New player freezing in the Aleutians

[jwolf]

Greetings. I am a rookie WITPAE player in the midst of the Aleutian scenario as Allies vs the Japanese AI. Long story short: in spite of my bungling bordering on treasonous incompetence, I managed to retake Kiska and I have an amph invasion of Attu en route, but of course there is no guarantee this will be successful. Meanwhile, in the wake of the combat action so far I have questions about repairs and replenishment of ammo.

1. The CA Indianapolis took a torpedo hit which resulted in some moderate to significant damage. Indy made her way back to Dutch Harbor but is now stuck there with 12 flt damage which can't be repaired there. I am assuming that in a larger campaign I would have to send this ship to Seattle for serious repairs; as it is, it is out of action for the rest of this scenario. Correct?

2. In this scenario the Allies get 3 of the big BBs as reinforcements. I have used them for bombardment, which worked well, but they ran out of ammo for their big guns. I sent them back to Dutch Harbor, but they aren't restocking any more of the big ammo. Is there really none available? I can understand that Dutch Harbor doesn't have the big repair facilities of, say, Seattle, but shouldn't they have the ammo I need?

3. Due to my bungling I lost most of the Wildcats on the US CVE that shows up. Similarly, I lost many of the land based Warhawks but they got replenished within about two weeks. On the other hand, as far as I can tell, not one additional Wildcat has come in as a reinforcement for my naval air. Is this correct? If so, my CVE has become a floating museum for all the good it does me now.

[Yaab]

ad.2. Do you have any AKE ships, either active or as reinforcement? They can replenish the BB ammo, provided they are big enough and have supply loaded onto them. If not, you need a level 7 port or a smaller port with hundred of Naval Support squads.

[HansBolter]

I'm not familiar with this scenario, but if Seattle is included you have a shipyard where you can repair the major damage to the cruiser.

Armament reload at ports is dependent on the port size + supplemental Naval Support squads.

There is a table in the manual that outlines what size weapons can be rearmed at various size ports.

As mentioned above AEs or AKEs, loaded with supply and disbanded into a small port will allow rearming of just about anything.

Air replacements come in two varieties; on board production and replacements (transfers from off map).

You will see these as two side by side columns in the aircraft pool table.

Total those two numbers and divide by 30 (as this is a monthly rate) and you have an approximate idea of how many planes enter the pool per day.

A given squadron can only pull from that pool once a week in maximum increments of 12.

So, if your squadron of 18 Marine fighters is down to 2 and you have 36 planes in the pool you can pull 12 into the squadron and then have to wait a week to pull the remaining 4 needed to fully flesh out the unit.

[jwolf]

Seattle is off map in this scenario; Dutch Harbor is THE major Allied base. In fact, there are only 5 bases in the whole scenario map: DH, Adak (both starting as US controlled); Kiska, Attu, and some long Japanese name on Sakhalin island (these three under control of the Japanese).

I don't think I have either an AE or AKE but I will have to check this for sure. I admit the dozens of different ship types are bewildering for a rookie such as myself.

There is a pool of 50 Wildcats but nothing happened for about two weeks while my carrier was at Dutch Harbor.

[HansBolter]

Recently one of the devs answered a similar question about on of the limited map scenarios.

I believe if you click on the "manage ships under repair" line in the "ships disbanded in port" interface you can send the cruiser off map for repairs.

Dutch Harbor is an abysmal airbase. Find an airbasae at level 7 or build one to level 7 with 20K supply and you should be able to draw air replacements from it.

If you hover the cursor over the replacements line in the squadron screen you will get a mouseover text line telling you why you aren't able to draw replacements.

[msieving1]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Recently one of the devs answered a similar question about on of the limited map scenarios.

I believe if you click on the "manage ships under repair" line in the "ships disbanded in port" interface you can send the cruiser off map for repairs.

Dutch Harbor is an abysmal airbase. Find an airbasae at level 7 or build one to level 7 with 20K supply and you should be able to draw air replacements from it.

If you hover the cursor over the replacements line in the squadron screen you will get a mouseover text line telling you why you aren't able to draw replacements.

The scenario only runs two months. There's not much time for building, and any ships that are badly damaged are out for the duration. If an air group is mauled you're not going to get much in the way of replacements. You just have to make do with what you're given.

Just read the designer's notes for the scenario. Since victory points are awarded for damaged ships, they can't be sent off map for repairs.

The Allies have one AE, USS Rainier, starting in Dutch Harbor. She should be able to re-arm the battleships, but will have to be loaded with supplies.

[jwolf]

Thanks for the replies. Some comments and further questions:

Ships will repair moderate damage but as said above, major damage is irreparable for this scenario. So apparently normal interface options, for example "send ship to major port X for repairs" are not available.

I did load the AE Rainier with supplies but still could not figure out a way to rearm the BBs. I moved all these ships to the same hex. The BB TF had an option to "replenish TF at sea" but whatever that does, it didn't seem to affect the armaments, at least not the big ones.

At the end of the scenario I saw, to my horror, that the Japanese had some major naval assets -- 2 CVs and a CVL, among others -- that could have annihilated my forces at and around Attu when I assaulted that island. But they did not. Why were they so passive?

How do you pick up ground units from an island if the port is too small for ships to dock?

[Numdydar]

Let's see if these responses will help you.

ORIGINAL: jwolf

Thanks for the replies. Some comments and further questions:

Ships will repair moderate damage but as said above, major damage is irreparable for this scenario. So apparently normal interface options, for example "send ship to major port X for repairs" are not available. Correct

I did load the AE Rainier with supplies but still could not figure out a way to rearm the BBs. I moved all these ships to the same hex. The BB TF had an option to "replenish TF at sea" but whatever that does, it didn't seem to affect the armaments, at least not the big ones.
The AE needs to be disbanded in a port hex, not in a TF. Then the BB TF can rearm at that dock. However, there may not be enough Op points for everything to be rearmed at once. So it could take several turns to fully rearm.

At the end of the scenario I saw, to my horror, that the Japanese had some major naval assets -- 2 CVs and a CVL, among others -- that could have annihilated my forces at and around Attu when I assaulted that island. But they did not. Why were they so passive?
It is just the AI. You really can't expect much from one this old [:(]

How do you pick up ground units from an island if the port is too small for ships to dock?
The ships will slowly, very slowly, load over the beaches. However they may be devices in the units TOEs that cannot be loaded, large guns, etc. These will be left behind. They can be picked up later and recombined once the port is large enough.

The way this works is the loading TF has to be an Amphib TF with enough space to carry the unit(s). Then use the 'Pick Up' selection in the TF screen and then chose the unit you want loaded and where you want it dropped off.