Aux. ship tips needed

[jomni]

Hi,

AE has lots of Aux ships of different varieties. Want to know some tips on their best use.

Some questions:
1) What's the best use for using repair ships? Put them in a less-developed forward base? But in practice, I still usually send the damaged ship to a proper shipyard for speedy repairs.
2) What type of aux ships are useful and what are not? I want to know what's worth converting to.
3) Do you create a support task force that has a variety of aux ships to do repair and rearm at sea? Or do you just disband them at some far flung port?
4) What's your favorite aux ship?

Would appreciate some tips. Thanks.

[findmeifyoucan]

Personally I like AE's and AS's. AE for reloading ammunition for ships and AS's for reloading torpedo's on subs. I find they work best disbanded in port so that you are using the port and giving the port a bonus in helping with the job that needs to be done.

I like the AG's too as they have a reasonable load capacity for troop transport so I convert a number of ships to these plus I do have a mix of the others like PB's and my Minesweepers in various flavours!

I still have yet to figure out how loading mines work. Still having problems with loading my Minelayers with mines in Tokyo. You would think Tokyo would have lots of mines on hand?

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: jomni

Hi,

AE has lots of Aux ships of different varieties. Want to know some tips on their best use.

Some questions:
1) What's the best use for using repair ships? Put them in a less-developed forward base? But in practice, I still usually send the damaged ship to a proper shipyard for speedy repairs.
2) What type of aux ships are useful and what are not? I want to know what's worth converting to.
3) Do you create a support task force that has a variety of aux ships to do repair and rearm at sea? Or do you just disband them at some far flung port?
4) What's your favorite aux ship?

Would appreciate some tips. Thanks.

1) I use them in forward naval bases, for example if I have sub base in Midway. They help repairing sys damage faster and can repair small amount of major damage too. I usually try to get floating dock to Midway too (ARD). AR helps in any port, adding ops points for port repairs, but less so in major ports with lots of Naval Support.

2) AG I have found totally useless, but they can be used just as xAK. And there is relatively few conversions available for Allies, no AR conversions, for example. I don't know about Japanese. AE/AKE are very useful allowing ship rearm from small ports and there are quite a few ships available for conversion. It's also useful to convers some xAK to xAP as Allies, who do have slight lack of xAP ships in early war for shuttling troops.

3) There is no such thing as repair at sea except emergency repairs done by ship crew. For example AR or tender does not help at all at sea, only at port. Same goes with rearm at sea until 1945.

4) AS, followed by floating dock (ARD), AGP sometimes.

[Ametysth]

AS+AR is a good combination. Subs usually receive small amount of major damage, so setting up a forward sub-base with AS benefits from AR by not having to send those subs back to repair yards because of few points of major damage.

AG has it uses as it does have the ability to reload PC's, SC's and PB's and such with depth charges from ports of one. If you need a base to run a short ranged ASW patrols far from decent ports (like protecting regular convoy route), AG can serve as base for ASW TF or two set for zone patrol. After unloading 1000-2000 points of fuel there, fully loaded AG keeps your ASW TF going on 'Auto' for quite a while.

For others, there are two ships above all the rest; AV's Wright and Langley. They, combined with USN PBY Catalinas are extremely usefull.

[robotechjb]

How do you use the AV's? I saved both but have yet to decipher what they can be used for. Almost wish I could convert Langly back to a CVL.

[vonTirpitz]

AVs will give you additional air support personnel when they are in port (Especially useful keeping those PBYs flying from undeveloped and underdeveloped locations). They also come in handy for temporary air support when setting up new bases if your regular support units are in transit.

ORIGINAL: robotech

How do you use the AV's? I saved both but have yet to decipher what they can be used for. Almost wish I could convert Langly back to a CVL.

[Halsey]

Here's my deployments for these support units.

Frontline Bases:
1 AGP-for rearming small craft/PT boats.
1 AG-for rearming ASW patrol craft.
1+ AVP's-for additional AV support.

Mid range Bases:
1 AG-same reason as above.
1 AV-to provide additional AV support for patrol aircraft.
1 AS-if the base is a sub hub.
1 AR-for emergency and small craft repair.
2 AKE's-to speed ammo replenishment.
2 AO's-to speed refueling operations.

Rear Area Bases:
AG's
AE's
AO's
AS's
AR's
ACM's

For all the above, if you are playing the Allies:
1+ ASW/MWS's for mine and midget sub protection.

TF Repenishment:
AO's-the fast ones.
AE's-the fast ones.
Sometimes I will peel off AO's and AE's to unload additional supplies at invasion sites.

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: Halsey

Here's my deployments for these support units.

Frontline Bases:
1 AGP-for rearming small craft/PT boats.
1 AG-for rearming ASW patrol craft.
1+ AVP's-for additional AV support.

Mid range Bases:
1 AG-same reason as above.
1 AV-to provide additional AV support for patrol aircraft.
1 AS-if the base is a sub hub.
1 AR-for emergency and small craft repair.
2 AKE's-to speed ammo replenishment.
2 AO's-to speed refueling operations.

Rear Area Bases:
AG's
AE's
AO's
AS's
AR's
ACM's

For all the above, if you are playing the Allies:
1+ ASW/MWS's for mine and midget sub protection.

TF Repenishment:
AO's-the fast ones.
AE's-the fast ones.
Sometimes I will peel off AO's and AE's to unload additional supplies at invasion sites.

This is good advice. I might recommend the use of TK instead of AO at bases. Tankers can refuel ships when at the base, leaves the AOs for underway replenishment (which TK can not do).

[Halsey]

I only use the old slow AO's for the forward refuelers.
Just in case.[:D]

Besides, if I have to, I can form an adhoc Repl TF if I need one in a pinch.[;)]

[moose1999]

I thought AV/AVP only supplied air support to float planes...?
That would limit their use as 'beef-up' air support units at bases...

[xj900uk]

For me, AKE's/AE's for surface ships and AS's for subs are probably the most useful.  The one thing you do not need before the eve of a big battle,w ith the opposition fast closing in, is counting up your ships and finding out that most are low on big-gun ammo or fish...

[Cavalry Corp]

Are AE ships more vulnerable so to speak - have you seen the picture of the US AE exploding at Okinawa ( hit by a Kamikaze I think ) - I thought it was the A bomb ( poor chaps on there )

Cav

[xj900uk]

AKE/AE ships should in theory be more vulnerable but I don't know if the game makes this allowance.  I know it does with regards to tankers carrying fuel or oil (more likely to catch fire & suffer major explosion if carrying the former)

[Cavalry Corp]

Maybe something for the next patch !!

[Feltan]

ORIGINAL: cavalry

Are AE ships more vulnerable so to speak - have you seen the picture of the US AE exploding at Okinawa ( hit by a Kamikaze I think ) - I thought it was the A bomb ( poor chaps on there )

Cav

To show that the USN has a (somewhat odd) sense of humor -- ammunition ships are traditionally named after volcanoes.

Regards,
Feltan

[John Lansford]

I put AR's at medium/large ports that don't have shipyard repair facilities; they speed up minor repairs and can repair 5 points of major damage.
 
I put AS ships at ports outside of LBA air range (or ports with lots of fighter cover) to minimize turnaround times for my subs.  I also base AD ships at ports that are too small to reload DD torpedoes or rearm larger ships, helping to minimize their turnaround times as well.
 
I use AG's as cargo ships; the rearm ability they've got for small ships is duplicated by nearly any size port already, so what's the point?
 
AKE's are ammo ships and I use them a lot like AD's, put them in a forward port and rearm surface ships.

[JohnDillworth]

How about some love for the AD? I put these in semi-forward bases and base a few DD's there. Then I send them out raiding. Not entirely safe but for some reason allied DD's are really hard for Betty's to hit. Of course if you run into a surface task force.....not so good. But the AD lets you reload torpedoes at small ports.

[Halsey]

Very true...
I keep the AD's at medum ranged bases.
Forgot to add them in.[:D]

AVP's and AV's take the load off of BF's, so that you can operate FP's without sucking up AV support.

[xj900uk]

DD's from all nations are faily nimble and difficult to hit when travelling at speed

[bradfordkay]

ORIGINAL: Halsey

Very true...
I keep the AD's at medum ranged bases.
Forgot to add them in.[:D]

AVP's and AV's take the load off of BF's, so that you can operate FP's without sucking up AV support.

They're also easy to relocate when you have a shift in strategy. Adds to their value...