Cannot unload

[EUBanana]

Ah, this turn suddenly all of it was unloaded, except for the radars, so now at least I'm in the same boat as others...  the radar is a funny one, I know.  The TF has been stripped as most of the ships are now empty, so it does fit into the port, and has been docked.  I guess the radar will unload in a few days of effort, we'll see.

[John Lansford]

So now, when loading units for shipment to small bases, not only do we have to worry about what size ships and TF's to use (smaller ships so they'll dock at smaller ports), we now have to check all the items being loaded to make sure they won't screw up the port's handling ability?

And if this is the case, how in the world does the unit ever get a replacement/upgrade for some of these larger items if it's so darned hard to get them there in the first place?

This isn't micromanagement, this is micro-micro-micromanagement!

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: John Lansford

So now, when loading units for shipment to small bases, not only do we have to worry about what size ships and TF's to use (smaller ships so they'll dock at smaller ports), we now have to check all the items being loaded to make sure they won't screw up the port's handling ability?

And if this is the case, how in the world does the unit ever get a replacement/upgrade for some of these larger items if it's so darned hard to get them there in the first place?

This isn't micromanagement, this is micro-micro-micromanagement!

Its only micro-management if you want your TF to operate at a Fed-Ex pace....if you you load them and just accept it will take some time to unload everything like it did in history - you don't have to micro-manage anything.

[m10bob]

I had foolishly tried to unload Brit reinforcement at Akyab in Dec 1941 but the port is level "0"..I sat there for 3 days,(risking enemy detection), before I got wise and sent the convoy noth to Chittagong,(with a real port).

Can you imagine trying to unload here from a troopship or civilian transport?

I don't see this as micro-management, but rather as common sense,(which I did not use on my initial landing attempts.)[:)]

[John Lansford]

Well, anyone wondering why their ships don't unload quickly at a level 0 port get what they deserve.  Noumea, however, is a level 2 port, meaning they've got SOME facilities capable of unloading equipment.  I'm having to manually switch unloaded ships into a (small) TF, dock and then order it to unload, while everyone else (amphibious TF's for the most part) unload to the beach.
 
At Makin the situation is the same; I've got a TF of AP's and xAK's unloading a base force, and all that's left are a handful of engineering vehicles still on the ships.  Most of the vehicles are on the beach now, but I still keep getting the orange "some of the unit cannot be unloaded".  Well if that's the case, what's the point of an amphibious TF?  Why were items loaded onto the ship without the ability to unload them across a beach?
 
I've also got an artillery unit trying to unload (amphibious again) at Noumea; the 75mm howitzers and their towing vehicles won't unload.  I suppose I'll have to let them wait until the dock is available and unload them that way.
 
So, if it is near impossible to fully unload a base force or EAB onto a base that hasn't any improvement yet, how are we supposed to build them up in the first place?  Take the developed ones from the Japanese?  That is exactly opposite of the Allied strategy, but now all these engineering units are hamstrung due to a lack of unloading ability!

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: John Lansford

Well, anyone wondering why their ships don't unload quickly at a level 0 port get what they deserve.  Noumea, however, is a level 2 port, meaning they've got SOME facilities capable of unloading equipment.  I'm having to manually switch unloaded ships into a (small) TF, dock and then order it to unload, while everyone else (amphibious TF's for the most part) unload to the beach.

At Makin the situation is the same; I've got a TF of AP's and xAK's unloading a base force, and all that's left are a handful of engineering vehicles still on the ships.  Most of the vehicles are on the beach now, but I still keep getting the orange "some of the unit cannot be unloaded".  Well if that's the case, what's the point of an amphibious TF?  Why were items loaded onto the ship without the ability to unload them across a beach?

I've also got an artillery unit trying to unload (amphibious again) at Noumea; the 75mm howitzers and their towing vehicles won't unload.  I suppose I'll have to let them wait until the dock is available and unload them that way.

So, if it is near impossible to fully unload a base force or EAB onto a base that hasn't any improvement yet, how are we supposed to build them up in the first place?  Take the developed ones from the Japanese?  That is exactly opposite of the Allied strategy, but now all these engineering units are hamstrung due to a lack of unloading ability!

Pick yourself up a copy of the US Army Green Books - Global Logistics and Strategy. Checkout what happened historically at Noumea in 1942. You had ships at Noumea waiting 90+ days to unload.

Eventually everything unloads....it just takes time and patience...

[John Lansford]

So when the engineers landed at Guadalcanal IRL, how long did it take their equipment to land with them considering it was a level 0 port at the time?  In this game it would be taking over a week.

[SteveD64]

Not sure if it answers the question, but here's some info about the Guadalcanal landings
 
The long fight for Guadalcanal formally opened shortly after 6AM on 7 August 1942, when the heavy cruiser Quincy began bombarding Japanese positions near Lunga Point. In the darkness a few hours earlier, what was for mid-1942 an impressive invasion force had steamed past Savo Island to enter the sound between the two objective areas: Guadalcanal to the south and, less than twenty miles away, Tulagi to the north. These thirteen big transports (AP), six large cargo ships (AK) and four small high-speed transports (APD) carried some 19,000 U.S. Marines. They were directly protected by eight cruisers (three of them Australian), fifteen destroyers and five high-speed minesweepers (DMS). Led by Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, this armada was supported from out at sea by three aircraft carriers, accompanied by a battleship, six cruisers, sixteen destroyers and five oilers under the command of Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, who was also entrusted with the overall responsibility for the operation.
The great majority of these ships (9 AP, 6 AK and most of the escort and bombardment ships), with Marine Major General Alexander A. Vandegrift and the bulk of his Leathernecks, was to assault Guadalcanal a few miles east of Lunga Point. Tactically, this part of the landing went very well. There were few enemy combat troops present, and these were some distance away. The first of the Marines came ashore soon after 9AM at "Red" Beach, a stretch of grey sand near the Tenaru River. By the afternoon of the following day they had pushed westwards to seize the operation's primary object, the nearly completed Japanese airfield near Lunga Point. The surviving Japanese, mainly consisting of labor troops, quickly retreated up the coast and inland, leaving the Marines with a bounty of captured materiel, much of which would soon prove very useful to its new owners.
While the Marines consolidated their beachhead and began to establish a defensive perimeter around the airstrip, the landing of their supplies and equipment proceeded less well. Typically for these early amphibious operations, arrangements were inadequate to handle the glut of things brought ashore by landing craft. Mounds of supplies soon clogged the beaches, slowing the unloading of the ships offshore. A series of Japanese air attacks, which forced the ships to get underway to evade them, didn't help, and when the catastrophic outcome to the Battle of Savo Island and the withdrawal of Vice Admiral Fletcher's carriers forced the the big transports and cargo ships to leave on 9 August, none of them had been completely unloaded. Though the Marines had taken their objective, supply shortages would plague them in the coming weeks, as the Japanese hit back by air, sea and land in an increasingly furious effort to recover Guadalcanal's strategically important airfield.

[Mynok]

Naval support is the key piece to the puzzle of getting stuff across the beach. The FIRST followup troops that need to land should be naval support it appears. Then you should be able to unload (slowly) the heavier equipment needed to upgrade the base.

[treespider]

As to Guadacanal - Chapters 7-12 of The Amphibians Came to Conquer

[John Lansford]

The base force I am trying to finish unloading has aviation and naval support, and both are on the beach in full force.  The engineering vehicles are still sitting on the transports.  I'm half inclined to stop the unloading and send them to a port where I can unload and then reload them on smaller ships to see if that helps.
 
Either that or send the smaller cargo ships somewhere they would be sunk and let the resupply routine replace the lost vehicles.

[CEDeaton]

I've got to agree this is a bit of overkill on the detail. Reality would be that the people loading ships would know, "Hey, this bad boy is gonna take forever to unload like that. We should crate it up." and it would be done. Not having the option, nor the inclination, to manage the loading of every single piece of equipment in the Pacific War, there should be some sort of an "in between" option for loading amphibious task forces that applies some common sense to certain very large pieces of equipment. Perhaps those large pieces of equipment could then unload in a disrupted state to reflect the time it would take to get them operational.

Just thinking out loud...

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: treespider
Eventually everything unloads....it just takes time and patience...

I don't mind that but the error message is confusing, it implies that you cannot unload those items, ie not in one week, not ever.

However it did seem to unload my antique 18 pdrs eventually, so I'm satisfied.

[m10bob]

Combat engineers are a key ingredient in helping you in any port operation.