Ship types help

[Phoenix100]

Ok. Very helpful. Thanks all.

[trevorcolby]

Has anyone figuerd out why I should convert xAK types to AG types ? They are then afer conversion a Tender Class ship, Ok, but for what purpose ? They cant be part of any amphibious TF compared to xAK's so where is the pint of them ? PLease, can anyone enlighten mem, thnx in advance

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: trevorcolby

Has anyone figuerd out why I should convert xAK types to AG types ? They are then afer conversion a Tender Class ship, Ok, but for what purpose ? They cant be part of any amphibious TF compared to xAK's so where is the pint of them ? PLease, can anyone enlighten mem, thnx in advance

Firstly, what makes you think having xAK in an Amphibious task force is a good idea, and secondly, what makes you think you are going to run out of xAK and therefore can't convert them to another ship type?

Alfred

[RangerJoe]

I suggest that you read this guide for the various tenders and support ships:

Tender and Support/Auxillary Ship Guide

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2920431

[RhinoDad]

ORIGINAL: Dan1977

Reason: Supplies are pre-packaged, on pallets or in CONEX containers for shipping by rail or ship. Resources are generically in loose piles or stacks dumped into holds of ships.

Good point but pallets and Conex containers are a much newer tech than when the game is supposedly taking place. Longshoremen unload the goods, often in boxes, at dock where stevedores calculate ship balance and packing then supervised the bringing onboard and packing of the ships holds. Each piece of supply is carried onto the ship via ship cranes, often in cargo nets. Then lowered through ship hatches. Unloaded from crane, then stacked, packed and repeatedly tied off. Pallets do not allow for optimal use of ships hold and subject to shifting enroute. Lather rinse repeat at ship destination.

Raw materials often had to be put into containers in ship hold as many are abrasive or are dangerous if just piled up inside of ship. Also they can be reactive with next cargo load so do not want remaining bits mixed with new load.

Stacked pallets in a ships hold would shift at sea and could easily result in ship being sunk. The ships holds had to be packed so they would not shift and would not abrade through the ship. A shifting or abrading cargo would often lead to a lost ship, or at least heavily damaged one, and cargo.

The packing of ships was a very specialized job and great care and expertise had to be used in order that both maximized the ships capacity with a tightly packed non shifting cargo in hold, all while maintaining ship fore/aft and port/starboard balance. Since in rough seas a ship will flex and twist the cargo has to be able to maintain structure during and after ship hold shape changes.

Trains moved cargo in cargo cars and were also loaded and stacked, like a moving van, but less care had to be taken of shifting cargo. Truck delivers goods to train station, goods unloaded off of truck, goods repacked onto train car. Lather rinse repeat at train destination.

That is why palletized goods and CONEX containers were invented. Took away the need for much manual labor, specialized labor, and also saved much time in loading and unloading.

It is great the game does not get into the weeds and rather elegantly abstracts the process.