Using Barges and PT boats

[CapAndGown]

1) How to create PT boats and Barges
Before you can create PT boats or Barges they need to be available. To check on their availability, go to the "ship availability" screen which is accessible through the intelligence screen. In the lower left corner you can see how many of these ships are available. The Japanese player will never have PT boats available. The US player will not have PT boats available until sometime in August, 1942 and will not have barges (LCM's) available until even later.
If you have the appropriate ships available, then you can create these ships by using the "create barges/PT boats" button that shows up in the lower right corner of the task force display screen for transport task forces. Only transport task forces can create barges and PT boats. They do so by the expenditure of supplies. Consult the manual for the cost of creating these boats. Only a transport task force with supply still aboard can create PT boats and barges. If you do not have sufficient supply aboard to create these boats, nothing will happen.
Once you have created the barges/PT boats, they will not show up right away on the screen. Click on another task force, a base, or air unit and the new task force containing the barges/PT boats will be displayed along with the other task forces in the hex.

2) Using Barges/PT boats
Once you have created PT boats/Barges they operate like any other ships. One very important thing to note about these boats is that their home base will default to Truk/Noumea unless created at a barge hub. Since I never bother worrying about barge hubs, I sometimes find my barges heading off for Truk on the turn after I created them. To avoid this embarrassment, right after you have created a task force of barges/PT boats click on the task force and set its home base to any appropriate base.
Barges and PT boats, just like any other ships, need fuel to operate. So be sure to have fuel available at their home base. For barges that are meant to set up a continuous supply route to a forward base, it may also be useful to have them transport fuel to that base as one of their first missions. This will speed up their round trips later since they can refuel at their destination instead of bringing a lot of additional fuel along and refueling en route. It will also speed up the delivery of supplies because less fuel will need to be carried on the barges.
Barges can be used just like any other transport task force. Setting up a continuous supply convoy using barges is a common tactic. This will relieve you from having to micro-manage these units while they continuously shuttle supplies to your forward bases. They can also be used to transport troops. This can be useful for ferrying small detachments to capture unoccupied enemy "dots" or for evacuating troops. The big advantage of barges over regular transports is that they are expendable and they will not retire because of the threat of enemy aircraft.
Just because barges are expendable does not mean you want to expend them! Barges are very vulnerable to surfaced subs that will blow them out of the water with their deck guns. To keep the subs from surfacing you may want to have PCs/PGs escort your barges. Just add them to the task force made up of barges the way you would add ships to any other task force. Barges and PT boats are immune to torpedoes because of their shallow draft. Unfortunately, this means the subs will probably shoot at your PG's/PC's. Therefore, you might wish to only use PC's that have an experience of 50 or greater so that they will depth charge the attacking sub or at least make its attack less likely to succeed.
PT boat can be used for two primary functions: Point defense of a base and stopping Japanese barge traffic. PT boats are not very good when taking on a real warship. So don't expect much. But they have a chance to put a torp into an enemy ship. Having a PT boat put a torp into the side of a Jap BB can be very satisfying. So don't neglect to create PT boats at your forward bases for point defense. These boats can also be used to break up enemy barge lines. For instance, let us assume that the Japanese hold Lunga in force while you, as the US player, have built up Irau (the southern most point on San Cristobal) into a major air base. Your bombers have put the Jap airfield out of action and the Japanese player will not risk his precious transports trying to get supply into Lunga. His only choice for supplying this base is with barges. PT boats based at Irau can be sent up to Lunga to interdict this movement of supplies, thus strangling the Japanese garrison.