1. When you hover your cursor over an enemy TF and it reads:
Enemy TF
Clear sky
Ships sighted-1
Moving SE
E
What does the "E" signify? An escort TF, perhaps with damaged ships?
2. Is AE the same as WITP in that when you place your cursor over an enemy troop icon and it reads, say, 1300 troops, there are really about 3 times that # at the base?
Thanks, Hugh Browne
The "E" indicates one ship is identified as a Japanese "E" type. This is Escort. Similar to a PF on the allied side.
Because of a ridiculous overreaction to unscrupulous PBEM players abusing mines in the previous incarnation there is no mine warfare to be concerned about.
I layed one minefield at Akyab with the kickarse CM Abdiel only to find that there are no more Mk XVII mines in the pool and production won't begin until 12/42. So Abdiel is going to Aden for a year. [:@]
IRL:
1 9 4 2
January
10th Arrived at Trincomalee.
27th Laid four minefields off east coast of South Andaman Island.
Returned to Trincomalee on completion.
February
1st Laid three minefields in approaches to MacPherson Strait
On departure from Port Anson grounded and damaged port shaft.
Returned to Colombo on one engine.
Just forum feedback. There's very few bitching to high heaven about the minefield reductions.
Not complaining is a far cry from being "quite pleased".
Also, like me, they may just be learning that their minelaying ships become useless after one mission.
The logical response to players over mining hexes would have been to limit the number of mines per hex, not eliminate them from the pool and make mine layers one shot wonders.
I am playing a PBEM in WITP. It is Feb 42. My Japanese opponent just wandered into a large minefield and got clobbered. His minesweepers couldn't handle the mass of mines I had laid in the hex. It is true I used most of my minellayers to create this trap, but it is also true that the number of mines seemed to be too large, (or their effect was too significant.) They just overwhelmed his invasion force.
I am pleased AE will limit the number of mines each side can deploy. (WITP seems to allow mines to be too dominant.) Now, is the balance right? Is there adequate mine production to permit us to place a few good traps or a larger number of nuisance miefields? Are the production rates so low that the minelayers might as well go home? I am new to the AE game, so I do not know, but what I read in the forum worries me that we may have shoved the balance so far that mines do not matter anymore. From the initial comments, I sense that mine production rates might need to be boosted a bit.
We'll see. I am interested to read the veiws of those who have gotten into the game a more deeply than I have.
To me it does seem that the pendulum has swung to the other side. Particuliarly since British/Commonwealth minelayers are one shot till 43. And I do not see any ACMs in the Indian Ocean to protect the mines they can lay.
And will the new mine pool rules keep allied 4E bombers from being able to lay minefields? Nowhere near that time in the campaign, so I have absolutely no idea on how this works.
Nor do I know if the levels need to be low in order for the AI to be able to deal with them.
I layed one minefield at Akyab with the kickarse CM Abdiel only to find that there are no more Mk XVII mines in the pool and production won't begin until 12/42. So Abdiel is going to Aden for a year.
WHAT!!?? i have CMs/DMs/ACMs/etc sitting all over the map waiting to reload. Now i know why! This is ridiculous!
I did the same thing with Abdiel; laid two minefields (one at Moumere and one at Akyab) and now she's out of mines. Too bad she can't be used as a transport; with that speed she'd be the ultimate APD.
However, I've noticed a possible serious flaw in the AI routine; it makes no effort to clear minefields left in ports that it captures! The friendly minefield icon is still present at both Singapore and Bataan, and about every other turn I hear the "someone hit a mine" sound effects. The AI has already lost Chikuma to a mine, but I think it's using so many minesweepers to escort convoys there's none left to sweep mines. I've also places submarine mines at Kwajalein and not seen them reduced by sweeping either.
1. What is best way to get rid of enemy SS off WCUS what with limited surface ASW assets?(12/41) Should I set air assets to ASW patrol or to naval attack?
2. Is the first patch still set for 8/27 release?
3. If I get Resourses/oil from Philippines and/or DEI to Australia can I off load at Broome or Darwin with assurance they will be sent to heavy industries by land? Or do I have to send them to Perth or Brisbane by sea?
4. Overloading CVs. Can you load air up to 115% of CV capicity & not affect air ops? Can you really pack air units onto CV to transport?Say, 120 air on a 90 CV?( I know this prohibits air ops)
1. I haven't discovered that yet. Planes on ASW? Their exp isn't really high enough. I think you need to bring DDs in from Pearl and escort everything. The YPs and Canadian Navy can be used but their exp is low as well. Hopefully their presence will reduce attacks.
2. It is supposed to be week of 8/24 but one of the devs said it will be week of 8/31{next week} with a public beta this week some time.
3. No they need to be shipped to Perth for distribution. Perth is too far away if you want to make more than one trip. You can ship it to Darwin and when the risk to the ships becomes too high, bring your ships to Darwin and have them transport to Perth.
4. Yes you can. But no more than a five units and your carriers will usually have three or four already on them. I haven't tested this, but this might make CVEs far better for transporting air units: you are not wasting a fleet carrier and you can stack more air units on them.
To defend the West Coast I have done the following. Form the YPs in two ship ASW patrols and set them on patrol missions. Send out the Canadian KVs for the same purpose, that cost me one of them to a japanese sub but the other Corvette either sunk the sub of else came real close. You need to put some of your patrol aircraft out on ASW patrols, as they will engage the subs. Also its best to cut their search range down and to use the search sector tool to limit them to searching the sea. When they do see a sub send a ASW group to that hex and if the sub is still there they should engage it. The lighter patrol ships seem ideal for getting the subs, but you need the aircraft to find them. Light bombers also work on ASW (they have short range so its a better use for them then search in my view). The PC and PG ships seem more useful for convoy escorts.
Also sorry for opening the minewarfare can of worms. But now at least I see why my minelayers are one shot wonders so far.
Some more questions from me:
1. I have some stranded air craft (including the RAAF float transports) at bases with no air support is there anything that I can do to get those planes out or should I just disband them?
2. In the calculation for the size of airfield required for level bombers to launch attacks there is a /6500 (if memory seves) what is the 6500 in units of? It seems to be the bomb load but in what kg or lbs? Most of the early war medium bombers would seem to take only size 4 airbase from what I can see.
3. I have the PoW in Singapore's naval repairyard. She has the following damage. System: 41, Float: 56 (56 major) and Engine: 44 (24 major) as Singapore is a dangerous place I want to get her out of there ASAP. She can curently make 7 knots. Is that due to engine or float damage? What risks am I running if I send her to the DEI at flank speed and then do pier side repairs to her there for a week and then send her at cruise to Columbo...followed by to Bombay? I want her speed up so she can make 4 hexes out of Singapore on day one since the risk of her getting air attacked is high.
4. Is there a delay if I take her out of the repair yard before she can set sail?
5. Can only 1 detachment reform with its parent unit a turn or something? I have the 8th RAAF in two detachments on one base, the 60th RAF, and 62 RAF each with two detachments on another, and the Swordfish at Singapore again in two detachments and so far they have not all merged. They are all on size 4+ bases.
6. Is there any way to tell easily which commands are where? Also when should I change the HQ of a unit? For example the III Indian Corps AAA I would like to send to Burma and Ceylon so is there a reason to change its HQ to Eastern Fleet and Burma Command?
7. Rest/training seems a bit under explained. Do units have to accumulate 100 planning points before they train or what? How does this actually work?
8. Georgetown seemes to be an island yet the Japanese just walked over to it. The same is true of Hong Kong. I was I must admit dissapointed in Hong Kong as it lasted 2 days...and was actually over in 1. I think the fort level should be set much higher just so the more historical outcome of a long hard fought defence comes out.
9. Ground combat questions.
9a. I noticed that units that move into a hex with enemy troops emmediately launch a "shock attack." I lost a Phillipean battalion and baddly mauled my US tanks that way. Is this because I have them in "march" rather than "combat" formation?
9b. Is there anyway to have troops march together? So that infantry accompanies tanks for example. Is there anyway to coordinate attacks from multiple directions so they all arrive at that same time? I have a japanes base surrounded and the chinese are marching in and I'd rather have them arrive as a single large force.
9c. I spotted one combat modifier for formation. In the hex was a unit (consiting of 2 3" mortar squads) that was ready for rail transport. There were 2 Brigades in combat mode in that hex plus field guns and a base force why should the overall odds be affected by 2 squads set for strategic transport?
10. I have a battalion in Seatle attached to the West Coast Command that is planning for a base in Alaska. Is there some way I can load that unit onto a ship to send it there or do I have to use political influence to switch it to North Pacific and then ship it there?
11. How do I interpret the leadership abilities of the various officers? I suspect there may be something on this in the manual but for the moment the numbers and the skills don't mean anything to me.
12. Search sectors assignment is not clear. If I want to search say the left half circle (west coast of the USA for example) do I set it: 180-350 or 180-0? Is the direction of the search always clockwise basically? How does select on the map end by right clicking the mouse? This might be in the manual but after two go throughs there is still lots of the little nitty gritty stuff that is not so clear to me.
Gads...I can't figure out how anyone does a turn in 20 min...I am always spending a couple of hours checking out the various situations and tweeking the odd thing here or there. Hard to get the time to down to less than 2 hours to do a turn.
#3: If you send PoW at flank speed anywhere with that much damage, she'll never reach the destination. Major flotation damage is destroyed hull that has been patched. High speeds will rupture the patches and increase the flooding. I had Repulse at Singapore with 50+ flotation damage and managed to get her to Columbo by first repairing ALL her minor damage (engine and flotation), then sailing her using cruise down to Australia, then back to Columbo. Along the way she added 5 more flotation and 10 more engine damage.
#4: Yes there's a delay when you take a ship out of the shipyard before you can put her in a TF. It's typically 1-3 days.
#12: Use the "use map" option and left click on the LEFT side of the search arc, and right click on the RIGHT side of the search arc. The angles run from 0 degrees at north clockwise around the base, so if you wanted to search the left half of a circle at a WC port you'd type in 180-360 (I'd use 180-359 just to be sure it worked).
Use the march follow command to get units in ONE hex to go into next together. Set one unit to march to hex then set all to follow command to get rest to follow.
7) I would like the answer to this as well as I have never seen land units train up experience even from 20's that some units start at.
1. I have some stranded air craft (including the RAAF float transports) at bases with no air support is there anything that I can do to get those planes out or should I just disband them?
2. In the calculation for the size of airfield required for level bombers to launch attacks there is a /6500 (if memory seves) what is the 6500 in units of? It seems to be the bomb load but in what kg or lbs? Most of the early war medium bombers would seem to take only size 4 airbase from what I can see.
7. Rest/training seems a bit under explained. Do units have to accumulate 100 planning points before they train or what? How does this actually work?
8. Georgetown seemes to be an island yet the Japanese just walked over to it. The same is true of Hong Kong. I was I must admit dissapointed in Hong Kong as it lasted 2 days...and was actually over in 1. I think the fort level should be set much higher just so the more historical outcome of a long hard fought defence comes out.
12. Search sectors assignment is not clear. If I want to search say the left half circle (west coast of the USA for example) do I set it: 180-350 or 180-0? Is the direction of the search always clockwise basically? How does select on the map end by right clicking the mouse? This might be in the manual but after two go throughs there is still lots of the little nitty gritty stuff that is not so clear to me.
1) Send an AV if available or fly a small amount of aviation support to the base.
2) Lbs.
7) They have to accumlate 100 days prep for a chance to increase their exp up to the national limits.
8) HK usually doesn't last as long as irl. Would probably give the ai a hard time if the fort level was higher.
12) Search sectors start from your first point clockwise to the second.
1. What is best way to get rid of enemy SS off WCUS what with limited surface ASW assets?(12/41) Should I set air assets to ASW patrol or to naval attack?
2. Is the first patch still set for 8/27 release?
3. If I get Resourses/oil from Philippines and/or DEI to Australia can I off load at Broome or Darwin with assurance they will be sent to heavy industries by land? Or do I have to send them to Perth or Brisbane by sea?
4. Overloading CVs. Can you load air up to 115% of CV capicity & not affect air ops? Can you really pack air units onto CV to transport?Say, 120 air on a 90 CV?( I know this prohibits air ops)
Thanks, Hugh Browne
For # 3, other than stealing from the Jap's, I thought as the Allies you did not ever have to worry about moving Oil/Resource and only Fuel/Supplies to OZ. Or did I totally miss this?
You don't want to move oil to Australia any more; the refineries are small there and they produce enough oil. What you need to ship is fuel; grab every ship you can find that hauls fuel and fill them up at Balikpapan, Miri and Surabaya, then send it to Darwin, Townville and Brisbane, then return for more for as long as you can. I'm still shipping fuel from Surabaya to Townville and Brisbane in 3/42 using two TF's of tankers with old DD escorts.
What about denial of oil to the IJ? I'm looking at multiple turns of production stored, uncertain success of its destruction prior to capture, and knowledge that at least SOME of the production ability may be damaged upon capture. (I'm big on denial)
