CV Problems - Oilers

[kennonlightfoot]

It didn't matter much in Europe but in Pacific Oilers are extremely important. They eliminate the need for large port bases with defenses so the ships can be pulled back safely to save fuel and to repair.

The problem with Oilers are many but here are the most important:

1. They can resupply a stack just as cheaply as one unit. That is, they don't have a capacity attached to them.

2. They have infinite movement range.

3. They are relatively cheap for what they can do.

4. Units that use them aren't slowed down by having to use them. Fleets that moved with oiler support had to move at the speed of a merchant ship (tanker actually) was at most 15 knots.

Things that could be considered to fix these:

Increase the cost of an oiler (this would heavily favor the US but it would be a historical advantage the US had).

Limit how many fuel points in the stack using could be refilled by the Oiler. A large stack would require multiple oilers to refuel it to full capacity.

Limit how far stacks that received support from an Oiler could move afterward.

Limit how far an oiler could support ships from a major base.

Also, I realize some changes would require major reworking of the game engine. So part of this is to identify solutions that can be implemented cheaply or, at least, have such a major impact that they are worth the commitment of reworking the game engine.

Some of these changes could be tested by house rules like having the players use 2 or 3 oilers to replenish a large fleet stack. Requiring the stack to be in a certain number of hexes of a 5+ port to use an oiler, etc.

[ncc1701e]

Oiler maybe intercepted by the enemy if I remember well.

[AlvaroSousa]

Not as hard as it seems.

[eskuche]

10-20 strength points maximum per oiler seems a reasonable starting point.

[ncc1701e]

ORIGINAL: AlvaroSousa

Not as hard as it seems.

Does naval air interdiction works in this case ?

[Uxbridge]

Make 1 present oiler point into 10 smaller oiler points instead, and make each ship pay seperately, with an ability to easily pay for the whole stack. Using an oil point reduce the unit or stack with one movement point.