Oil Transport

[CaptDave]

I know I'll find the answer to this right after I post, but here goes...

Is it possible to transport oil overland? It seems pretty useless to have an oil center inland, producing more oil than local HI can use, and not be able to do anything with the excess. Too many applications open right now to be able to open the game and give a concrete example, but I do recall having one inland base with HI but with an oil shortage, and now there's enough oil for its needs. Does the oil just follow the same rules as automated movement of supply overland?

[Quixote]

tm.asp?m=1349415

That should be a link to one of the Must Read threads. It covers some testing done by VSWG on Oil movement and loss, and explains things fairly well.

[stuman]

This explains a lot. There are a few places that it makes sense to help the AI out by manually moving oil and resources and not waiting for the AI; if you are anal like me [:)]
 
 

[CaptDave]

Thanks, Quixote. I knew I'd seen all this before, but of course I've been slogging through the manual instead of the "must read" threads!

[John Lansford]

I've been bringing regular shipments of oil (typically 8000+ points) from Amboina, the West Coast and Sorong to Sydney and Brisbane.  I've noticed that the tankers empty within one turn and the port then shows a large amount of oil in storage, but locations such as the base immediately adjacent to Sydney does not show much increase in oil even after several days.  Is the oil being consumed by Sydney's HI, is it being used at the adjacent base (which has 600 HI IIRC), or is it just slowly trickling over there even though it's only one hex away?

[Quixote]

The last case, more or less - although oil doesn't really trickle, it gets drawn. This draw is done on the basis of perceived need. The AI will try to move enough oil to keep local HI running for a week or two, but that's it. This means that you could have 100,000 oil in Sydney and 10,000 next door in Newcastle, but they will never "balance out" however long you wait - the program just wasn't written to work that way. In your case, Newcastle will obviously never run out of oil as long as Sydney is well supplied, but if it really bugs you just unload some in Newcastle instead of Sydney next time.

[Anthropoid]

Uhhh, allies need to worry about OIL??
 
I thought that that was all just like, 'taken care of' ?

[John Lansford]

I guess what I'm wondering is would it make any difference to spread the oil shipments around, or just unload all of them at say Brisbane and let the program make sure the oil gets where it needs to go. Melbourne always seems to be low on oil no matter how much I unload at Sydney, for example.

[Quixote]

It does make a difference, but at least in the example you give, probably not a very big one. If you find that Melbourne ever gets to a level where HI stops for a turn once in a while, then by all means send a tanker or two it's way and unload there. The real advantage in unloading oil at the places you need it is that you won't experience the shrinkage/loss that you get when allowing the computer to move it all around for you from a central location like Sydney.

[Anthropoid]

ORIGINAL: Quixote

It does make a difference, but at least in the example you give, probably not a very big one. If you find that Melbourne ever gets to a level where HI stops for a turn once in a while, then by all means send a tanker or two it's way and unload there. The real advantage in unloading oil at the places you need it is that you won't experience the shrinkage/loss that you get when allowing the computer to move it all around for you from a central location like Sydney.

Oh dear . . . and here I thought I knew how to play this game . . . You guys are telling me that, all this time I've been shipping nothing but fuel and supplies to Oz I coulda been shipping Oil and _MAKING_ fuel!? Is that really any more effcient than just shipping fuel?

You still have to ship the supplies right? *note to self: review INDUSTRY section of Manual at some point in future [assuming AE doesn't come out sooner]*

[stuman]

I ship mainly fuel and supplies to OZ ( in stock ). Although I also send shipments of oil now and then when it builds up in the states, and when I remember to. OZ will take the oil and build both fuel and supplies with it. OZ has plenty of resources already.

[John Lansford]

If you ship fuel to Australia, all you get is fuel.&nbsp; If you send oil to Australia (assuming you've got enough resources), you'll get both fuel and supplies.&nbsp; I've seen the supply level at Brisbane explode from <5000 to >15000 in just a few turns after delivering a tanker full of oil there.
&nbsp;
I've now got convoys of tankers running from Sorong and Amboina down to Brisbane, and would run them from Balikpapan as well if the AI didn't have such a large presence of Bettys at Tawi Tawi...

[Nikademus]

wait till AE.....you'll be busy shipping fuel.

[:D]

[anarchyintheuk]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

Uhhh, allies need to worry about OIL??

I thought that that was all just like, 'taken care of' ?

Yup, iirc the allies have a net oil deficit in stock.

[John Lansford]

The oil isn't where the Allies need it to be; too much of it is on the WC and in the Dutch possessions and hardly any is in Australia, so some redistribution is needed to get things working better.

[Anthropoid]

Thanks for clarifying that guys. Wow, didn't realize oil would grow 'supplies' -abstraction that must've gone over my head somwhere in that long manual-&nbsp;. . .&nbsp;and even without properly fostering Australian industry&nbsp;I was -still- kickin' the AI in the patootie in the one game that I played for the longest (Jan 43 or thereabouts)

[CaptDave]

Even if you don't really need the oil yourself, moving it from Amboina, at least, makes it unavailable to the Japanese when/if they take the base.