Matrix Games

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ORIGINAL: Powloon

Thanks Sardaukar I've been scouring your newbies AAR for ideas keep it coming.

How do you set up your supply network? Do you go for large convoys to make the most of your limited initial ASW and combat resources or smaller convoys to minimise potential losses from raids? Do you have the convoy follow a dedicated ASW TF or is it better to integrate your ASW into your convoy? Do you use specific merchant ship types for specific roles?

Apologies for all the questions as I'm currently at the bottom of the very steep learning curve!

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ORIGINAL: rjopel

Don't forget to setup a series of CS convoys from the UK to Cape Town to use the supplies that show up there. I've missed that one for months and am just now getting those running in my other games.

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Don't forget to setup a series of CS convoys from the UK to Cape Town to use the supplies that show up there. I've missed that one for months and am just now getting those running in my other games

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ORIGINAL: zuluhour

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Don't forget to setup a series of CS convoys from the UK to Cape Town to use the supplies that show up there. I've missed that one for months and am just now getting those running in my other games

another sticky note!

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ORIGINAL: JeffK

You dont need shipping to move LCU or air units from East Coast to Cape Town.

I never look at the UK base, dont remember running dry at the Cape either.

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ORIGINAL: vettim89

quote:

ORIGINAL: JeffK

You dont need shipping to move LCU or air units from East Coast to Cape Town.

I never look at the UK base, dont remember running dry at the Cape either.

I think this is more relevant to PBEM than AI games. PBEM games will find the convoy routes from the WC to NZ/Oz often interdicted by a combination of submarines, SCTF, LBA, and/or CVTF. As a backstop to this, many players move a large amount of supply through CT to Oz as well as to India/Burma. I doubt you would see nearly as great a need for this against the AI or even a less aggressive PBEM player

quote:

ORIGINAL: vettim89

quote:

ORIGINAL: JeffK

You dont need shipping to move LCU or air units from East Coast to Cape Town.

I never look at the UK base, dont remember running dry at the Cape either.

I think this is more relevant to PBEM than AI games. PBEM games will find the convoy routes from the WC to NZ/Oz often interdicted by a combination of submarines, SCTF, LBA, and/or CVTF. As a backstop to this, many players move a large amount of supply through CT to Oz as well as to India/Burma. I doubt you would see nearly as great a need for this against the AI or even a less aggressive PBEM player

quote:

ORIGINAL: rjopel

Don't forget to setup a series of CS convoys from the UK to Cape Town to use the supplies that show up there. I've missed that one for months and am just now getting those running in my other games.

quote:

ORIGINAL: vettim89

I think this is more relevant to PBEM than AI games. PBEM games will find the convoy routes from the WC to NZ/Oz often interdicted by a combination of submarines, SCTF, LBA, and/or CVTF.

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ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

First off I do not use the East American Coast (I guess vs human opponents it might make sense) at all.

The EC is a huge freebie. AI players should use it. Why? Anything leaving there for another off-map destination, such as CT, Aden, or the Canal Zone, does not use fuel. Therefore there are no range considerations. Even xAKLs can make up a CS convoy from EC to CT and run on auto-pilot. EC to CT is a great route for all the dog & Cat merchants you evac from the DEI in the first months. (xAKs carry fuel just fine, albeit more inefficiently.) Pay the transit cost once to get them from their refugee port of CT to EC, then set them up to build CT and forget them for a year or so. They can't be attacked either. Just check on system damage every month and repair as needed. This can be done at either end.

From Seattle: supplies and fuel to North Pacific
From San Francisco: supplies to Pearl Harbor and Brisbane (or Sydney)
From Los Angeles: fuel to Pearl Harbor and Australia.

All WC to Oz routes take a lot of fuel, and the TFs have to be carefully formed for like endurances. Plus, they eat up escorts. Early, you also have to dogleg them around LBA traps, which eats up more fuel and time. The AI has surprises built in which make this route expensive on occasion. On the backhaul leg they eat up a good portion of the fuel they hauled out just getting home.

Oz will make a LOT of supply if you get it fuel. Fuel delivered to Perth from CT, which is a shorter, fuel-economic leg, will flow to the east coast of Oz by itself and start making supply piles. In the betas you can turn industry on and off in Oz if you like, so later on when fleet fuel is needed more than a third million supply at Sydney, you can turn HI off and save the fuel for the fleet.

I'm not saying don't set up some fuel piles across the wide Pacific, but hauling it at full cost each way to Oz from the WC is sub-optimal when you can get it from the EC to CT for nothing, and the run from the CT wornhole to Perth is relatively safe.

From the Middle East:

1) supplies (few) to India

Again, style, but I don't send suplies to India. Bombay and Calcutta make millions of points if you get India fuel. Dump CS tanker loads into Karachi from Abaddan, and it will flow where it needs to go. Later on, when you start doing Big Things in NE India and Burma, you'll need to haul supplies into those ports to flow inland. But India proper is fully railroaded and supplies go when they should, mostly.

2) small tankers send fuel to India
3) medium tankers send fuel to Colombo

I use Colombo as my main fleet base. Against the AI I've never felt a need to base in Bombay, or for sure not Karachi. Colombo is defensible against the AI if you start early.

therefore
4) big tankers transport fuel from Colombo to Perth...

Again, style, but this can be a pretty risky route, far more so that CT to Perth. The AI sometimes does CV raids into the IO. Depends on your script draw, and the timing is highly variable. You also have similar issues as with the WC to Oz routes in that a lot of the fuel you bring has to go back into the returning convoys to get them home. Any logistics movement one can do off-map one should do. It's free, except for normal, minor system damage. And it's 100% free of the risk of attack.

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ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

Humm, I think you sort of convinced me to use these channels

Anyway, there's a flaw in your theory. The WC -> Australia (or Ceylon -> Perth) routes are risky? Are you sure? Keep in mind the convoys sail south of Bora Bora... If, despite this, the Japanese manage to raid them, then I AFFIRM they can raid any convoy west and northwest of Perth too = your "safe" route. The convoys will be caught once they leave their heaven

As I have said, I think I am going to follow your advice though.

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ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

I pay a lot of attention to logistics. The part of the game I like the most

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ORIGINAL: dr.hal

WHAT??? IS that really true USS America (Mike)? How did I miss that??? I've been loading troops and AC all this time for nothing??? Boy do I feel stupid.....Hal