Shipping Transport

[Beruldsen]

Time has come for the big invasion ... and guess what ... I don't have enough transports for all the beaches. In fact, I have only have enough for 4 of the 8. This is a Northern France invasion. Is there a way to build up the transport ships?

[marion61]

How many troop ships and cargo ships do you have left? You get 3 a turn for troop ships, but you must have had them out at sea a lot for them to be so low on troop ships.

[Beruldsen]

In May '44 I had 144 and 1779 respectively. I never really thought about managing them or keeping an eye on them. I often used the TFs to assist with capturing ports. I also used the transports a lot to move troops from the Med to the UK. Is there a way I can see how I'm managing these ships other than the info in the upper right hand corner of the screen. It would also be helpful if I could see how much transport I need for an invasion.

[marion61]

When your done using a TF put them back into ports. Using them to tackle ports will certainly deplete your available ships. You really should have over 200 at this point, I've even had 300 in May 44, but when your done with an invasion the best thing is to move them back to port and let them repair.

Always keep track of those transports. They are your life line when you invade and if you don't have enough your invasion will peter out. Also those huge 8 TF invasions will suck up so many ships supplying the troops that you won't have enough capacity left to transport but about 1 div a turn so you really only need 5 for a successful invasion.

To my knowledge there's no page that displays how much you need for an invasion. Paratroopers have total lift capacity for air transport, but that would be a great suggestion to put in total sea lift capacity so you could estimate how many units you can use to invade.[8D]

[Beruldsen]

Good information. I was trying to mirror the Normandy invasion plus 2. But I guess that was bad strategy. Also I probably over used the transport mode and lost transports along the way.

If you only use 5 TFs ... how do you use the remaining TFs ... or are they sitting in port?

[marion61]

You can use more TF's if you want, 6 isn't bad but just remember that the more you use, the less lift capacity you will have till they go back to port. You can strangle an invasion by using too many and I've found the magic number for me is 5. The other you can have doing or prepping for another invasion when the 1st one is stabilized and you can pull TF's back off that one.

Always keep an eye on your troop ships and cargo. These are the way you invade and if you over use them you won't have them when you need them.

Also don't pull the trigger on a 2nd invasion while you have one going still. If the 1st invasion is still getting supplied over the beaches, don't do another invasion. They will both stall out trying to supply them so make sure the 1st one is standing on it's own and has it's own ports before trying a 2nd one.

These are mistakes I made early one too. Hopefully your's won't be as painful as mine.[;)]

[decourcy2]

Remember, as far as I know you only have transports in a TF when it is carrying units. When you are finished with an invasion send it back to port for a turn and the transports will stay behind and then you can bombard in safety.

[whoofe]

haha first game I played, after I invaded Italy proper, I forgot about my amphib TFs and about 10 turns later I decided to start thinking about the France invasion and noticed several TFs had disappeared.

learned my lesson well