AE/AKE Census

[Bullwinkle58]

As you may know, there is an identified bug with the (at least) Allied AE/AKE ships where certain attempted resupply operations with them causes them to assume a large negative value for supplies loaded, and renders them useless in the game. There is a recent thread on this in the Tech section.

Don's quote in the thread: "There is an error here. It relates to an ammo ship that has enough supply to partially but not fully rearm a given weapon. Logic was added some time ago to allow partial rearming in this circumstance but it has a nasty little hole in it."

Right now in my August 1944 game, I have 3 AKEs and 7 AEs. Of those, I have 1 AKE and 4 AEs usable. The others have the "-65k" bug.

Couple of questions: If you are playing Allies, what is your game date and AKE/AE status? (This situation seems to somewhat depend on playing Patch 3 as well.)

Managing my remaining ships (critical to reloading BBs on the Allied front lines during final expansion toward the HI), Don's commnent makes me wonder what I've been doing to mess up my ships. Normally I load each AKE/AE while in the port I intend to disband them into, setting Do Not Unload, then disbanding them when full. My understanding was that the player should then use "Replenish TF From Port" to "pull supply through" the AKE/AE from the port stockpile and onto the BB. This would leave the AKE/AE still fully supplied.

However, my bug results make me think that on at least five occasions I must have "Replenished at Sea" and pulled the AE/AKE supply total down into the level where the bug activates. Does this make sense, even if the AKE/AE was disbanded? For those of you with pristine AKE/AE ships, how are you managing them to prevent the bug? If you have some good and some bugged, do you know why or how? Do you mix up your resupply methods?

I've figured out that very possibly some of the CD suppression problems I've been having have been caused by BBs that I thought were using their 16-in guns have in fact been just heavily-gunned destroyers. My forward BB force is essentially useless while I move my remaining five ammo ships forward and spread them out. I don't want to lose these last five, so I'm interested in knowing if my results are odd, and for those without the bug, how are you managing?

I'm further wondering if my results might be a result of the ancient nature of my game. Started post Patch 1.

A census from multiple players would be helpful.

[Chickenboy]

Quite the predicament, Bullwinkle58. I haven't seen it (mercifully) in my games from the IJN side-yet.

Do you think 'stacking' AKEs would help? If the theory is right, they should share reload operations points so that none of them overmaxes attempted resupply. Just a theory, but I would be interested if this could potentially be a workaround.

[d0mbo]

wasnt there a way to recover from the negative value in that trhread also? Somethign about loading/unloading supplies order being given on your AE/AKE's?
 
Just my 0.02.
 
 

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Quite the predicament, Bullwinkle58. I haven't seen it (mercifully) in my games from the IJN side-yet.

Do you think 'stacking' AKEs would help? If the theory is right, they should share reload operations points so that none of them overmaxes attempted resupply. Just a theory, but I would be interested if this could potentially be a workaround.

I restricted my question to the Allies because I don't know if or how the IJN gets/uses AKE/AE ships. In between this game and the next I plan to study the Japanese OOB a bit, as I've seen things in this game I don't understand re their ship designaitons and a lot of the land forces.

On the stacking issue, at Darwin I have two and both are bugged, and at Saipan the same with three. At Darwin, though, I had only one and was only operating one BB from there. When I saw it was bugged I moved another there, and now it's bugged too. At Saipan I started with two, now have three, but I've been running a 3 BB, 6 CA bombardment group against Guam. Lots of ammo. All three are bugged.

At Rabaul I have two, with light use (only Oklahoma for awhile) and both are un-bugged. I have unused ones at Great Nicobar and Wake. One is in transit to Saipan, becasue I really need that base to work. So, I'm not sure of the answer to your question, but it looks like it may be directionally the case that stacking matters, especially given Don's comment.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: d0mbo

wasnt there a way to recover from the negative value in that trhread also? Somethign about loading/unloading supplies order being given on your AE/AKE's?

Just my 0.02.

Somebody said theirs would unload, but mine don't. I've tried disbanding and forming new TFs, shifting them into existing Support TFs with other ship types, and forming a new Support TF with just a DD, and transferring them into it from the disbanded pool. Nothing works. They're just gone.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Quite the predicament, Bullwinkle58. I haven't seen it (mercifully) in my games from the IJN side-yet.

Added comment: Part of my reason for posting this was to alert Allied players to this possibility. A simple sort by "Aux" in the ship DB view will show you the status of these two classes. I had a "Oh, shirts!" moment when I saw Darwin's bug and looked at the classes. I have no idea how long I've thought I was re-loading my BBs and haven't been. I don't routinely check ammo status, except occassionally ASW ammo.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Quite the predicament, Bullwinkle58. I haven't seen it (mercifully) in my games from the IJN side-yet.

Added: just looked in Tech forum. One IJN player is reporting something similar, or the same thing, with an AD. 56k supply loaded.
I didn't know this could happen to any other classes.

[sfbaytf]

So far I've had no problems or issues. The only thing Im having problems is with UREP. I tried with mh carrier TF's and I didn't see their magazines get replenished. Don't know if that a bug or if it's not possible.

[Milman]

I had that bug but with APD. TF (APD, 3 AP) loaded with LCU and supplies arived in Truk. When they finished unloading APD had 65k supplies other 3 AP's were empty.

[JohnDillworth]

Look at this tragedy. Luckily, it is April 1945 and I have enough more than enough AE's and ports but this breaks my heart.

[AcePylut]

Memo to self - convert some ships to AE's
 
I <3 the forums.

[topeverest]

I am playing as allies in 42. I have not seen it with any AK or AKE. I tend to resupply those ships before their supply is half consumed.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Look at this tragedy. Luckily, it is April 1945 and I have enough more than enough AE's and ports but this breaks my heart.

That's 2-bagger ugly.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: sfbaytf

So far I've had no problems or issues. The only thing Im having problems is with UREP. I tried with mh carrier TF's and I didn't see their magazines get replenished. Don't know if that a bug or if it's not possible.

I haven't read the manual in awhile, but I recall WITP turned on UNREPing on 1/1/1945, and limited it to 5in and smaller. I don't thnk it did bombs or torpedoes. Mostly good for AA upkeep against kami waves.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Milman

I had that bug but with APD. TF (APD, 3 AP) loaded with LCU and supplies arived in Truk. When they finished unloading APD had 65k supplies other 3 AP's were empty.

Were you ever able to unload it and use it again?

[Bullwinkle58]

Anybody else want to report on their status? Or is everybody too embarassed that their AEs are bugged?[:)]

[Milman]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Were you ever able to unload it and use it again?

I cant answer 100% sure. I sent TF back in Tokyo, tried to unload and it didn't worked, and disband TF there. Since i use APD in my fast convoys i think that i used him again to load lcu+supplies and that "cured" APD. I just checked them now and all my apd's are empty (thank good on that ).

[khyberbill]

I am up to 2/44 and have 5 AKE's with this problem. It has occurred when trying to reload large bombardment task forces. Not sure what to do with the ships. I did try to get them to unload in a small port with no success and now I am sending them to Sydney to see if that makes a difference.

[Nomad]

I'm not very far into my Allied games and haven't had the problem. I have converted 10 AEs and 10 AKEs by March 1942. I plan on at least 20 more AEs.

I was wondering, has anyone with AE/AKes with this problem tried creating a Cargo TF with them to see if that fixes them?

[Q-Ball]

Try to load cargo on those ships; then wait a turn. That should fix it, works for me.