Ships with an asterisk

[PzIV]

Hi all

Was just querying why ships are prefixed with a '*' eg *AKL Argus........?


Cheers

[Cavalry Corp]

It will all be in the new manual!

Seriousley i do not know but like you would like too.

So many improvements in this game have overtaken the information about them.

Cav

[PzIV]

Hi Cav

Thanks for prompt reply......!

I posted that it's an asterisk '*'........actually it's an x so the ships show like this......xAKL Argus or similar in the port view.

When/if I find out I'll post asap!

Cheers

[Graymane]

xAKL? That is in the manual, page 279. To read about what they can used for, check out Chapter 6 of the manual. In a nutshell, they are small, slow, coastal type cargo ships. Not great for using in Amphib assaults, for example, due to slower unloading.

[PzIV]

Hey Greymane

That's fine.....but that xAKL Argus is just an example.........most of my ships are prefixed with a 'x'.

Diamond Harbour has 21 vessels in port all but three are prefixed by this 'x'. The three that don't are AM ships. This applies to all ports that I've randomly checked though with different types of vessels.

Cheers

[Mundy]

the "x" version of the ships are basically civilian ships, with no amphibious assault bonus. Use them for port-to-port transport.

Ed-

[Sredni]

xAKL, xAK, and xAP are civilian ships. AKL, AK, and AP's are navy ships and AKA's and APA's are navy ships with amphibious capabilities (they unload faster in amphibious TF's).

I assume the naming conventions have some logical and historical reason.


edit: Incidentally there are some ships with asterisks *. Ships with a withdrawal date have an asterisk in their name in the TF list. Can't remember if it's at the start or end of their name though.

[PzIV]

Ha page 279........cheers Greymane.

Still doesn't say why they're prefixed with an 'x'. I thought that maybe they were locked for so many turns or some thing?

Any clues or am I just querying something that is irrelevant........?

Cheers all in advance!

[PzIV]

Thanks Sredni and Mundy, in fact thanks to all who participated in this bun fight.

Civilian ships.......that makes perfect sense........LOL

Cheers all again.........

[Alekks]

If I am not mistaken, and please correct me if I am wrong, but the 'x' prefix on a ship, since it is not optimized for military use, will unload slower than the equivalent non 'x' prefix ship types. I seem to recall reading that in the manual, but I could be wrong

[Graymane]

As others have mentioned, there are 3 flavors of transport ships

- xAKL, xAK, xAP: Civilian ships used for moving stuff from point A to point B.

- AK and AP: These are ships designed with military use in mind.

- AKA and APA: Attack versions of AK and AP. These come later in the war or can be converted to from the AK and AP versions.

The biggest difference between these ships types is their use in amphib assaults. AKA/APA have the biggest unloading bonus, AK/AP the second biggest and the 'x' versions the least. Other than that, they are all basically the same.

Always save the AP/AK and APA/AKA and protect them well when you do use them. They are very valuable for later in the war.

[wdolson]

Correct, the 'x' ships are commercial ships that are only really suitable for moving cargo and troops from one dock to another.  These ships have no native ability to unload anything.  The AP and AK ships have some native ability to unload, but not much.  The AKA and APA are fully amphibious capable.

You can put x ships in amphibious TFs, but they will take forever to unload with a higher accident rate than ships with amphibious capability.

Bill

[steamboateng]

In RL, the various classes of shiping can generaly be broken down as follows:
xAKL -small cargo ships w/limited endurance; more suited to intercoastal port to port ops; they usually had load/discharge capacity in the form of onboard booms and winches. They could load/unload via lighters. No inherent amphip capability.
xAK -larger cargo ships w/intercontinental endurance; suited to port to port ops; almost exclusively had load/discharge capacity in the form of onboard booms and winches. They could load/unload via lighters. No inherent amphib capability.
xAP -larger passenger ships, converted to load/unload troops; suited to port to port operations only, w/limited cargo capacity. No inherent amphip capability.
The above require port facilities and will not load/unload at a undeveloped dot hex.

TK -a tanker which can carry fuel and oil suited to port to port ops only. All tankers carried their own pumping machinery to discharge at a port. The port had pumping machinery ahore to load the tanker.
AO -a tanker which in addition to normal tanker ops, could refuel ships underway, due to enhanced communications and hose handling equipment.
The above, in all cases, can refuel ships in port.

AK (AKL) -cago ships, converted or special built to perform cargo ops 'over the beach'. In addition to normal cargo ops w/boom and winch machinery, these ships carried smaller boats, like LCVP , LCP or barges as lighters, which could carry cargo from ship to shore. Thus an inherent amphib capability.
AKA -Same as above with enhanced capabilities (more lighters) to rapidly discharge cago 'over the beach'.

AP -converted or special built troop ships which carried smaller boats, like LCVP, LCP, or barges to move troops ashore 'over the beach'. These ships were used as assault vessels early in the war.
APA -same as above with enhanced capabilities to rapidly put ashore troops. These ships came later in the war and were, along with the AKA, the primary USN first wave assault ship.
The above, in all cases can be used for conventional transport of troops, port to port.

LST, LSD, LCI, etc -special built amphib vessels with bow or stern doors, ramps, etc, to load/unload directly to a beach.

Notes: Amphibious TF's are 'combat loaded', having about 80% capacity as a convetional cargo or tranport load.
Ships prefixed with an 'x' were unconverted commercial vessels, used for miltary cargoes or troops.

I think that covers the major catagories. Please feel free to correct or add as I'm not familiar with all the smaller boat designations, such as LCVP, etc.

[dr.hal]

But "x" tagged ships do carry gun crews and they can be rather offensive if you are a sub on the surface... and these ships can get upgrades as I recall...