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It does sound a stupid question, I know, but I cannot seem to find out "how" to create brand new Units which did not exist formerly out of resources (I guess out of supply points ?).

I could find out in some of the bases how to create new barges and midget subs but I cannot seem to find out how I can create brand new land, sea and air Units.

Could not find it in the manual either. I can create new Task Forces but with already existing units at that base.

Also, is there an easy way to find out which units are "idle" ?
That is, not defending a Base or resting or training but totally doing nothing....

Thanks !

1. You don't "create" new units (with the exception of a few things that you mentioned, like barges and PT boats). The game has schedules for aircraft, ships, and ground units to appear. The buttons to click and view each of these schedules are displayed on the main "score/information" screen.

2. You can replace lost aircraft and men. You do so by accessing the information screen for that squadron or unit. There are buttons you can click to draw reinforcements (or to turn off reinforcements, if you don't want them).

3. Japan can research stuff - ships and types of aircraft that can expedite arrival in the game. You didn't ask about that, but I mention it just because it's related to your question.

4. Finding out specific information about units takes a little bit of knowledge of the graphical user interface, but many things can be done. For instance, if you wanted to find every ground unit on the map set to "Rest" mode (kind of like your "idle" question), you could click on the Ground Unit tab on the main information screen. Then you would click to have the list of units display those by "mode." That allows you to quickly view every unit in "Rest" mode (and change the mode, if you wish). (Your idea of "idle" may be different, and I'm not sure you can find exactly what you're look for.) Similarly, you can do things with ships to find those that have high SYS damage, or aircraft squadrons with high fatigue pilots, and lots of other stuff. As stated, it takes a bit of getting used to the Graphical User Interface to learn how to do these things.

you don't. you can rebuild lost air and ground units but that's it. you have to use what you have. Their is no way to rebuild any kind of lost ship including barges and midget subs. Your total supply of subs and barges is in the ship availability screen in your intel report. ground and air units are rebuilt in their respective destroyed screen in the intel report as well.

True, but when playing this pavel, becareful of not losing ships. Only get what has been constructed in timeline. They can take many months to build and cant be replace.

WitP-AE is not an "arcade" or "fantasy" game like Hearts of Iron or Pacific Storm and the like where you can build your own Army, Navy and Air Forces.

In the standard AE scenarios you get the historic "Order of battle" with the ships, air groups and land units that did exist in real life - but not more than that.

As the Japanese player you have a limited control over the production, i.e. you can increase the output of plane and tank factories and speed-up the construction of ships, or stop factories and halt ship construction (the economy is relatively complicated - oil and resources being converted into fuel, supplies and heavy indistry points, which in turn can be used to expand a multitude of different factories and shipyards).

This will allow you to keep the existing air and ground units up to strength and to fill-out units in the reinforcement pipeline - but you cannot create new units at your discretion.

In this regard AE is more a historic simulation than a game.

However, there are "what if" scenarios available which give both side many more toys to play with, for example ships and planes which IRL did exist only on the drawing boards.

Still, you cannot create new "what if" toys, every unit available is there by scenario design.

pavel01, you take a battered Jap SNLF unit, add the Tax Police unit, reinforce them with some mountain guns and searchlights, and voila, you have formed Kampfgruppe Rainbow! The world is yours now! Or you can name it Kampfgruppe Unicorn, Kampfgruppe Hunkydory or else.

But seriously, you do not get to build new units. Unit-building is not an option. Actually, I don't think players want MORE units to manage on the map.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
1. You don't "create" new units (with the exception of a few things that you mentioned, like barges and PT boats). The game has schedules for aircraft, ships, and ground units to appear. The buttons to click and view each of these schedules are displayed on the main "score/information" screen.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.
So, for example, if I need more of a given unit, say, paratroopers, I just cannot create them ? I can only "relocate" existing ones on the Map by clearing their current commands and issuing new ones ?
I wanted to create some troops transports as well as actual land fighting units for the time being....

What would be the proper "tabs" to locate these schedules ? Also, do newly created units always appear at the Home Base or do they show up scattered across Bases ?
Does the client inform me that a new Unit just appeared or do I need to actually manually look for them ?

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
2. You can replace lost aircraft and men. You do so by accessing the information screen for that squadron or unit. There are buttons you can click to draw reinforcements (or to turn off reinforcements, if you don't want them).

Got that part, I was trying to figure out how I could "produce" more of a certain unit types.... for example, say that I wanted to increase my Submarines presence to "cut off" the enemies supplies better, I just cannot do it..... I have to live with how many submarines I have and just re-assign them on the Map ?

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
3. Japan can research stuff - ships and types of aircraft that can expedite arrival in the game. You didn't ask about that, but I mention it just because it's related to your question.

How do I set up research in the areas I am most concerned with so as to expedite arrivals of new units in "those" specific areas ?

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
4. Finding out specific information about units takes a little bit of knowledge of the graphical user interface, but many things can be done. For instance, if you wanted to find every ground unit on the map set to "Rest" mode (kind of like your "idle" question), you could click on the Ground Unit tab on the main information screen. Then you would click to have the list of units display those by "mode." That allows you to quickly view every unit in "Rest" mode (and change the mode, if you wish). (Your idea of "idle" may be different, and I'm not sure you can find exactly what you're look for.) Similarly, you can do things with ships to find those that have high SYS damage, or aircraft squadrons with high fatigue pilots, and lots of other stuff. As stated, it takes a bit of getting used to the Graphical User Interface to learn how to do these things.

As in regards my "idle" Units question, the problem I am having is that at the start of the Campaign as the Japanese, I have found out that most, if not all existing units have orders already.
Since I am not familiar with the complexity of the game as of yet, but I did want to at least get a couple of things done from the very 1st Turn (somehow order or prepare an Attack on Mawge (hex 57, 47) which, with its 300 Oil centers would secure me some 3,000 Oil Points (300 x 10) and most importantly, since it has a railway, by later connecting it to my Japanese railway Network with a few railway connections that I would need to create, have that Oil be fastly taken all the way to Hong Kong, when I also have taken that one....

But, I did not want to re-assign units with current orders, I wanted to use Units that had currently no orders at all and where, "idle", doing nothing....

I did check ALL of my LAND Units using the "List all Ground Units (G)" button and, ALL of them show in DEFEND. There is not 1 single Unit that is actually "idle", doing nothing that I could assign to a given task....

By the way, I have at Attack party with "Future Object" set on Hong Kong (at 50, building up) and currently in defensive mode and resting. It is in short supply and in short support also, though.
How can I supply and support them from a nearby base so as to have them more readied from when they will eventually attack Hong Kong (once they will reach 100 as Future Object) ? They are a Unit in the middle of nowhere (not in a Base I mean), is there a way to send supplies and support there from a nearby Base ?
I imagined there's be some "Trucks" Units for land supply lines but I cannot seem to find how to locate these trucks' Units so as to load them with supplies and re-supply my land units in shortage...

Thanks for the help !

ORIGINAL: mullk

you don't. you can rebuild lost air and ground units but that's it. you have to use what you have. Their is no way to rebuild any kind of lost ship including barges and midget subs. Your total supply of subs and barges is in the ship availability screen in your intel report. ground and air units are rebuilt in their respective destroyed screen in the intel report as well.

Mullk is mostly correct here. You cannot rebuild a land unit that was scheduled to withdraw sometime later in the game. (Not sure about air units) And, some ground units, mostly from minor Allies, can't be recreated either. But otherwise almost all American, Commonwealth, and Chinese units can be rebuilt from scratch if you have the devices and squads in the pools.

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: mullk

you don't. you can rebuild lost air and ground units but that's it. you have to use what you have. Their is no way to rebuild any kind of lost ship including barges and midget subs. Your total supply of subs and barges is in the ship availability screen in your intel report. ground and air units are rebuilt in their respective destroyed screen in the intel report as well.

Mullk is mostly correct here. You cannot rebuild a land unit that was scheduled to withdraw sometime later in the game. (Not sure about air units) And, some ground units, mostly from minor Allies, can't be recreated either. But otherwise almost all American, Commonwealth, and Chinese units can be rebuilt from scratch if you have the devices and squads in the pools.

American, Commonwealth, and Chinese units ? Not Japanese ?

Or, if I disband (is that the same as withdraw ?) some Japanese existing units to the "Pool" then I can use them to create some "other" units ?

For example, say that I want more engineers, can I disband (withdraw ?) some land combat units to the Pool and then use that Pool to create those more engineers which I want ?

We are unable to build railroads or other major infrastructure in this game. Sorry. It was debated and decided to be too problematic with the game engine. Supplies travel along the various road types (and overland types)with different levels of "wastage" (a certain amount of supply not reaching the destination - this can represent the supplies used to actually transport the supply over the intervening terrain), so the trucks you are asking about are abstracted.

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

We are unable to build railroads or other major infrastructure in this game. Sorry. It was debated and decided to be too problematic with the game engine. Supplies travel along the various road types (and overland types)with different levels of "wastage" (a certain amount of supply not reaching the destination - this can represent the supplies used to actually transport the supply over the intervening terrain), so the trucks you are asking about are abstracted.

Bummer.

There goes down the drains my conveniency of capturing Mawge with its 300 Oil....

If I cannot then connect to the Japanese railroad network then to have those Oil supply reach where they are needed would take forever on dirty roads....

The surplus oil from Magwe will either flow to Rangoon or Sinagpore. Either way it is a win-win for the Japs.

As Japan, you have the ability to manipulate R&D to focus on specific planes. This isn't entirely useful with Player Defined Upgrades off. With PDU on, it can be used to transform your air forces. It's fun to figure out how R&D and air production works and then play around with various different possibilities.

You also have the ability to manipulate build rates for your ships. You can decide to postpone of halt indefinitely the production of, say, the Yamato or Musashi and use the additional build capacity gained to speed up production of carriers or other ships. Maybe you want to be a fun-loving person and get CV Shinano built and commissioned by '43. You can also make investments in your naval shipyards to improve your general build capacity. This costs valuable supplies though.

ORIGINAL: Anachro

As Japan, you have the ability to manipulate R&D to focus on specific planes. This isn't entirely useful with Player Defined Upgrades off. With PDU on, it can be used to transform your air forces. It's fun to figure out how R&D and air production works and then play around with various different possibilities.

You also have the ability to manipulate build rates for your ships. You can decide to postpone of halt indefinitely the production of, say, the Yamato or Musashi and use the additional build capacity gained to speed up production of carriers or other ships. Maybe you want to be a fun-loving person and get CV Shinano built and commissioned by '43. You can also make investments in your naval shipyards to improve your general build capacity. This costs valuable supplies though.

"You can also make investments in your naval shipyards to improve your general build capacity. This costs valuable supplies though."

Some more details on that, please ?

If I increase my Naval Shipyard that expedites, as an alternative to m
doing Research, the building of new Ships ?

Aside from Ships and Airplanes, what about Land Units ?
Is there a way using the Manpower Pool to make new Land units of a particular type aside from mere replacements ?

"Aside from Ships and Airplanes, what about Land Units ?
Is there a way using the Manpower Pool to make new Land units of a particular type aside from mere replacements ? "

No.

Read this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17642556/Draft.pdf

It is a general economic primer for Japan, going into various areas. Regarding ship building, go to the Ship Yards section.

You cannot manipulate the introduction of additional land forces. You have your reinforcement and withdrawal schedule. That's it. What you can do, however, is use political points to buyout restricted units from China, Manchuria, or the Home Islands (or elsewhere) to be used freely wherever you need them. For example, taking an infantry division initially confined to the Soviet border and buying it out so you can use it in the South Pacific.

As the allies, you can also buyout restricted units on the west coast to be used in your campaigns against Japan.

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Read this: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17642556/Draft.pdf

It is a general economic primer for Japan, going into various areas. Regarding ship building, go to the Ship Yards section.

You cannot manipulate the introduction of additional land forces. You have your reinforcement and withdrawal schedule. That's it. What you can do, however, is use political points to buyout restricted units from China, Manchuria, or the Home Islands (or elsewhere) to be used freely wherever you need them. For example, taking an infantry division initially confined to the Soviet border and buying it out so you can use it in the South Pacific.

As the allies, you can also buyout restricted units on the west coast to be used in your campaigns against Japan.

And you can buy back units that have been totally destroyed from the "Destroyed Units" screen in the Industry/Troops/Resource part of the Intel Reports.

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

We are unable to build railroads or other major infrastructure in this game. Sorry. It was debated and decided to be too problematic with the game engine. Supplies travel along the various road types (and overland types)with different levels of "wastage" (a certain amount of supply not reaching the destination - this can represent the supplies used to actually transport the supply over the intervening terrain), so the trucks you are asking about are abstracted.

That one major keys left from the game, to build railroads, bridges, etc. Least we can use our engineers to construct and upgrade military installations tho.

There is a map editing software that some players have used to add railway and road sections once a month. They must coordinate the additions so that they are both using identical maps. I believe Big Red was involved in that work.

RHS mod has them, but I never got to Spring 1942 to see the first updated map.