Insta-Convoys

[keith63]

Does anybody know if there is a command or a tab or anything will place your convoys automatically?
Thanks.

[paulderynck]

No, but they aren't randomly chosen on set-up so once you've got a set-up you like, or someone posts one (which is a good suggestion!) then it would be easy to tweak it the way you like for the other non-random units and save it for future games.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: wifgamer63

Does anybody know if there is a command or a tab or anything will place your convoys automatically?
Thanks.

There are Saved Setups for most major powers for most scenarios. Those will give you a good start, but you'll want to tweak them yourself.

Use the Global Map for dropping convoys into sea areas.

[EUBanana]

... can some experienced CW folks share their starting convoy setup by any chance?

[delatbabel]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana
... can some experienced CW folks share their starting convoy setup by any chance?

(Excuse some minor map errors here, I'm going off the WiFFE maps not the MWIF maps because of limited screen real estate).

You have 17 factories in the UK, and 2 resources. Clearly the main aim is to get resources to the UK. It doesn't matter what port they get to, because all of the factories and all of the ports in the UK are connected by rail.

Early on the objective should be to get 15 resources to the UK. My preferred option is to get them from the following places:
* 3 from Venezuela
* 4 from Canada (there are 6 resources and 2 factories in Canada, so the excess can be shipped to the UK)
* 2 from British Guyana

That's 9 coming across the Atlantic and early in the game you're going to have to route those through the North Atlantic (later in the game you might want to head further north depending on sub pressure). So that means you're going to need 9 convoys there. I would generally avoid the Central Atlantic, which means bringing the British Guyana resources the long way around, but it can be done via Mouths of the Amazon (2), Caribbean (5), East Coast (9).

There are 3 resources spare in S.Africa. Bring those out via the Cape Basin (3), Gulf of Guinea (3), and Cape Verde Basin (3). From there, at the start, the route through Cape St Vincent and Bay of Biscay should be safe enough, you can cover those areas with ships and aircraft from Gibraltar.

You can pick up 1 resource from Cyprus, and 2 from India. They should come via Arabian Sea (2), Red Sea (2), Eastern Mediterranean (3), Western Mediterranean (3) and then join the 3 from S.Africa meaning 6 in Cape St Vincent, and 6 in Bay of Biscay.

That's a total of 15 resources coming in to the UK.

Later in the game you will want to shift those convoys away from the German subs, potentially operating out of Brest. Do that by abandoning the Bay of Biscay and routing the resources from Cape St Vincent to the North Atlantic. You will need to build extra convoy points to do that.

At some point you will be able to start picking up extra resources along that route. e.g. you can potentially reduce or shorten your Mediterranean convoy route by picking up the Belgian Congo resource once Belgium is in the war, and potentially the African resources from France. That will probably be timely, because you won't want to keep the convoys coming from India once Japan is in the war. Also at around that time you can pick up the 3 remaining resources from Venezuela once the USA can loan them to you. The focus on that point will be holding the Atlantic convoy route.

If sub depredations in the North Atlantic get too severe then you have a problem. You will need to shift it north into the Canadian Coast and Denmark Strait sea areas. That may mean you have to abandon the African resources in order to hold your pipeline together, therefore sacrificing the build points to save convoys.

Be careful about covering your convoys. You want to have one naval action early each turn to cover your convoy routes. Put a bunch of ships in the 0 box with the convoy points, and a bunch more in the 1 box, so that at the end of the turn the ships in the 0 box return home and the ships in the 1 box drop to cover the 0 box. You need carriers, sub killer aircraft (such as the 11 range Beaufort, which can fly to the 4 box in the Faeroes Gap from a coastal hex), and some sub killing cruisers getting into high numbered boxes in each of your critical areas. Generally I have at least one CV, 1-2 BBs and 2-3 CAs getting to the 4 box wherever I can. Having air power against the subs is critical -- if you spot with the aircraft then you call an air-to-sea battle and the subs don't get to shoot back. With a CV or NAV in the 4 box that can happen on a roll of 5 or less, 2-3 rounds of that around the various sea areas and the subs numbers will really start to thin out.

You also need to have some ships back in port ready to launch if the subs try to gang up on one of your convoy routes. In that case be prepared to put a CV (or ASW if you have them) into the 0 box with the convoys, so that if they are found then at least the opponent has to use up surprise points to stop it being an air to sea battle. Be prepared to lose that CV if the dice go against you.

1941 will be hard, really hard. The pressure is on to maintain a convoy route all the way to Murmansk, the subs are at their most powerful, and the USA might not be in the war yet. Prepare for this early, don't underestimate the usefulness of a CV fleet and some long range aircraft (a Sunderland based out of somewhere like Bermuda can cover a lot of sea areas), and be prepared to take some losses. After that, the USA is in the war with its fleet and the convoys become easier to cover.

This is as much a psychological game as a die rolling game. Consider the risks and benefits of running the convoy route. Does your (German) opponent get flustered if he loses some subs, or is he prepared to throw his fleet out there to hammer your convoys at every available opportunity? What can you do to turn the tide, apart from the obvious -- put 2-3 US CVs in every sea area.

Don't get bothered by Axis aircraft a whole lot. Unless you're coming through the Bay of Biscay, the sea routes are easy to cover with CV based fighters that will easily ward off an Axis NAV. In the Mediterranean they can be a pest -- be prepared to commit a bunch of fighters there to cover your med route. In fact I often leave the med route in place way into the game, just to distract axis aircraft away from the Russian front (as someone who plays as Russia a fair bit, I think that the best assistance the CW and USA can lend in the game is to mess with the Luftwaffe).

Watch for the Kreigsmarine. If it's based in somewhere like Kiel then (a) bomb it to bits and (b) keep a constant blockade force in a high numbered box in the North Sea. You really don't want to see those big German BBs break out into the North Atlantic, or even get around to Brest. Ideally you want to keep some long range NAVs back in the UK to scare the Kriegsmarine back to Danzig or Riga. However if you see the KM come out you need to hit it with lots of aircraft and CVs, something that you have in numbers that the Germans don't have.

Good luck.

[EUBanana]

Thank you very much, that is a great help. Redeploying convoys is so time consuming (2 impulses in practice minimum) that if you get it wrong you can be stuffed for a long time.

I've taken to building a couple of factories as the CW in Australia or South Africa so you can use the resources there in relative safety without world spanning convoys being required. I notice though that nobody else here ever talks about building factories so I imagine this is a bad strategy [:D]

I'm only solitairing atm but Italy seems to rule the Mediterranean every time despite my rooting for the CW. [:(] [:D] Even with fighters on Malta.

[Extraneous]

There are several good convoy set up here on the forums.

They are listed under AI for (Major/Minor power abbreviation).

Allied Major Powers

AI for MWiF - China

AI for MWiF - Commonwealth

AI for MWiF - France

AI for MWiF - USA

AI for MWiF - USSR


Axis Major Powers

AI for MWiF - Germany

AI for MWiF-Italy

AI for MWiF-Japan

[Zorachus99]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

Thank you very much, that is a great help. Redeploying convoys is so time consuming (2 impulses in practice minimum) that if you get it wrong you can be stuffed for a long time.

I've taken to building a couple of factories as the CW in Australia or South Africa so you can use the resources there in relative safety without world spanning convoys being required. I notice though that nobody else here ever talks about building factories so I imagine this is a bad strategy [:D]

I'm only solitairing atm but Italy seems to rule the Mediterranean every time despite my rooting for the CW. [:(] [:D] Even with fighters on Malta.

I'm pretty sure you can only build factories in the 'home country' of a major power, which in this case is Britain.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
I'm pretty sure you can only build factories in the 'home country' of a major power, which in this case is Britain.

No, I definitely built a factory in South Africa. I was a little surprised I could do it myself.

Perhaps its in error?

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
I'm pretty sure you can only build factories in the 'home country' of a major power, which in this case is Britain.

No, I definitely built a factory in South Africa. I was a little surprised I could do it myself.

Perhaps its in error?

Yes, this is a bug... [&:] I should have remembered to test building a factory in another CW home country. Aaargh... [:@]

[Ubercat]

Speaking of saved setups, are there actually separate files for different major powers? What I mean is, I can start a Missed the Bus scenario and load a different file for each power as it's setup turn comes up? I could have several different German files based on different plans on how to run the war?

I've never heard of a game where more than one save file could be loaded at a time. That's really cool!

[Joseignacio]

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

Thank you very much, that is a great help. Redeploying convoys is so time consuming (2 impulses in practice minimum) that if you get it wrong you can be stuffed for a long time.

I've taken to building a couple of factories as the CW in Australia or South Africa so you can use the resources there in relative safety without world spanning convoys being required. I notice though that nobody else here ever talks about building factories so I imagine this is a bad strategy [:D]

I'm only solitairing atm but Italy seems to rule the Mediterranean every time despite my rooting for the CW. [:(] [:D] Even with fighters on Malta.

I'm pretty sure you can only build factories in the 'home country' of a major power, which in this case is Britain.

Nop.

Dunno for sure in MWIF, but I guess it's like in WIF, Commonwealth is the only POwer which has more tan 1 home country at the time. IN fact, home country of the CW are Britain (UK), Canada, India and Australia. I think these are all but it could be that there is one more although I don't think so. Egypt is not.

[Joseignacio]

ORIGINAL: Centuur

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
I'm pretty sure you can only build factories in the 'home country' of a major power, which in this case is Britain.

No, I definitely built a factory in South Africa. I was a little surprised I could do it myself.

Perhaps its in error?

Yes, this is a bug... [&:] I should have remembered to test building a factory in another CW home country. Aaargh... [:@]

You sure you should not be able to?

[Centuur]

Yes, here is RAW:

When a new factory arrives, you must put a marker onto a city hex
in your home country to reflect its construction (only in Britain for
the Commonwealth until conquered).