Merchant ships in Convoy Reinforcements

[darbygray]

In some of the scenarios i've been looking at in 27 Beta, the ground Reinforcements for allies have "merchant ships" included. What does that provide? Or is it a false placeholder or description telling us what arrived to deliver the troops, planes, armaments listed in the reinforcement?

convoy.jpg (689.71 KiB) Viewed 964 times

[RangerJoe]

In some of the scenarios i've been looking at in 27 Beta, the ground Reinforcements for allies have "merchant ships" included. What does that provide? Or is it a false placeholder or description telling us what arrived to deliver the troops, planes, armaments listed in the reinforcement?

convoy.jpg

Yes, that also occurred in the previous build as well. After three days, those devices are placed in the pools. The supplies and any fuel carried by tankers may be unloaded before then.

[darbygray]

Right, so those merchant ships go into the industry/resource pool. What are they used for there?

[RangerJoe]

Right, so those merchant ships go into the industry/resource pool. What are they used for there?

The merchant ships disappear, the other devices go into the pools. Those devices are then used by your land and air units.

[pnzrgnral]

The merchies haul the supplies and fuel delivered to the base. They are the convoy and disappear after three days.

[darbygray]

Why even create a spot in the pool for the "merchant ships" if they aren't really used for anything? Sorry, just creating something that doesn't get used at all in any capacity and then disappears baffles my mind.

[Platoonist]

Why even create a spot in the pool for the "merchant ships" if they aren't really used for anything? Sorry, just creating something that doesn't get used at all in any capacity and then disappears baffles my mind.

The way reinforcement convoys work is that for each Merchant Ship/Tanker 6,000 supply and 18,000 fuel is added at the base they arrive at. I suppose the convoy unit could just mention how many units of supply and fuel will arrive but I assume Andy Mac wrote it this way to impart some flavor of it being an historical "convoy" along with their actual code names. When first implemented I thought it strange too, but learned to think of it as an abstract convoy of generic ships which just goes back to wherever it came from after unloading its cargo. The days spent unloading is historical chrome as well. I imagine the device and supplies/fuel could just be injected into the pools in one go with a mention in the Ops report.

Reinforcement convoy units were coded into the game after the initial release. They are a work-around contrivance one of the developers came up with to periodically get big chunks of devices into the pools to simulate the Allied production surges. At the time most players were pleased to see how much work was being done on a volunteer basis to refine an old game that we didn't much question the implementation.

[BBfanboy]

The reinforcement convoys are shown in the game as an LCU to prevent players from messing with them. The represent stuff shipped to Cape Town and other points by ships belonging to another theatre - like a convoy from Britain dropping off some tanks for you to pick up with shipping in your theatre. The ships are abstracted - they aren't part of what you control so they are not there for you to control. They just show what would have brought your supplies, fuel and reinforcements. Its an image for flavour - they could have just announced that supplies, fuel and devices were dumped in your pools.

Note that you can browse ahead on the LCU reinforcement list to see other reinforcement convoys and what they are carrying. That info may help you when deciding whether to let your units take new devices or not.

[Yaab]

Darbygray,itt just informs you how many ships brought the devices/fuel/supplies. So in your example, 25 (generic) merchant ships brought all the listed devices + 30,000 supplies.

[btd64]

Why even create a spot in the pool for the "merchant ships" if they aren't really used for anything? Sorry, just creating something that doesn't get used at all in any capacity and then disappears baffles my mind.

The tankers and merches are just chrome. Ignore them....GP

[RangerJoe]

Why even create a spot in the pool for the "merchant ships" if they aren't really used for anything? Sorry, just creating something that doesn't get used at all in any capacity and then disappears baffles my mind.

The tankers and merches are just chrome. Ignore them....GP

Not only that, if that is all about this game that baffles your mind you are doing quite well indeed!

As far as chrome, eye candy is much better but we are not allowed to post some of that anymore.

[darbygray]

Why even create a spot in the pool for the "merchant ships" if they aren't really used for anything? Sorry, just creating something that doesn't get used at all in any capacity and then disappears baffles my mind.

The way reinforcement convoys work is that for each Merchant Ship/Tanker 6,000 supply and 18,000 fuel is added at the base they arrive at. I suppose the convoy unit could just mention how many units of supply and fuel will arrive but I assume Andy Mac wrote it this way to impart some flavor of it being an historical "convoy" along with their actual code names. When first implemented I thought it strange too, but learned to think of it as an abstract convoy of generic ships which just goes back to wherever it came from after unloading its cargo. The days spent unloading is historical chrome as well. I imagine the device and supplies/fuel could just be injected into the pools in one go with a mention in the Ops report.

Reinforcement convoy units were coded into the game after the initial release. They are a work-around contrivance one of the developers came up with to periodically get big chunks of devices into the pools to simulate the Allied production surges. At the time most players were pleased to see how much work was being done on a volunteer basis to refine an old game that we didn't much question the implementation.

This makes total sense and I agree that it is a nice addition.

[darbygray]

Why even create a spot in the pool for the "merchant ships" if they aren't really used for anything? Sorry, just creating something that doesn't get used at all in any capacity and then disappears baffles my mind.

The tankers and merches are just chrome. Ignore them....GP

Did you say CHROME?

"WITNESS ME!!!!!"

[Platoonist]

Did you say CHROME?

"WITNESS ME!!!!!"

Well, we do have the whole Australian outback available in the game for witnessing epic acts of automotive carnage.