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byron13 -> RE: Automatic Convoy problems? (7/26/2009 10:08:08 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DivePac88
Burn this on the back of your Hand;
Never ever use Computer control for anything... never ever.
Burn this on the back of your other hand: the more absolute the advice, the less valid it is likely to be.
As pointed out by Mynok, make sure you're referring to the auto-convoys and not CS convoys. The former run only out of Karachi and San Francisco, only run to bases that you specifically turn "on" by selecting them, using ships that you withdraw from normal use by specifically selecting them. CS convoys are the ones that you create by forming cargo convoys normally, load them with supply, and set a destination - and then click on "human control" which will then toggle to "CS: [destination]". The latter will deliver supplies from the same source base (e.g., San Francisco) to the same destination base repeatedly until the TF is disbanded.
As long as you understand that it is has virtually no intelligence, Auto-convoy works fine for limited purposes. Since it forms convoys to supply only bases that it thinks are running low on fuel or supplies, I don't think it is suitable for supplying your forward depot bases. For me, and I think Andy was agreeing, it is good for keeping the out-of-the-way or backwater bases supplied. I keep base units and PBY's, a random B-25 (PBJ), or fighter squadron in rear-areas. Few have much else like CDs or infantry, so they use very little supply and no fuel (unless the supply convoy tops off at the base). I don't know how often they need to be supplied because I use the auto-convoy and can forget about them - but it isn't often. It seems to me to be a pain in the arse to have to check to see that these bases have enough supply or to make sure that I keep a CS convoy running to this base. In most cases, I would think that a CS convoy will provide too much supply over time. If you disband the CS convoy, then you have to worry about when you create another one. Pretty much anywhere east of the "front line" is eligible for these convoys from San Francisco; the farther these bases are from the fighting, the more suitable the base is for this type of supply.
Early in the war, you are short AKs, and your bases are all short on supply (at least in the eyes of the computer). If you turn on fifteen bases to be suppled this way on the first turn and task, say, five AKs and three TKs to be auto-convoy ships, you'll find that the system will create larger-than-necessary convoys to supply places like Prince Rupert or Juneau. The convoy may even come back and make a second run to the same base until it is satisfied that the base will not run out of supply or fuel during the twentieth century. And while it's doing that, Dutch Harbor, Suva, and Hilo are starving and not getting serviced. So you'll probably have to manually run supply to these other bases initially. But most of the bases that I consider to be candidates for this use so little supply that one manual run will keep them fed for at least a couple of months. The idea is to get enough manual supply to them to last until the auto-convoy gets around to really topping them off and catching up with what it perceives demand to be. Once you've reached this equilibrium, the auto-convoy can keep them all supplied easily - and you should have enough AKs and TKs by early '42 to commit enough to never really stress the system. I doubt I ever have more than about 10 or 15 AKs in the system at any time. Then you can add a few bases at a time, and the system will have enough slack in it by that time that the auto-convoy can immediately supply these new bases without the need to make a manual run first.
But you are free to use manual or CS convoys as well. I would use CS convoys when I am trying to push supplies such as to Oz, a forward depot or hub, and from the depot or hub to the bases in the local area or near the "front line." Once the "front line" moves to the west, what was a depot base may become a backwater, and I'll change it over to auto-convoy when there isn't much activity there anymore. For example, I use Canton or Pago Pago as a hub initially (whether necessary/efficient or not, I consider this area to be at the corner of the run south from USA and the run west to Oz, Noumea, Solomons, etc., and having the hub here - on the corner - eliminates the risk of CS convoys wandering through Japanese territory). I push supply via CS convoys. Once I own the Marshalls, Kwajalien becomes a hub, I can run supplies via CS directly to Noumea or Rabaul or whatever, and there isn't much reason to keep Canton as a hub or to run supplies via CS from Kwajalien backwards to Tarawa, etc. Canton and Tarawa become backwaters and can be supplied via auto-convoy without getting bitten. Of course, if you move everything off the island, it won't need to be supplied regardless. Again, if you're trying to push supplies and build up stockpiles, auto-convoy won't work because you're wanting quantities that are higher than the what will trigger the computer to form an auto-convoy.
Running auto-convoys out of Karachi is iffy. As indicated, there is/was a bug that had convoys from Karachi running to Pearl Harbor to refuel before dropping its cargo in the NEI. So I never really used auto-convoys from Karachi. Supply in the British sector is much more linear, since it pretty much just follows the coast, and therefore easier to use CS convoys. You use CS convoys to push supply to a large forward base on the coast: Colombo, Diamond Harbor, Rangoon, Singapore, whatever. Since most of your units are supplied via road networks and there are so few islands that need their own independent supply runs, there isn't much need for auto convoys in this area anyway - at least until you have re-taken parts of the NEI.
Maybe I just don't manage my rear areas as intensively as some of the other players. But I think auto-convoy was made for lazy slugs like me that want to concentrate on fighting the war on the front and not have to worry about delivering smokes to guys doing little more than counting coconuts and gooney birds 2000 miles from the nearest Japanese. For this, it works fine - for me, anyway. Just remember that it has its limitations and work within them. Regardless, I think a rule of "never use auto-convoys" is off the mark.
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