quick question

[vj531]

Thanks BBfanboy yet again👍

Is supplying supply via air worth the effort?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: sharper

Thanks BBfanboy yet again��

Is supplying supply via air worth the effort?

That is a judgement call. You can't fly in a lot, but in some situations just a little supply can make a difference.

You also have to assess the opportunity cost - i.e. what else could you be using those transports/bombers for? Flying in troops maybe?

And another consideration is how many aircraft you will lose. If the enemy has fighters active in the area you will lose a lot of transports.
If you are flying at extreme range you will lose a lot to "Ops".
If you are flying to or from a small airfield (1 or 2) the Ops losses will be higher.

And the final consideration is how many aircraft and pilots you have in your pools to replace losses.

[vj531]

"Flying in troops maybe"

Troops............

As always

[vj531]

Im looking to move this unit upto Lunga from Luganville.
Trying to find a quick 'rule of thumb' to give me an idea as to the ships required to load them?





I have this practically empty Amphib TF at Lunga. I would like to take 'the necessary ship' away to Luganville to do job PDQ.

[vj531]

I get this come up and just tend to ignore it because of other more pressing game matters.
Think I should understand what happening and how to deal with it.

[PaxMondo]

you need to put the ship into dock to repair major damage. Sydney is big enough to do so.

[vj531]

Pax

Any ideas on the loading calculation question above?

[BBfanboy]

Do not leave your amphib ships loitering around Lunga where Japanese bombers and surface ships can get to them. Take them all back to Luganville.

In this scenario you want to put as much on Lunga and Port Moresby as possible. You have limited time and limited escort resources, so you should endeavour to fill as many ships as possible for the next trip. You need infantry, tanks and AA along with your BF and whatever engineers you can gather to build the airfield faster.

On your LCU screen at the bottom left, the stacking cost is the number of troops you need to move. In amphibious mode, 20% of space is wasted because the troops must be ready for combat with all their personal gear with them. So for the Stacking cost of 2320 you need transport troop space of 1.2X 2330 = 2784, call it 2800 minimum.

Two lines above the stacking cost is the cargo load cost (1148) which is also subject to the 20% factor PLUS, because equipment cannot be stacked like supplies there is a "bulk" factor at work so you need more ship capacity than 1.2 X 1148. I go with 3 times the cargo load cost to ensure some supply is included, and for gun units like artillery and AA I go 4 times (they need extra supply to shoot off).

Calculate your troop and cargo load capacities needed for each unit.
On the TF screen select "Load Troops" and the pop-up screen will show how much total troop and cargo capacity the TF has. Write this down. Go to your list of units and decide which are priorities and which you do not have space for.
Click on "Load Troops" again and select the units to be loaded (do NOT do this one unit at a time - it will take all the ships). When you have all the units you intend to move selected and "loading" click on Verify Load. This will take you to a screen that shows the game's calculation whether the troops will fit. If any are shown in red with a less than 100% loading, decide whether you want to split the unit by loading only part of it. If so, accept the load; if not, use the BACK button to return to the previous screen and de-select a unit. Re-verify the load.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: sharper

I get this come up and just tend to ignore it because of other more pressing game matters.
Think I should understand what happening and how to deal with it.

Ship repair is complicated. When you have time read Alfred's Ship Repair 101 Guide here:

tm.asp?m=2990845

Achilles has some major damage that cannot be repaired in smaller ports, and is best handled by a shipyard. As Pax said, Sydney can handle it but Brisbane also has a 10,000 ton repair SY. Should take about a week if the SY is not full of other ships.

[vj531]

Thanks Jim

Will look properly at your excellent reply Monday - tomorrow is a family day with grandchildren descending!

I briefly looked a the ship repair 101 and will add to my reading list.

The troop loading reply is going to be invaluable - but I will need to study it a lot more.

My Amphib TFs were making their way back from Lunga and I needed X ships from the existing Amphib TF's to get that Base Engineer up to Lugna. I was trying to get the correct amount transports to do "the.job" in the right place

The lack of unrestricted troops is dire in this scenario - can't see where to get them from. Not sure if Tulargi is with the effort?

Speak soon

[rustysi]

8mb RAM

From your signature line. Surely that can't be right.[:D]

[vj531]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

8mb RAM

From your signature line. Surely that can't be right.[:D]

Showing my age![8D][:D]

[vj531]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Do not leave your amphib ships loitering around Lunga where Japanese bombers and surface ships can get to them. Take them all back to Luganville.

In this scenario you want to put as much on Lunga and Port Moresby as possible. You have limited time and limited escort resources, so you should endeavour to fill as many ships as possible for the next trip. You need infantry, tanks and AA along with your BF and whatever engineers you can gather to build the airfield faster.

On your LCU screen at the bottom left, the stacking cost is the number of troops you need to move. In amphibious mode, 20% of space is wasted because the troops must be ready for combat with all their personal gear with them. So for the Stacking cost of 2320 you need transport troop space of 1.2X 2330 = 2784, call it 2800 minimum.

Two lines above the stacking cost is the cargo load cost (1148) which is also subject to the 20% factor PLUS, because equipment cannot be stacked like supplies there is a "bulk" factor at work so you need more ship capacity than 1.2 X 1148. I go with 3 times the cargo load cost to ensure some supply is included, and for gun units like artillery and AA I go 4 times (they need extra supply to shoot off).

Calculate your troop and cargo load capacities needed for each unit.
On the TF screen select "Load Troops" and the pop-up screen will show how much total troop and cargo capacity the TF has. Write this down. Go to your list of units and decide which are priorities and which you do not have space for.
Click on "Load Troops" again and select the units to be loaded (do NOT do this one unit at a time - it will take all the ships). When you have all the units you intend to move selected and "loading" click on Verify Load. This will take you to a screen that shows the game's calculation whether the troops will fit. If any are shown in red with a less than 100% loading, decide whether you want to split the unit by loading only part of it. If so, accept the load; if not, use the BACK button to return to the previous screen and de-select a unit. Re-verify the load.

OK'ish...Ive a total capacity of 20950 for the ships below. And I need 2800 capacity for Unit.
"So for the Stacking cost of 2320 you need transport troop space of 1.2X 2330 = 2784, call it 2800 minimum."



But here they all look full?




I may well have this arse about face![&:]

[BBfanboy]

The 100% refers to the unit being allocated to the ships - it will all fit.
Look at the right hand side of the TF screen near the middle and you will see that only 60 points of the load capacity has been used so far. This represents the first few troops going aboard. It will take at least a day, maybe two depending on port assistance to complete the loading.


But you are misusing your APs (unless it is critical to unload very quickly at Guadalcanal). If you use ALL your AP types to carry one unit you will not be able to load other units until the APs return. A troop convoy needs at least one AP type to be able to load any troops. The usual practice is to use a mix of AP types for the bulk of the troops and AK/xAK types for the equipment and supplies. A few troops will load on the ships with the equipment - drivers with vehicles, gunners with their guns, etc. But the greater cargo space of xAKs means you do not need as many ships to move the unit.

Look at an individual AP and you will see their cargo space is not very big, so it took a lot of them to get space for the Base Force.
You should have been able to meet the 2800 troop requirement with 2 APs, and then added some xAKs to meet the cargo space requirement before beginning loading. I am assuming you only have one unit to move at this time or port.

So what to do now?
Start by re-planning your TF makeup to include almost 2800 troop capacity in the APs. Then figure out which xAKs you need to handle the cargo capacity requirement. Note that the biggest ships take the longest to unload, so choose the smallest ships that have decent range (6000 nm or more) and decent speed (12 kts or more).
Once you have your new TF make-up, you will need to unload what is already on the APs so you can remove the unneeded ones from the TF.
When you have removed some APs and added the xAKs to make your TF again, you can restart loading. Be sure to set the switches for "Do not load fuel" to ON. A ship carrying fuel will burn if it gets the slightest combat damage.

Note that loading is a bit faster if docked so see if you can do so.

Best Practices:
1. Make another Amphibious TF with one or two xAKs and load it with supply only. When loading is complete transfer the ships to your troop TF. The reason for doing this is that supply is the last thing to be unloaded, so if your troop convoy comes under attack and bugs out from the beachhead, it will leave the troops already ashore with little or no supply. Having ship with supply only ensures that some supply goes ashore from the start of the landings.

2. Make sure the TF has a good leader. In your screenshot DD Blue is the flagship and the TF commander is likely the captain of the Blue. Click on the Blue name to bring up the ship screen, then click on the captain and check his stats. You want good Leadership and Naval skills 60+ for the convoy, and aggressiveness 55+ for the DD as a fighting ship. Administration is supposed to be important for a TF commander too, but I haven't noticed that it makes any difference. If Blue's Captain is unsuitable as commander you can go one of three ways:
a: check Bagley's captain and if he looks suitable, make Bagley the Flagship by first removing it from the TF and then adding back to the TF.
b: replace Blue's captain by spending Political Points to select another available officer from the list. Note that the list is in Naval Skill order.
c: on the TF screen bring in a new TF commander (who is not a ship commander) by clicking on CDR WIliams' name and then spending PP to buy a different TF leader.

3. Your APs and troops are very valuable and critical to your overall operations. Have a Surface Combat TF accompany and screen your Amphib one. When the Amphib TF loading is completed, set the SCTF destination to Lunga, then do the same for the Amphib TF. Next click on the "Set TF Routing" button at the upper part of the Amphib TF screen. Select "Follow TF" and then use your mouse to click on the icon for the SCTF. If there are too many TF icons at the base it will bring up a list an you can click on the SCTF in the list. Exit the routing screen and the SCTF should lead the Amphib TF all the way to Lunga. Be sure the Amphib TF is set to "unload cargo " under the picture so it will start unloading as soon as it arrives.

[vj531]

Wow!

My supply and troop TF's are a mess.
Still trying to grasp the troop and supply and ship capacity required.

I think I will start again......

[BBfanboy]

Organizing an Amphib landing against an enemy held base is one of the most complex tasks in the game. It is like choreographing a ballet, with multiple ship types doing multiple jobs at just the right time e.g. if you have reason to believe there are mines in the target hex you should have minesweepers set to go in just ahead of the TF and more minesweepers embedded with the TF.
So if it seems quite overwhelming just know that you are taking on a complex job and not all the game is like that. It takes a lot of practice setting up amphib operations before a player gets good at it.

Guadalcanal does not throw everything at you all at once, you get scattered resistance from the enemy over the whole scenario so it is a chance to learn how to defend you forces during landings and afterward. I think I played it through about three times before I felt comfortable setting up an amphib operation. After years of doing it I am nowhere near as good as the masters [&o] like witpqs, Canoerebel and Wargamr who can orchestrate multiple landings and have the next wave or targets already planned out, including ship and troop allocations.

[dave sindel]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Organizing an Amphib landing against an enemy held base is one of the most complex tasks in the game. It is like choreographing a ballet, with multiple ship types doing multiple jobs at just the right time e.g. if you have reason to believe there are mines in the target hex you should have minesweepers set to go in just ahead of the TF and more minesweepers embedded with the TF.
So if it seems quite overwhelming just know that you are taking on a complex job and not all the game is like that. It takes a lot of practice setting up amphib operations before a player gets good at it.

Guadalcanal does not throw everything at you all at once, you get scattered resistance from the enemy over the whole scenario so it is a chance to learn how to defend you forces during landings and afterward. I think I played it through about three times before I felt comfortable setting up an amphib operation. After years of doing it I am nowhere near as good as the masters [&o] like witpqs, Canoerebel and Wargamr who can orchestrate multiple landings and have the next wave or targets already planned out, including ship and troop allocations.

From one "noob" to another - I learned the hard way that some ASW assets might be needed as well. My PBEM opponent had mini-subs stationed in Tarawa when my invasion force arrived. They took out two AP's and two AK's which was about 1/3 of the troop-bearing ships. Losing those ships/troops sure complicated my efforts to take the island.

[vj531]

A couple questions......well maybe more!

1. The amount of fuel/supply any TF can load from any base is equal to figurs in the pink box?(see below) I just want to make sure there is not some esoteric rule saying different.


2. Why do the IJA troops on Tassafaronga suddenly appear? And how do people take it?
I split off all the 1st USMC/1st Rgt and sent them to Tassafaronga with some supple and a bombardment TF. I got hammered with very heavy casualties going ashore.




3. Resources are these basically 'raw materials' and play little or no part in the Guadalcanal scenario, but is something to learn for the larger scenarios?

4. Replenish TF at sea or at port? Where does this take fuel/?? from? I see operations increase but where do 'they' get the operation from. Tried looking in the manual but[&:]

[vj531]

ORIGINAL: dave sindel



From one "noob" to another - I learned the hard way that some ASW assets might be needed as well. My PBEM opponent had mini-subs stationed in Tarawa when my invasion force arrived. They took out two AP's and two AK's which was about 1/3 of the troop-bearing ships. Losing those ships/troops sure complicated my efforts to take the island.

Good point
What I'm starting to do is send SC's and AM's up to Tulagi.
What do you do?

[dave sindel]

ORIGINAL: sharper

ORIGINAL: dave sindel



From one "noob" to another - I learned the hard way that some ASW assets might be needed as well. My PBEM opponent had mini-subs stationed in Tarawa when my invasion force arrived. They took out two AP's and two AK's which was about 1/3 of the troop-bearing ships. Losing those ships/troops sure complicated my efforts to take the island.

Good point
What I'm starting to do is send SC's and AM's up to Tulagi.
What do you do?

This just happened in our game, and it was unexpected and in my estimation a quite effective tactic. I'll be prepared before my next atoll invasion.