time.
 
For the Japanese, the absolute supply problem is with you from the beginning of the game.  You need at least 20k supply in a base to replace aircraft to your air groups, repair captured oil centers, or bring along factory conversions for new model aircraft or expanded specialty/industrial capacity. Just rebuilding units, digging entrenchments, expanding airfields, etc. consumes supply over and above sustaining the units. You have more shipping than you can fill at the outset of the game, but you have to prioritize where to send the supplemental supply to provide long-term support to your offensives so they don't stall.   

[GreasyLake]

The only flaw I ever catch on myself as Japan is not using every practicable AK and TK to be constantly moving something somewhere. Another personal goal is to keep everyplace with resources and/or oil drained by convoys heading to home islands. Ships sit in a port to be repaired or load/unload only. Try your best to what you can with the limited time I have sitting at the keyboard.

I know I am speaking in broad terms but also consider your opponents goal is to stop all of this from ever happening successfully. I just keep adapting to the changing situation and try to make sure you are using every asset you have. Naval and Air ASW included. My 2 cents worth.

[engineer]

A question on the Japan side wrt to China & Logistics:  If you manage your garrisons well there's a good bit of HI on mainland Asia that will generate supply and fuel.  I'll drain off resources if I see 20k+ in a handy port, but if you drain the coastal cities dry of resources will you risk starving the inland HI? 
 
I have to often admit impatience with the SRA offensive since I protect my tankers by keeping them out of harm's way until I roll the Allied airpower back from range of the newly conquered oil and resource centers, but those resources and oil are so tempting to get safely back to the Home Islands.

[Yamato hugger]

ORIGINAL: engineer

A question on the Japan side wrt to China & Logistics:  If you manage your garrisons well there's a good bit of HI on mainland Asia that will generate supply and fuel.  I'll drain off resources if I see 20k+ in a handy port, but if you drain the coastal cities dry of resources will you risk starving the inland HI? 

I have to often admit impatience with the SRA offensive since I protect my tankers by keeping them out of harm's way until I roll the Allied airpower back from range of the newly conquered oil and resource centers, but those resources and oil are so tempting to get safely back to the Home Islands.

No. The "mainland" generates enough resources to supply itself. Anything in ports can go to Nippon.

[engineer]

Yamato hugger
No. The "mainland" generates enough resources to supply itself. Anything in ports can go to Nippon.

 
Great, thanks.

[stuman]

The hub(s) and spoke(s) approach seems the most logical for the Allied player. The location of main hubs simply change over time. To state the obvious, against the AI an Allied player can be lazy about  both how large and to what extent they are unescourted convoys can be. Against even a inexperienced Jap. player it is very important  that the allies pay much closer attention to running "tight" convoys. It really hurts to gamble, send a big fat supply convoy somewhere only to run into a raiding group and lose a bunch of transports needlessly.

[John Lansford]

I handle Allied supply like everyone else; build a large stockpile at Pearl from the WC, then spread it around to other bases like Johnston Island and Palmyra.  Once those two have a good supply of fuel, I use them as refueling stations for TF's going directly from the WC to bases further south and west, like Baker Island, Fiji, Noumea and Australia.  Once Baker, etc, have big supply/fuel reserves, I have smaller TF's deliver supplies to the forward bases from them. 
 
Baker currently supplies Tarawa and Makin, for example, while Noumea supplies Luganville and some to Australia.  Most of my Australian convoys, though, head directly there after refueling at Palmyra, and return to Noumea or Fiji to refuel for the return trip.  I've also got convoys running up and down the eastern Australian coast to Darwin and Port Moresby, and Darwin supplies my bases at Kai, Ambroina and Timor, while convoys from Ambroina sends oil back down to Sydney.