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The British have so many transports in and around India at the start of the war. What do you do with the AK's and AP's? I guess that would be two questions all in one.

Tony

AKs mostly to Capetown, but some to Aden and Abadan. Also some dispersed in various ports - Karachi, Bombay, Goa, Colombo, Trincomalee, Madras, Diamond Harbor as reserves and to handle sudden needs.

APs mostly to Aden, but some to Capetown and some dispersed as above.

I have a heck of alot of convoys in operation in my game, where it's May 1942, but I also have alot of ships in port serving as a strategic reserve.

You can look at the reinforcement page and know what lift capacity you'll need for the next month at Aden and Capetown. Everything else to the DEI to suck out anything you can, most ships will make only one trip but it's better than nothing. If the KB makes an early appearence scatter the flock. It's better to have the ships working than sitting at a port waiting for troops/ planes, plenty soon you'll  have enough AKs at Capetown to clean the place out if you don't move supplies there from East Coast, England or Canada.

You also need to send tons of supply to OZ for sure also fuel, oil etc..
from turn 2 on nonstop if possible

As the allies, I have a house rule to limit the percentage of civilian merchant ships (xAK, xAKL, xAP, TK) that can move from a port that is not in "clear and present danger". I allow 5% of the merchantmen in a port (minimum 1 ship) to move daily until 12/31/41 (when Nimitz takes command). It's a bit arbitrary, but less so than the typical mad dash to move shipping around on Dec 8th.

As Dirty Harry said, "a man's got to know his limitations" (and moving all my merchant ships around became a little too overwhelming on Dec 8)

So what about the oil in LA. Should I be moving some of that to OZ? There is a huge amount of oil in LA like 60000 points worth.

You want move as much fuel and oil to OZ early on as Japan will make life tough for ya if he cuts your lines
of comunication there..

ORIGINAL: findmeifyoucan

So what about the oil in LA. Should I be moving some of that to OZ? There is a huge amount of oil in LA like 60000 points worth.

EDIT: My list is for fuel, not oil. As allies I haven't shipped oil or resources.

My major fuel routes are

• Abadan to India (various ports)
• Cape Town to Columbo
• Cape Town to Perth
• L.A. to W.C. (various ports)
• L.A to P.H.
• L.A. to Christmas
• L.A. to Pago Pago
• L.A. to Suva
• L.A. to Noumea
• L.A. to Brisbane

I then do various spoke routes from that with Tankers with shorter legs and slow AOs. You can also do P.H. as a hub and go from there to the South Pacific Islands to take better advantage of docking. You can also forgo Christmas and Suva OR Pago Pago if strategy/tactics dictate, but I like having backups all along that route. Also, I supply Alaska from Prince Rupert.

I also send a lot of the merchant ships with high speed and endurance to Frisco. They will be needed in the summer of 42 as you get more troops there. It is a short journey from Aden to Karachi and a long one from Frisco to where ever. Conserve your tankers, it takes a long time to build up a fuel reserve in Australia.

Can you actually control that? Like can you say where that supply comes from, Canada, UK or East Coast US to Capetown for example or is it more generalized?

I would convert a whole bunch of them to xAPs, for the ones that are convertible....Pacific Cargo and Dominion Cargo class if memory serves.

I convert at least 30 ships to xAP and a bunch to AKE. You will never have enough troop sealift capacity. Be sure to send at least 10 decent size AP's to base out of ADEN, as many australian troops will arrive there. Also get lots of akls there, to make the short hop with fuel / oil / supplies to Karachi. Set up a computer convoy to the small indian ocean bases. Get most ships out of Colombo, as there is a good chance the place will be raided. Send most of the NZ ships to brisbane, or Melbourne (I like melbourne as the routes from there to the US are so far south that subs usually dont bother me there, but you need long haulers to do it).
 
Dont forget about Cristobal/Balboa either - lots of stuff comes through there; I usually send them to replenish xmas island, suva, and send a bunch to sandiego. I split up my west coast forces to make it easier to track - all troops debark from sanfran or sandiego. all cargo runs from LA. All planes also from san diego. station maybe 7 or 8 ak/akls at anchorage for the nome/dh/kodiak convoys, and another ten or so at portland/vancouver/seattle for larger runs to anchorage. decide on 2 or 3 'big' advance bases in the south pacific/central pacific, and stock them up with as much fuel and supplies (and troops) as you can. Xmas is the best choice IMHO, as the troop capacity is unlimited. Suva is also good for an eventual push through the solomons; numeau is great if you can get troops their fast, and dont forget to get some construction crews to lungaville (espiritu santo) to start building that up.
 
Seems to be working well.

Why send supply TF's to Brisbane from the WC/Pearl though?  If I don't manage the convoy routes they tend to stray too far north for my comfort, and if you send them to Sydney that port's more than big enough to handle the larger convoys.  I then send smaller ones north to Brisbane and Cooktown/Townsville from Sydney.
 
Don't send oil to Oz any more from the WC; send fuel.  Lots and lots of fuel.  There's not enough refining capability in Oz to make sending oil worth it any more.