How to rescue stranded troops?

[jwolf]

I am a beginning player as Allies just one month into a campaign. I have two questions about trying to rescue trapped or isolated troops.

1. Looking ahead a little bit, the time will come when key bases such as Manila and Singapore will fall. What is typical practice to rescue HQ units from places such as this? I am assuming you don't just leave the top officers as POWs. By this time any normal shipping near these bases is impossible. So what is used? Transport planes? Subs? Star Trek style teleportation?

2. I have a very small ground force -- less than 100 men -- which was defeated and driven into retreat from their island base. This island covers multiple hexes, and the unit has not been disturbed by the enemy since then (no reason for them to bother, really). But the only base they can reach is a little dot base with no facilities. Is it possible to pick up these men and rescue them somehow? When I click on this unit I am not allowed to put it into strategic mode. I concede that the presence or absence of this small cadre of men would not make any difference even locally, let alone on a grand strategic scale. But from a role-playing perspective I don't want to leave them to die if it is reasonably possible to pull them back to friendly lines. Can this be done?

[Malagant]

You could always ask your opponent for a temporary cease-fire for POW exchange...

For the former, vs AI I've pulled HQ units out of Singapore by air before things got too hot in the rest of the region. I think if you want to get stuff out it needs to be planned and enacted turn 1. Once the Empire presence gets thick (as it is in our game) pulling folks out doesn't seem practical.

For the #2, if you really want to save them have them Move to the nearby dot-base, where I think they may be able to be picked up, maybe by an SST or Fast Transport?

[rockmedic109]

1
You don't have to worry about MacArthur. He shows up in charge of SouthWestPac. Can't get rid of him.
A couple of PBYs from Port Moresby can evac Kavieng and most of Rabaul. I cannot remember if you need to change their HQ or not but I don't think you do.

2
If you can get a PBY unit near enough, you can have them troop transport if the dot is on the coast. They do not have to be in strategic mode. I can't remember if subs will pick them up from a dot but they will work from a port {Corregidor, Manila, etc}.

The amount you save is usually minimal. Since they are destined to be lost anyway, anything you save is bonus. I usually try to evac a base force or three from the Phils to help with building Darwin.

Also, anything you evac will try to rebuild. If they have items that are in short supply, they may prevent or hinder other {more useful} units from rebuilding. Look carefully when you get them out or set them to replacements off till you have sufficient buildup in your pools.

One of the great things about this game is that the players actually develop attachments to the little pixels and bits of info stored in the memory banks of their computer.

[Lokasenna]

Yep, those sea planes are really the best way to do it. Just make sure you use some level of Rest, or else your Ops losses will begin to stack up...

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

I am a beginning player as Allies just one month into a campaign. I have two questions about trying to rescue trapped or isolated troops.

1. Looking ahead a little bit, the time will come when key bases such as Manila and Singapore will fall. What is typical practice to rescue HQ units from places such as this? I am assuming you don't just leave the top officers as POWs. By this time any normal shipping near these bases is impossible. So what is used? Transport planes? Subs? Star Trek style teleportation?

2. I have a very small ground force -- less than 100 men -- which was defeated and driven into retreat from their island base. This island covers multiple hexes, and the unit has not been disturbed by the enemy since then (no reason for them to bother, really). But the only base they can reach is a little dot base with no facilities. Is it possible to pick up these men and rescue them somehow? When I click on this unit I am not allowed to put it into strategic mode. I concede that the presence or absence of this small cadre of men would not make any difference even locally, let alone on a grand strategic scale. But from a role-playing perspective I don't want to leave them to die if it is reasonably possible to pull them back to friendly lines. Can this be done?

Use patrol a/c if you can get them in range. One load is enough to rebuild a unit so there's no need to evac the whole of any unit, heavy stuff will be left behind anyway.

[Jim D Burns]

You can evac units from non-base coastal hexes. First assign the transport air unit to a supply mission and assign the unit's hex as target. Then you can change the air unit’s mission to pick up troops and use the arrows to scroll through the units if there is more than one. Kind of wonky but it works, though float planes are the only ones that can do this since normal transport planes need an airfield.

Jim

[jwolf]

OK I'll experiment with some PBYs. As for the HQs, what happens when they surrender? Would units reporting to that HQ automatically be changed to a different HQ, or is the player forced to make changes at a high cost in PP? In this situation I'm thinking mainly of air units -- for example, Singapore has an air HQ although its squadrons are elsewhere by this time.

[sstevens06]

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

You can evac units from non-base coastal hexes. First assign the transport air unit to a supply mission and assign the unit's hex as target. Then you can change the air unit’s mission to pick up troops and use the arrows to scroll through the units if there is more than one. Kind of wonky but it works, though float planes are the only ones that can do this since normal transport planes need an airfield.

Jim

Very helpful - thanks for sharing.

[dr.hal]

In fact you can do a Dunkirk if you so desire. Get the troops to a coastal hex, doesn't need to be dot, and get a fleet of APs or xAPs and run them in as an Amphib TF and pick the lads up. I evacuated about 10K troops off the west side of Sumatra in one game as the Japs were investing Sings. The troops had been holding a town on the east side of the island and were defeated, retreating over the island where I sent in the TF to pull them out. It was a great feeling being able to save all those troops. They were remnants of some Sings units and a Dutch unit that I payed PPs to get out. It was more symbolic than militarily advantageous, but it was fun. They loaded right over the beach.

[Lowpe]

You can either save the troops, or you can fly out McArthur's gold. Get your priorities straight![:D]

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

OK I'll experiment with some PBYs. As for the HQs, what happens when they surrender? Would units reporting to that HQ automatically be changed to a different HQ, or is the player forced to make changes at a high cost in PP? In this situation I'm thinking mainly of air units -- for example, Singapore has an air HQ although its squadrons are elsewhere by this time.

Don't waste time or resources trying to save small units and HQs. Once eliminated most any unit of importance can just be purchased back with a small expenditure of PP and rebuilt in the states.

And, you get so many new and replacement units that the loss of the units do not really matter much anyways. Your assets are so precious in the early going that it is best to use them elsewhere.

[pontiouspilot]

One of the more useful early units to fly out troops with are the Dutch lodestars...you will have to pay points to change their command as I recall however. Also if you convert the 4 pipe US DDs to APds as soon as you can (Feb 42) they load quickly and leave quickly which is ussually key if running to beat hell! I find that saving some air HQs or base forces is handy early on since there are not enough where you want them.