Is the automatic convoy system effective?

[Scotters1]

I apologize for another newby question.

I understand that the game focuses a lot on logistics, which isn't my favorite thing. (Overall this game is awesome btw.) As the allies would it be ok to give the computer a bunch of transports and expect it to reasonably supply the many bases automatically, while the player just focuses on building up supplies in certain key areas to prepare for invasions, or building up areas that the player feels may come under attack soon? Or will this lead to disaster? I guess I'm asking how much time do I need to spend on setting up supply convoys?

[USSAmerica]

This is not yet really known for AE.  In Classic WitP, the auto convoy system was not used by most players due to an unfortunate habit of ignoring enemy aircraft range when routing the convoys.  There has been some work done with AE to improve this function, but I think the jury is still out.

[Scotters1]

Thanks USS! Any advice on how a newbie should go about setting up his supply fleets? And yes, I'm reading the manual and finished the Coral Sea scenario so I'm trying to learn this beast the best I can. I can't wait until the paper manuals get their "China Stamps" and get out of customs!

[USSAmerica]

For the US, start sending fuel and supply from the West Coast to everywhere. [:D]  Load up Pearl Harbor, send some to Midway, if you intend to try to defend it, some to the islands you use as your bases in the chain from Hawaii to Oz, and send a bunch to Australia.  Send the empties back to the US for refills.  The UK/Commonwealth situation in the IO is seemingly quite different from Classic WitP, so I don't yet know where supply/fuel is badly needed yet, or where the best places to ship from are. 
 
One thing I have learned from the forums so far, don't send the convoys without ASW escort in AE!  It does seem that submarines are more effective in AE.  [:)]

[Chijohnaok2]

ORIGINAL: USS America

For the US, start sending fuel and supply from the West Coast to everywhere. [:D]  Load up Pearl Harbor, send some to Midway, if you intend to try to defend it, some to the islands you use as your bases in the chain from Hawaii to Oz, and send a bunch to Australia.  Send the empties back to the US for refills.  The UK/Commonwealth situation in the IO is seemingly quite different from Classic WitP, so I don't yet know where supply/fuel is badly needed yet, or where the best places to ship from are. 

One thing I have learned from the forums so far, don't send the convoys without ASW escort in AE!  It does seem that submarines are more effective in AE.  [:)]

My first effort was to load most of my West Coast transports and send them to Pearl Harbor, but also sent a few individual ones to the Palmyra/Canton/Suva chain of islands. I have one large convoy of transports from NZ headed to Pearl, the same from Sydney. Once they arrive at Pearl I will load them up and send them back from whence they came. Eventually my plan is to set up several islands as supply depots and from there send smaller supply convoys from the depots to their destinations.

In the Indian Ocean, I have sent some empty transport convoys from Melbourne to Capetown & from Perth to Mombassa. I am taking the cargo ships received in Panama and send them to the East Coast-USA. Will fill them up there and then send them to Capetown setting up a similar shuttle/supply depot system. Since this is new from WITP, I will have to wait and see how that goes.

[Sneer]

no need to send all oz cargo ships to us as you have cape town and off map bases that offer supply for oz theater IMO

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: USS America

This is not yet really known for AE.  In Classic WitP, the auto convoy system was not used by most players due to an unfortunate habit of ignoring enemy aircraft range when routing the convoys.  There has been some work done with AE to improve this function, but I think the jury is still out.

Actually, you could circumvent that by just switching Auto Convoy off for those bases in range of the enemy. When playing Allies I used Auto Convoy to keep all those rear area bases (essentially anything except the immediate front line and major staging bases like Pearl Harbour) supplied with minimal effort. For the Allies at least, who have plenty of freighters to fool around with, Auto Convoy should be fine for routine stuff.

One more thing: I haven´t taken a close look at that part of AE yet, but in the original WitP, you could use the Auto Convoy screen to check which of your bases had less supplies than their needed (supply stock numbers - color coded for your convenience!), which was considerably less bother than going from base to base and checking manually.