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Have a bunch of transports with Supplies and Engineers. They just sit there and do nothing. the base says troops 0 (6000) I presume that means I can improve to 6000 but I can't get any there to start with. And no, I can't change the transports to amphibious on the fly. Do I have to go all the way back to Hawaii and reload?

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Have a bunch of transports with Supplies and Engineers. They just sit there and do nothing. the base says troops 0 (6000) I presume that means I can improve to 6000 but I can't get any there to start with. And no, I can't change the transports to amphibious on the fly. Do I have to go all the way back to Hawaii and reload?

Pretty much...not sure what facilities you have at Baker Island to unload your ships with.

You have to picture what took place...your engineers packed up their equipment and supplies. The Loadmaster seeing it was a Transport TF assumed there would be a port on the other end to unload. So the Loadmaster at Pearl crams everything into the merchant ships, using every possible available space - with equipment and supplies piled ontop of trucks and dozers in pallets...

Then the Transport TF sails and arrives at Baker only to find there is no pier, not to mention cranes, to assist in unloading the meticulous load put together at Pearl.

Well perhaps, but I assume they have maps at Pearl and if I loaded a transport , pointed at an Island that it could not be unloaded at, and let it sail, perhaps, maybe, someone would say something? This is a flaw in the program and should not have been allowed to happen.

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Well perhaps, but I assume they have maps at Pearl and if I loaded a transport , pointed at an Island that it could not be unloaded at, and let it sail, perhaps, maybe, someone would say something? This is a flaw in the program and should not have been allowed to happen.

What would happen if you wanted to use Baker as a staging area for your TFs to gather?

ORIGINAL: treespider

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Well perhaps, but I assume they have maps at Pearl and if I loaded a transport , pointed at an Island that it could not be unloaded at, and let it sail, perhaps, maybe, someone would say something? This is a flaw in the program and should not have been allowed to happen.

What would happen if you wanted to use Baker as a staging area for your TFs to gather?

You would tell them not to unload!

It makes sense, but should be explained.

I would assume the manual explains this, if not it should be included.

It makes sense, but should be explained.

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

Well perhaps, but I assume they have maps at Pearl and if I loaded a transport , pointed at an Island that it could not be unloaded at, and let it sail, perhaps, maybe, someone would say something? This is a flaw in the program and should not have been allowed to happen.

Haven't read much about WW2, have you? [:D][:D][:D]
(No offense intended, I'm only joking.)
But seriously, when you are playing the game, YOU are the big cheese planner and have to know what you are doing. The game can't read your mind. It is not like you had a real live, thinking staff, it is just a program. If it needs an amphib TF to offload, it needs an amphib TF and depends upon you to specify that. Just because you are routing a transport TF where it cannot be offloaded, the game should not be programmed to stop you from doing that...there might be reasons to do so. No, the game assumes that you know what you are doing.

It would drive me nuts if the game tried to second guess me all the time and either prompted me or asked me every time I did something like that.
And, to be fair, things happen in wartime. Ships get misloaded, cargo gets misdirected or lost, TF's can even be misrouted or forgotten, to languish somewhere waiting for orders. Watch the movie Mr. Roberts sometime, to get a bit of the flavor of WW2's sometimes less-than-efficient side.

Ok then. So if it's a Port 1 then use Amphib? How big does the port have to be to start using regular transport mission?

JohnDillworth

Section 9.3.3 of the manual has a chart showing Port sizes and ship handling sizes. As Baker Island is a size 0 port at the commencement of the game no ships can actually dock to unload.
If I read the manual right you should be able to unload 100 worth of cargo per day at the size 0 port . Try either splitting off a loaded vessel into a seperate TF or disbanding the TF and then tell the vessel to unload.

DavidR

I agree the manual says it.  But I have read a bit, programed computers a bit, and played games more than a bit.  In history, in real life and in games I don't think a group of transports should have been able to load, and sail into harms way, withno chance of unloading and no way to change that short of going back to Pearl.  It just would not have happened, micro management or not it is not realistic.  It does not educate, or entertain,only annoy.

If you have programmed a bit then you will recognize that it is very hard to simulate all the complexities of RL in a computer game.

The manual explains it. There is help here on the forum. The rest is up to you.

ORIGINAL: gunnergoz

...No, the game assumes that you know what you are doing.

Ho boy, if that's the case I'm in deep trouble....[:D]

Henri

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

I agree the manual says it.  But I have read a bit, programed computers a bit, and played games more than a bit.  In history, in real life and in games I don't think a group of transports should have been able to load, and sail into harms way, withno chance of unloading and no way to change that short of going back to Pearl.  It just would not have happened, micro management or not it is not realistic.  It does not educate, or entertain,only annoy.

Then you need to read about what happened at Noumea during the real war....

To elaborate on the earlier comments, TF's trying to unload at Noumea early in the war often had to sit in the harbor for months waiting their turn to unload at the way undersized port.  Baker Island has a 0 port initially; that means there's NOTHING there but an anchorage, yet if you set your TF to "transport" they are expecting a dock crew, piers, etc.  Set them to amphibious (can't change once the TF is loaded though) and they'll 'assault' the friendly port by landing over the beach.  All of your initial personnel need to come ashore as amphibious so they can get started building those piers, etc, that the transport TF's want.