Moving Aircraft using surface transports.

[Willaverill]

Hello Everyone, Just bought this game in October as something to do while on deployment. Started the Grand campaign on Dec. 7th as the allies. For giggles I wanted to see how I would fair after watching the attacks on Dec 7th. I have started an AAR for my game and will post after my 1st game "Week is over".
My question is (and I have looked for the answer but can't find it) How do I use surface transports (and which type) to move my west coast squadrons west?

Can I only use carriers and AKV or can I use any other ships? [&:]

Currently I am planning my moves for Dec 14th and seem to have a back log of aircraft I could really use elsewhere.

I tip my hat to Kull for the Allies AE setup which only took me a bout a week in my spare time to get set up.

TY all for your answers.

[wdolson]

Most air units will be shipped via xAK or AK. Create a transport TF, dock it at the port, and select the air unit to load. Note there are quite a few air units in North America that can't leave the continent. Which HQ an air unit is attached to is important. If the HQ is restricted, the unit can't be put on a ship. The info is in the upper left corner of the air unit screen, if it has a (R) on the HQ name, it is restricted. If the HQ name is yellow, you can change the HQ by spending Political Points, but if its gray, the unit is permanently restricted and can only be used for training (or in case of enemy invasion).

Bill

[Alfred]

Chapter 6 of the manual has a very detailed section on loading things onto ships.  Also look at pages 273-284 of the manual for descriptions of ship types and the types of task forces they can be put in.

1.  If the unit (doesn't matter whether it be land or air) is restricted, it cannot be loaded onto a ship.

2.  If the restricted unit's attachment to an HQ is in white, that unit can never be made unrestricted.

3.  If the restricted unit's attachment to an HQ is in yellow, that unit can be reattached to an unrestricted HQ.  It will cost you PPs to make the change.  Once unrestricted it can be loaded onto a ship.

4.  All merchantmen with a cargo carrying capacity can load unrestricted air units.  The sections I directed you to above tell you which are those ship types.

Alfred

Edit: corrected rather significant typo in point 3 above

[Willaverill]

Thank you all,

I will look at this tonight. If it is the [R] I will do a face palm. IT IS late when I run my turn. I thought I had tried everything to get them to load.

I assume Docked and Air Transport task force?

Bill

[HansBolter]

What I don't see that the other two responders mentioned is that while using carriers or AKVs to transport planes will have the squadron unload with the planes abled, using a regular transport ship will result in the squadron arriving with planes disabled.

The planes are crated in order to be shipped on transports that don't have deck space to accommodate the assembled aircraft. The same is true when a squadron travels by rail.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Willaverill

Thank you all,

I will look at this tonight. If it is the [R] I will do a face palm. IT IS late when I run my turn. I thought I had tried everything to get them to load.

I assume Docked and Air Transport task force?

Bill

Air Transport or Transport. Air Transport will only present you with aircraft units to load, so it's cleaner.

One little non-intuitive thing in the interface I didn't see mentioned: aircraft are "troops" for loading purposes. So you use that button. Load Troops.

[Jorge_Stanbury]

You can also use xAPs/ APs as long as the TF is "transport". Can come handy as early on there are very few AKVs and AKs are mostly fully used for supply runs

[BBfanboy]

And a detail that took me a long time to learn - xAKLs cannot carry aircraft in an Air Transport TF, but they can in a Transport TF.

Note that Air Transport does not disassemble the aircraft as much as a simple Transport TF. When an Air Transport TF unloads the aircraft can usually be up and running in one day, while those from a Transport TF take three days to get running. All this assumes the receiving base has enough Air Support squads for the aircraft arriving.

[Willaverill]

Wdolson ty made me a 3 AK task force in San Diego. Changed VMF-111 and VMSB-131 to Pacific Fleet (West Coast WAS [R], facepalm)

Bullwinkle 58 TY, tried to load both Squadrons using Transfer to ship, but was blank, went to TF and load troops. There they were, ready to be loaded.

TF-220 AK Bellatrix loaded with 101st USN Base Force, AK Betelgeuse with VMF-111, AK Arcturus with VMSB-131. SCTF out of Pearl with DDs Selfrige and Phelps, CAs San Francisco and Minneapolis, and AVD Thornton are meeting and merging TF-220. All will be bound for Pago Pago. (other supplies and fuel are already on the way along with two island hopping PBY's from Seattle.

Glad this is an active forum. Thanks all!

Bill

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Willaverill


Bullwinkle 58 TY, tried to load both Squadrons using Transfer to ship, but was blank, went to TF and load troops. There they were, ready to be loaded.


Bill

Yeah, Transfer To Ship is used to load a unit onto a carrier most often. Transfer to Base to offload an air unit from a carrier to an AF.

[rustysi]

Glad this is an active forum.

From the looks of it it'll be active for a very long time. Stop in any time.[;)]

[Huw Jones]

How about pilot training while being shipped via xAK or AK.

ANY????????

[btd64]

Nope ....GP

[GetAssista]

How about pilot training while being shipped via xAK or AK.

Why would you leave pilots in the group that is transported and risk them drown in case of attack. Take them off and put into another unit

[Huw Jones]

Split the airgroup to the max (one for each ship), crappy pilots, just in case, was the original plan.

Not important now.

[MSUjohn]

as a noob (less than four weeks)
the air war is what i am struggling with the most and it is killing me.

1. i cant get planes to load on ships.
2. if i can move, do i need support units
3. in the grand campaign where do i find airplanes i can deploy to forward basses?

[Dewey169]

as a noob (less than four weeks)
the air war is what i am struggling with the most and it is killing me.

1. i cant get planes to load on ships.
2. if i can move, do i need support units
3. in the grand campaign where do i find airplanes i can deploy to forward basses?

First of all I'm gonna strongly encourage you to read of the guides on this forum and it's sub forums. I started playing a GC last January but after reading everything on this forum for two months prior ever night. Then read the manual and when you see questions that the manual can't give you a good answer on then search forum some more. This game is very deep and you need to do some homework before you tackle a GC..

That said ...
create an air transport task force with xAK, or AK, or AKV vessels...
dock your task force
select load troops
pick the air group(s) wanted.. must be unrestricted air groups...

AKV are few in number but offer advantage of Aircraft not being packaged for loading and ready at destination..where those loaded on ak will need support troops to unpack and ready for flight...
yes, you need support troops to maintain your aircraft ... anything that has air support devices..
In the GC, if the air group is with unrestricted command you should be able to load it...

Sorry this is short as the Mrs. is yelling that I'm holding up dinner... Do a search for air transport task forces and you should find a lot of better posting that go into much better detail than I've been able to...
plus watch those youtube tutorials as they might help as well...

[Platoonist]

3. in the grand campaign where do i find airplanes i can deploy to forward basses?

If you are playing as the Allies, most new air groups tend to show up in the US (west and east coast) Australia and India/Aden. Airplanes themselves arrive in pools according to production and replacement rates and you can assign them to air groups if supplies are sufficient.

[Nomad]

How about pilot training while being shipped via xAK or AK.

ANY????????

Actually, they do train while on xAK/AKs.
As you can see, they train quite nicely

Training on xAK.png (855.89 KiB) Viewed 648 times