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I have been playing UV since November and I learn something new every time I play it. I spent allot of time this weekend trying new things and something jumped out and caught my attention. The time it takes for reinforcements to travel from Pearl to Noumea is way out of whack.

Example CV
cruise speed 15 knots = 17.265 MPH (1 knot = 1.151 mph)
Distance covered in 24 hours = 414.36 miles
At 19 days travel time that makes for a voyage of around 7875 miles.
Now i could not find a correct distance from Pearl to Noumea but i did locate one for Pearl to Fiji, 2195 miles...

I rounded off to 3000 miles for Pearl to Noumea, so 3,000 miles divided by 19 days = 157.89 miles each 24 hours.
157.89 divided by 24 = 6.5785 Miles per hour divided by 1.151 gives a voyage speed of 5.71 knots from Pearl to Noumea No way..... At 15 knots travel time should be 6 -7 days not 19.... Granted underway refueling and such would extend the time but to no more than 8 - 10 days tops.
So travel times are off by 50 - 55% and should arrive much faster, I will check into the Japanese reinforcements to see if this is also off.

Given travel times and cruise speeds all vessels are out of whack

AO - AP(L) 12 Knots, 23 days voyage, distance 7624 miles
SS 10 Knots, 27 days voyage, distance 7458 Miles
AP(M) 13 Knoys, 21 days, 7541 miles
AK 11 knots, 25 days, 7596 miles.

Some Mileage Distances i located
SF to PH 2091 miles (add distance to Noumea 3.000 approx) = 5091 miles, so at 7,000 miles just where are these replacements coming from.

PH to Manilla 4762 miles
PH to Sydney 4416 miles
SF to Wellington 5906 miles
Panama Canal (PC) to Wellington 6488 miles
PC to Sydney 7673 miles
PH Singapore 5869 miles.

Now maybe I have the math wrong or am not thinking this through correctly but something seems wrong, I checked the transport of the US 37th division from SF to Australia, left May 26 1942 arrived Aussy June 10 1942, thats 15 days from the mainland US to Australia approx 4285 miles that works out to a voyage speed of 10.3 knots which I feel is correct. Maybe someone who has a better feel for the game can explain this to me

Ships also zig-zag to protect against sub attacks. That makes the journey longer.

Yamamoto

You've got a point there Pry - maybe a game balance issue?

The ships sailed not direct from PH to Noumea but south from Fidji, even stopping in NZ for some.

But I agree transit times are a little too high.

Some historical examples :

Japan-Truk

I-1 and I-3 : 8-14 September 1942
I-10 : 21-27 October 1942

Shokaku : 8-14 January 1942 (return 30 January-3 February), 19-25 April 1942 (returns damaged 2-6 November), 9-15 July 1943

Nisshin (seaplane carrier) Truk-Japan 23-27 November 1942, 10-15 December 1942, Rabaul-Kure 21-27 December 1942

ML Tsugaru and old DD Akikaze : Japan-Rabaul 25 May-3 June 1943

DD Oite : 23-29 April 1942

convoy escorted by DD Oite and attacked by sub : 9-19 October 1943

DD Yuzuki : 14-25 June 1942 (via Saipan)

CA Furutuka, Kinugasa : 28 June-4 July 1942

Yamato (escorted by Taiyo and 3 DD) : 17-28 August 1942 (return 8-13 May 1943), 17-23 August 1943 (with Fuso, Nagato, Taiyo, 2 CA and 5 DD)


And for US :

BB Washington: Noumea-PH 30 April-8 May 1943
BB South Dakota : PH - N of Luganville 16-24 October 1942

CV Saratoga : PH - Noumea 10 November - 5 December 1942
Yorktown and Lexington : usually began operations in Coral Sea 17-20 days after depart from PH.
CV Enterprise : PH - N of Luganville 16-24 October 1942

DD Smith, damaged 26 Oct 1942, arrived in PH 5 November

I don't find transports sailing from PH to Noumea or reverse.
AP WILLIAM P. BIDDLE: Panama - Noumea 3 - 27 Janauary 1943

Some examples, but it seems to me that US transit times are closer to reality than IJN ones.

Hi, Are we assuming the ship leaves PH/Tokyo on the day the arrival date first appears? Or could it be that the ship is ordered to sail to Noumea/Truk and we are told 2 weeks before the ship sails?

Originally posted by Mogami
Hi, Are we assuming the ship leaves PH/Tokyo on the day the arrival date first appears? Or could it be that the ship is ordered to sail to Noumea/Truk and we are told 2 weeks before the ship sails?

Good point. The idea that Nimitz gets up one morning and says to his staff 'allocate USS Speedboat to the SWPAC', and then goes to make a cup of coffee, comes back and looks through the window at Pearl, sees the Speedboat still there, and yells because he ordered her deployed 10 minutes ago, and she hasn't moved, is a little unrealistic.
Think of 'en route to' as 'ordered to', or 'allocated to', and she then makes ready for sea, and sets off a couple of weeks later. If you had ships arriving 5 days after you first knew they were coming, you would have players complaining they weren't getting enough warning. (You would, bet you. People will complain about anything in this game!)

Hi, Are we assuming the ship leaves PH/Tokyo on the day the arrival date first appears? Or could it be that the ship is ordered to sail to Noumea/Truk and we are told 2 weeks before the ship sails?

Think of 'en route to' as 'ordered to', or 'allocated to', and she then makes ready for sea, and sets off a couple of weeks later.

Ok this I can understand get orders top off with fuel ammo and whatever say 10 days to prepare for departure then 5-8 days travel and report for duty to SOPAC on X-day, Seems reasonable enough. I just could not get a fix on why 19 days transit time is listed but under this explaination It serves as advanced warning to SOPAC that so and so is on the way, start making plans for their use when they arrive.

Thanks.