How do routine convoys work?

Warpup · Post by **Warpup** » Mon Mar 19, 2001 8:53 am

I've played this game for a huge number of hours, but I really don't understand how the routine convoys work. I leave escorts and groups of merchant ships in Los Angeles, India, or Nagoya, and I see them convoy together, but what is going on with all those merchant groups scattered in other ports??? Are they going to pick up supply for the port where they are based??? Are they shuttling supply elsewhere??? I understand they're not going to attach escorts, though I believe I saw them do just that once from San Francisco.

So what are we supposed to do with merchant ships and tankers when we are not using them for player controlled supply convoys??? Are we supposed to pile them in Los Angeles, India, and Nagoya, or are we supposed to scatter them around a bit???

What's with the way India works in the new version??? I don't see escorts arriving there, nor large numbers of merchant ships. Are the ships there sending out supply elsewhere, or are they going off board into the Indian Ocean to get supply for India???

Mike Wood · Post by **Mike Wood** » Mon Mar 19, 2001 9:52 am

Hello...

Los Angeles, India, or Nagoya are the source of fuel and supply.

Escorts must be in port at one of the source bases in order to be used for routine convoy. The location of tankers or merchant cargo ships is unimportant, for purposes of routine convoys.

There used to be a bug which would take escorts from Los Angeles and leave them in India. But, they were never able to return. This bug has been fixed.

The routine convoy system uses ships it finds in port, in an abstract manner, to carry fuel and supplies from the source to the bases that need it. The ships are taken from any port, used and then returned at the end of the routine convoy phase. There used to be a bug that sometimes prevented the ships from returning to the original bases. This has been fixed.

Originally posted by Warpup:
I've played this game for a huge number of hours, but I really don't understand how the routine convoys work. I leave escorts and groups of merchant ships in Los Angeles, India, or Nagoya, and I see them convoy together, but what is going on with all those merchant groups scattered in other ports??? Are they going to pick up supply for the port where they are based??? Are they shuttling supply elsewhere??? I understand they're not going to attach escorts, though I believe I saw them do just that once from San Francisco.
So what are we supposed to do with merchant ships and tankers when we are not using them for player controlled supply convoys??? Are we supposed to pile them in Los Angeles, India, and Nagoya, or are we supposed to scatter them around a bit???
What's with the way India works in the new version??? I don't see escorts arriving there, nor large numbers of merchant ships. Are the ships there sending out supply elsewhere, or are they going off board into the Indian Ocean to get supply for India???

Ships that are not being used for routine convoy still have uses in the game. You may manually load them and move them to a base or invasion site.

Hope this helps...

Michael Wood

Warpup · Post by **Warpup** » Mon Mar 19, 2001 12:01 pm

If it's supposed to work that way, something must be wrong with the game I'm playing. India doesn't seem to be acting as a supply source at all. Instead, it's an isolated base which I'm having to manually supply. I even have transport planes flying in there because it's supply situation is so desperate. That's with no Japanese closer than Port Blair, a level 9 airfield, and no Japanese planes in Rangoon, with British controlling Mandalay and with huge fighter superiority over the Japanese on that front.

What is going wrong???

Jon Kan · Post by **Jon Kan** » Mon Mar 19, 2001 12:09 pm

I see, then if you put more CVEs, DDs, DEs, or sub chasers into L.A., India, or Nagoya, would it mean those convoys will be better escorted?

Thanks in advance.

Mike Wood · Post by **Mike Wood** » Mon Mar 19, 2001 10:13 pm

Hello...

Yes, except for CVE's, which are not used for escorts in the game.

Originally posted by Ens. Jonathan M. Kan:
I see, then if you put more CVEs, DDs, DEs, or sub chasers into L.A., India, or Nagoya, would it mean those convoys will be better escorted?
Thanks in advance.

Have Fun...

Michael Wood

mogami · Post by **mogami** » Tue Mar 20, 2001 6:20 am

Hi Warpup did a IJN CV TF bomb India in your game? In my 3 current PBEM games ports which have suffered air attack from CV's go isolated and stay that way forever (but do not list as isolated) In one game as US SF/India/PH/Cairns are all suffering from this.

Warpup · Post by **Warpup** » Tue Mar 20, 2001 7:24 am

Mogami, thanks for the question. No Japanese CV TFs have bombed India or Dacca that I can remember. Sallys bombed India from Rangoon early on. Bettys and Nells bombed India from Port Blair later. Neither was very effective. At the time India and Dacca became isolated the first time, I though it was connected to my landing troops from Columbo. I thought it was some kind of aggressiveness penalty in the code for the Brits, like the way their BBs and CLs and CAs and CVs go away whenever you bombard anything east of Columbo/India before '44 or try to move them to Australia before '44. I've done that 3 times and isolated bases seem to be the result. The last time, all I was landing was a half engineer unit and putting some excorts in India for the convoy routine. What I'm saying is that the isolation has gone away after a while, and seemed to be connected more to the troop landings, though the prime suspect has to be that oversized level 9 airfield at Port Blair.

I have noticed the isolated bases lasting a while at Darwin and Cairns from land based bombing, but this seems to go away after the Japanese quit. Of course, I'm seeing Adelaide and Melbourne isolated too, and occasionally Hobart and Sydney. I thought that bug was connected to the bombing of Darwin and Cairns, but who knows???

Rich Dionne · Post by **Rich Dionne** » Tue Mar 20, 2001 11:18 am

Warpup,

I have never seen the isolation problem in India (Calcutta) before, but this has been a long standing problem with Rangoon. The first time the base gets isolated due to attack, it stays that way forever.

If you are playing the game solitaire, you may be able to remove the isolation with my editor. If India is truly isolated, its normal terrain value of 5 will be either 105 or 205 (depending on the level of isolation). You can simply reset this value to 5 (in the "Base" sheet of the editor), and it may solve your problem, although there may be other effects caused by the level 9 airfield in the Andamans, i.e. the base may become re-isolated.

Still, it may be worth a try if you've invested a lot of time in the current game.

Once you've reset the base terrain level, make sure you get your merchant ships back in the India port, because as Michael Wood indicated, that's where the Far East supply is distributed from.

Hope this helps,

Rich Dionne

P.S. The editor came with the game download(pacwared13).

Warpup · Post by **Warpup** » Wed Mar 21, 2001 11:05 am

Unfortunately, it's a "Secure PBEM" game which I and a friend have put hundreds of hours into. It's March '43. I'll just soldier on and try to fix the problem by beefing up the air defence of India and attacking Port Blair with every thing I can hit it with.

JECrossNav · Post by **JECrossNav** » Thu Mar 22, 2001 8:25 am

Originally posted by Warpup:
If it's supposed to work that way, something must be wrong with the game I'm playing. India doesn't seem to be acting as a supply source at all. Instead, it's an isolated base which I'm having to manually supply. I even have transport planes flying in there because it's supply situation is so desperate. That's with no Japanese closer than Port Blair, a level 9 airfield, and no Japanese planes in Rangoon, with British controlling Mandalay and with huge fighter superiority over the Japanese on that front.

What is going wrong???

WarPup,

I am seeing the same thing in a secure PBEM game. I also note that sometimes NONE of my escorts in India and LA are not used. (I am playing as the allies, the IJN seems to really use tons of escorts, at least from what I see on my end)

But no matter how many escorts I have in India/LA I sometimes have NO escorts with my routine convoys. Heck, sometimes the allies only use 50 or 60 MCS in routine convey. And I have HUNDREDS sitting in LA/India not to mention those that are in other bases.

I ussually attempt to run 10 or 15 mannual convoys to make up for the lack of routine convoys.

For now I will make due with PacWar (a fine game in its own right) and await, with bated (not sure about that spelling) breath for the two new releases from Matrix.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

John E Cross

wargames123 · Post by **wargames123** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 10:25 pm

Japanese resource level to 0 then no production...

I have noticed that late in the war when the Japanese resource level goes to zero that from that point on, no matter what the resource level, nothing seems to get produced anymore.

Basically, when playing the 1944 campaigns (Marianas) as Japan vs Computer opponent I wanted to check the 0 resource level bug to see if it got fixed and it did. However, then I put all my MCS back into port at Nagoya and noticed that I was no longer building aircraft -- outside of 1 per turn per model. I switched the setup to both Human and set all air groups to not take any action in a turn, pulled all Allied subs away and counted the aircraft deployed and in the pools for select Japanese production models and the number never changed, irrespective of the Japanese resource level. This can't be right?