Fleet Train

[Chad Harrison]

Did some digging around and found a pic of two ships in one. I am certainly not advocating being able to do this in AE, I was just curious if it was possible.

[Wirraway_Ace]

ORIGINAL: bbbf

You see things like that and you wonder how anyone could consider going up against the US's industrial might.

It proved to be very unwise, as Yamamoto stongly suspected.

Max Hastings, in Retribution, makes some snide remarks about the massive US wartime output in the context of the amphibious invasion TFs and the fleet train (and the Philipines campaign). I normally like his work, but I found his take on the US desire to have overwhelming force curious. He seemed to find it an unreasonable choice or luxury when compared to the RN's limitations in the Theater.

[JWE]

ORIGINAL: Chad Harrison
Did some digging around and found a pic of two ships in one. I am certainly not advocating being able to do this in AE, I was just curious if it was possible.

It would be nice, and we were looking into that. But at present, they just take "a" ship, regardless of size. Maybe they can get a capacity rating in a future patch.

[pad152]

If an airstrike sinks a ABDS, then the ship inside sinks too (a two for one)?

[Iridium]

ORIGINAL: pad152

If an airstrike sinks a ABDS, then the ship inside sinks too (a two for one)?

Not unless the one inside is of sinking condition as well, I would think. I do think that ships being repaired by an ABDS should have a chance to be hit by weapons striking it. That's an interesting scenario actually...

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: pad152

If an airstrike sinks a ABDS, then the ship inside sinks too (a two for one)?

Look at the picture though. How many hulls would you have to actually pierce to get that thing to sink? I imagine those barges underneath are sealed on top, and have alot of reserve buoancy.

Interesting what-if though.

[pad152]

Bomb hits ship in ABDS, ship goes boom!, ABDS goes boom too!

Torpedoes put some holes in the side of the ABDS, water rushes in, ABDS rolls on its side the ship inside rolls too.

[RevRick]

ORIGINAL: pad152

Bomb hits ship in ABDS, ship goes boom!, ABDS goes boom too!

Torpedoes put some holes in the side of the ABDS, water rushes in, ABDS rolls on its side the ship inside rolls too.

Not Hardly! If the Iowa is in an ABDS and the ABDS takes enough torpedo hits to cause it to sink, it would more than likely simply drop out from under the Iowa, if Iowa's watertight integrity has not been compromised (which I cannot imagine any war zone commander doing!)

Further, you'd have to have one gigahumongibble magazine explosion to wreck one totally. It probably would not wreck all seven sections, and there should be enough reserve bouyancy - remember, it can lift 50K tons out of the water - to remain on the surface. Now, getting it out from under a wrecked ship might be a bit of a problem, but not that much harder, I'd imagine, than righting Oklahoma.

[Dili]

The big british floating drydock (BB able) in Malta was sunk by Axis. If there was anything in it was someting minor.

[RevRick]

Just for drill.

[Iridium]

Well, the ABDS is weaponless so I'd imagine it has no magazine. However if the ship it was working on was to have a magazine explosion, I don't see why it wouldn't take out both at once.

[W T Door]

It should be noted that ships are typically deammunitioned before entering a drydock or floating drydock, so a magazine xplosion is pretty unlikely.

[JWE]

Each pontoon defined a section, they had very little draft when pumped out. Reserve buoyancy was very high, per section. You have to put holes in a lot of sections to sink the puppy.

Even so, why would anyone put one of these things in the danger zone? If it gets sunk, maybe the ship inside doesn’t, but the ship is in there because it has big holes in the bottom, so floatation damage will start to go up again and she’ll eventually roll over.

Fleet train units should come to town after all the bad guys are gone, and start setting up along with the Harbor Office, the CPO bar, the Officer’s latrine, and the sailor’s sporting house.

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: W T Door

It should be noted that ships are typically deammunitioned before entering a drydock or floating drydock, so a magazine xplosion is pretty unlikely.

Removal of Ammo before repair work is a sometimes thing. I've been on a ship that went into drydock for painting and scaping with full magazines. Had some (minor) welding done with ammo aboard, too. But we also emptied the magazines before yard availability. This was peacetime. A warship heading into a drydock at a forward base during wartime might be entirely different.

Accidents during repair are possible in AE, but are not specifically related to ammo or fuel. Just bad joss.

[pad152]

The question remains, an airstrike on an ABSD with a ship inside, will the ship be hit/damaged, just the ABSD or both?

Can you get a two for one (sinking both ABSD & ship)?

Just because the bad guys are gone, doesn't mean they won't come back![;)]

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: pad152

The question remains, an airstrike on an ABSD with a ship inside, will the ship be hit/damaged, just the ABSD or both?

Can you get a two for one (sinking both ABSD & ship)?

Just because the bad guys are gone, doesn't mean they won't come back![;)]

The answer is no.

There is no ability for a ship to be carried by another ship. We fake it for the Midget Sub Carrier TFs and it turned out to be very difficult. So, internally, the ship is not "in" the floating drydock - it is assigned to it just like it would be assigned to an AR or AS/AD for repair.

There is also no permanent linkage of ships during the repair process. Pretty much true for shipyards too. Repair assets are a pool - just like in WITP. Damaged ships suck at the teets of the pool but are not fully equated with any individual unit in the pool. One ship will be temporarily linked to a repair asset during the repair cycle (during turn resolution). Repair assets are used up by this assignment - in the case of repair ships/tenders/floating drydocks it is by ops points.

So, when you look at the damaged ships in movement phase - you see some number of ships assigned to a repair method that uses repair ships and a number of repair ships. Run a turn and look again - only change you would see is the affect of the repair for that turn.

Looking ahead to a possible follow up question - no. We have no plans to implement a more historical assignment process or anything that would put ships into a specific drydock and leave them there. Too much code, too much micro management, too little benefit.