"Not All Troops Can Unload At This Loc" message?

[jackyo123]

i am trying to unload an amphib mission consisting of engineers 26 and motorized engineer support x 15 at a size 0 port. A few engineers unload, then I get the message

"Not all troops can unload at this location"

and the unload button is 'orange.'

why do we get this message? do i need naval support at this port to unload my bulldozers?

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: jackyo123
do i need naval support at this port to unload my bulldozers?

Absolutely!!!

Alternatively, if you want to unload heavy equipment, take them to a real port!!!

[sfbaytf]

Correct me if I'm wrong...

If those units with bulldozers were loaded on LST's they could be unloaded directly onto a atol/island without a port.

Barges could also do the same.

Don't know about LSI's but I doubt it.

APA's-possible by higgins boat, but would probably be slow.

[Blackhorse]

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

ORIGINAL: jackyo123
do i need naval support at this port to unload my bulldozers?

Absolutely!!!

Alternatively, if you want to unload heavy equipment, take them to a real port!!!

. . . and you'll find it doesn't take much naval support to get those bulldozers to shore. If you are playing the allies, the six small US Port Service Detachments are tailor-made for this assignment. . . otherwise, just take a sliver of a HQ or Base Force with Naval Support along.

[John Lansford]

They will unload eventually if you give them a lot of time.  If they're in an xAK or xAP, though, they will take a LOT of time to unload.
 
Also big CD guns, any kind of support vehicles, tanks, sound detection gear, etc, fall under this category of "too big to unload".  The best choice is to use an AKA or APA to unload them from, or an AK/AP if you don't have the upgrade yet.  An LST ought to unload them without one bit of problem, but I've only got one LST so far so I don't know if they work like that yet.

[sfbaytf]

I'm using the LST's and LSI quite a bit. They are great. I can see why everyone in every theater was screaming for more. The only shortcomming is they tend to get shot up-even with CA's, CL's and DD's providing gunfire support. The LSI's get pinged quite a bit by 7.7mg fire and if you get enough hits it adds up.

The APA's and AK''s make great fast Amphib invasion ships as they unload quickly. As always you're never going to have enough of them so you'll probably end up still relying on the AP's and AK's to do some of the dirty work. Against determined opposition they usually end up taking a beating.

Don't forget to bring along a command ship and load an Amphibious HQ on it. It really helps.

[FAdmiral]

I got this same message at Port Blair (size 1 port) when trying to unload a large Eng. unit.
The problem was a big AP that could not dock at that size port. The smaller ships could dock
but when they did, I got that message. I had to keep the dock clear to unload the big AP
with all the heavy equipment. Eventually it got done but took some time....

JIM

[Gunner98]

In addition to the LSTs the LSD adn LSV seem to make a big difference - only get them quite late though..

B

[Central Blue]

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

ORIGINAL: jackyo123
do i need naval support at this port to unload my bulldozers?

Absolutely!!!

Alternatively, if you want to unload heavy equipment, take them to a real port!!!

. . . and you'll find it doesn't take much naval support to get those bulldozers to shore. If you are playing the allies, the six small US Port Service Detachments are tailor-made for this assignment. . . otherwise, just take a sliver of a HQ or Base Force with Naval Support along.

Seems like the OOB could use more combat oriented beach/shore party type units. But the Port Services guys are ideal for those undeveloped ports far away from the action, or in ports you don't want to assign naval base units to. I don't know if I would risk them in hotter zones.

[sfbaytf]

I think AP's and APA's are different. APA's have the Higgins boats and I presume the cranes/winches to lower them, which could also be used to lower small items like bulldozers, jeeps, 105mm howitzers onto the Higgins for disembarkment onto the beach.

Don't know if using an APA or AKA in the situation you described would have made a difference.

IRL LST's would suffer damage every time they were used as they moved right onto the beach. Don't know if this is modeled into the game either.

[Lifer]

I thought that the reason to use an Amphib TF was so that you could unload over the beach without port/naval support

[Canoerebel]

Ah, this brings back memories of the "TF can not unload here and now" messages of WitP (and UV?).  Those messages would appear during an amphibious landing and indicated that some troops weren't going ashore for reasons that were never clear, at least to me.

[sfbaytf]

"I thought that the reason to use an Amphib TF was so that you could unload over the beach without port/naval support"


That is correct. You use the Amphib TF to unload over the beach without a port/naval support, but depending on what is loaded and the type of ships you've loaded them up on, the unloading time can vary widely. In fact the process can be very long...

Craft like LST's can go directly onto a beach and equipment can just drive off directly onto the beach and thus the entire process is faster. Same with supplies and troops.

Ships like AK'a, AP will take much longer and if the units you brought along has any heavy equipment, it will have to be broken down, loaded onto boats and reassembled onshore. As already mentioned if you're trying to offload big stuff like CD guns, its going to take a very long time if you're not careful about what type of ship you're loaded them on.

This is where planning becomes very important-especially when organizing and conducting amphibious landings. The Japanese player doesn't have to be concerned about this, but towards the later years of the war and on the offensive, the Allied player does have to be very concerned and careful about how they configure, load and organize their amphibious landing TF's.

Organize and load them onto the wrong ships and they could easily spend far too much time disembarking and if the Japanese CD's and defenses are not suppressed-you could take some serious losses.

[Lifer]

Great answer sfbaytf.  Thanks for that.

[sfbaytf]

You're quite welcome.

If you don't know already, you will soon also learn the value of locations with high initial port/airfield capacity or potential and why they were so valued by the allieds and well defended by the Japanese.

In stock WitP that was not an issue. You could load and move gigantic armies with ease.

Not so in AE. Just parking a few divisions and other units on a base will eat supply like crazy. The larger the port/airfield the less the wastage. Add some naval support and HQ's and the supply hit becomes even less.

Those valued pieces of property become hubs.

Try embarking a large invasion force from a level 4 port and level 7 and you'll notice the difference-even with naval support and HQ's a smaller port creates bottlenecks when you're trying to embark a large invasion force.

Don't neglect those "dot" locations. Given a little attention and some TLC from Seebees and other engineer units, they soon grow up to be nice airbases from which LBA can operate from.

In the old SPI board game classic War in the Pacific-if I recall correctly-the allieds were restricted if not prohibited from launching amphibious invasions out of LBA coverage range. In stock WitP that is allowed as is AE, however in my limited experience that is very dicey-especially if the INJ is still intact. Don't get me wrong it can and does happen, but from the way I'm seeing things work-especially with the new air-to-air system, you're far better off having allied naval/amphibious TF's work in conjunction with LBA.