Matrix Games Forums

Supply Transport by Air
Apart from a one thread in the forum, there’s very little information about Air Transport. I’ve run Scenario 1 (up to the time the Japs invade) a number of times, transporting supplies to Buna and Gilli Gilli from a variety source locations.

At the start of this scenario the status of these bases is:-
Airbase Supply Troops
Buna 1 0 None
Gilli Gilli 0 0 None

This is what happened on five occasions.

Townsville to Buna – Dist 24 Hex
Turn A/c Supplies
1 16 x C-47 80
2 16 x C-47 80+80-1 = 159 -5 (for lost A/c at Buna) = 154
3 15 x C-47 154+75-1 = 228
4 15 x C-47 228+75-1 = 302 -5 (for lost A/c at Buna) = 297
5 14 x C-47 297+70-1 = 366

Cooktown to Buna – Dist 15 Hex
Turn A/c Supplies
1 14 x C-47 70
2 15 x C-47 70+75-1 = 149 - (5 for lost A/c at Buna) = 144
3 15 x C-47 144+75-1 = 218
4 15 x C-47 218+75-1 = 292
5 15 x C-47 92+75-1 = 366

Port Moresby to Buna – Dist 3 Hex
Turn A/c Supplies
1 15 x C-47 75
2 16 x C-47 75+80-1 = 154
3 16 x C-47 154+80-1 = 233
4 16 x C-47 233+80-1 = 312
5 16 x C-47 312+75-1 = 391

Brisbane to Gilli Gilli – Dist 35 Hex
Turn A/c Supplies
1 8 x PBY 16
2 7 x PBY 16+14-1 = 29
3 8 x PBY 29+16-1 =44
4 6 x PBY 44+12-1 = 55 -4 (for 2 x PBY lost at GG) = 51
Note that during turn 4 I lost 3 PBY in total but from the supply figure I’m assuming I lost one on the return leg.

Port Moresby to Gilli Gilli – Dist 8 Hex
Turn A/c Supplies
1 8 x PBY 16 -2 (lost PBY at GG) = 14
2 9 x PBY 14+18-1 = 31
3 8 x PBY 31+16-1 =46 -2 (lost PBY at GG) = 44
4 7 x PBY 44+14-1 = 57 -9 (due to air attack) = 48
The last turn summary reported 3 port damage and 2 Supplies lost? Don’t know why this comes out at nine though unless repairs are carried out after the attack and before the next turn starts.



From these figure I’ve come up with the following:-

Air transport missions exceed they Extended range. It appears that the max range for these missions is half the A/c maximum range.
Mis Range Max Ext Nor
C-47 24 49 16 12
PBY 36 72 24 18

It does not matter what the range is, they always carry the same load.
Capacity per A/c Supplies per A/c
C-47 10,000lb 5
PBY 4,000lb 2

From this each supply point weighs 2000lb (A US (short) ton = 2000lb)

It also confirms that the further they travel the more prone A/c are to crashes. A/c can crash at either end. If they crash at the target you loose both supplies and A/c, while crashing back at base loses the A/c only.

All bases use at minimum of 1 supply point every turn, hence the -1 in the calculations.


Supply Transport by Ship
This is much easier to work out. Ships carry tonnage not lbs, so 1 supply weighs 1 US ton (2000lbs) and 1 Fuel weighs 2 ton. (A 1500 cap AK can carry 750 fuel).



On a different note entirely
Currently I’ve restarted this scenario 9 times. The Japanese:
Invaded 7 times Gilli Gilli on turn 4, Buna on turn 5.
Once they invaded both were invade on turn 5 BUT
Once they went for Guadalcanal. Didn’t know what happen after turn 5 though.

Troop Transport
After spending a considerable number of hours rerunning Scenario 1, transporting various units to different locations I was still confused. About the only definite conclusion that I came to was each C-47 could transport 2 x Support Pts (40men)

SWPAC men/equip 3000 2nd line troops
It comprises of 150 Support (3000/150 =20men per support point)
Load cost 3000

Brisbane to Townsville
Turn A/c Support 2nd Line Troops
1 15 x C-47 30 600
2 16 x C-47 30+32 = 62 1240
3 16 x C-47 62+32 = 94 1880
4 16 x C-47 94+32 = 126 2520

This puts each man at 250lb. A reasonable weight I suppose for a man and his equipment.

The difficulty comes when you transport units with mixed men and equipment. To start with you can’t pack men and equipment in the same way as supplies and they don’t all weigh the same. Look at turn 1 for an ANZAC Bde

Cairns to Townsville
Turn A/c
1 16 x C-47 14 x Anzac Sqd x 11 = 154 load cost
2 x 81mm Mtr x 4 = 8 load cost
2 x 37mm AT x 6 = 12 load cost
2 x 25Pdr x 10 = 20 load cost
2 x Support x 20 = 40 load cost

The more ground units I transported the odder the results seemed to be.


I gave up on this approach and edited the scenario, generating my own units so that they were made up of one type of men or equipment. E.g. Each unit made up of all 81mm Mtr or all ANZAC Sqd etc. The results indicate that:

• Only guns/vehicles with a load cost of 10 or less can be transported by Air.
• Load cost for ground units has NO affect on air transport (Exp. See above).
• Each C-47 can carry 1 gun + men irrespective of load cost (Exp. See above).
• Each C-47 can carry either 2 x Sqds, 2 x Eng, or 2 x Support irrespective of their different load costs.
• Each C-47 can carry 6 x Av Support.
• PBYs cannot transport guns/vehicles.
• Each PBY can carry either 1 x Sqd, 1 x Eng, or 1 x Support irrespective of their different load costs.
• Each PBY can carry 2 x Av Support.
• Motorised support cannot be carried.
• Planes can’t carry mixed loads.
• Maximum transport distance is half Max A/c range.

In a nut shell, ground unit load costs apply to ships NOT air transport. You can also ignore weight.
• One gun one plane
• 2 x Sqd/Eng/Sup one plane

The only real oddity is Av Support.

Hope this helps

thanks that is a big help, I was thinking if the unit had large guns such as 25pdrs they couldnt be transported by air with tier guns.

Originally posted by Gamara
thanks that is a big help, I was thinking if the unit had large guns such as 25pdrs they couldnt be transported by air with tier guns.

There's more to it than meets the eye. The 25 pounder gun used by Australian forces can be carried in a C-47, but many other items, such as radar equipment and 40mm AA guns, cannot be.

I've never seen a comprehensive list of what is air transportable and haven't experimented with the Japanese air transports in order to find out what the limitations are for them, but such a list would be nice to have.

Thats because their load cost is greater than 10. The 25 pdr load cost is 10. I admit that I've not tried to transport any Japanese men or equipment but I've no reason to think they have special rule.

The manual is wrong it gives a load cost of 7.

Note that you can find out what the load cost are from the in game database.

Good info.

I'm far too lazy to put in the effort for such analysis but clipping and pasting to my "UV hmmm interesting" file was done in seconds.

Thanks Chris H

Hi all,

Thanks again for great list Chris!

Now... does troop transport data Chris found correspondent with
real life figures?

Any ideas?


Leo "Apollo11"

I own PM. I have an airfield there with P-40s flying CAP. I am flying in supplies from Cooktown with C-47s.

The Japs own Buna.....they are flying LRCAP over PM, and are able to ALWAYS intercept the transports flying in.

This is a real pain...and to my mind shouldn't happen.

I'd like to see opposing CAPS duke it out before intercepts of transports are calculated.

Reading the forums I gather that intercepts of transports are less frequent the more defending CAP flying but I've seen nothing in the manual or elsewhere describing what actually goes on.