Where are the Amphibious Ships?

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Hunter41
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Post by Hunter41 »

Let me know if this has been addressed elsewhere, but in addition to amphibious warfare ships, what about the less glamourous merchant cargo ships? Can countries hire civilian commerical ships to move their military units to ports that they have already secured? This is common practice in reality so it should be in the game.
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Balthagor
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Post by Balthagor »

Players are allowed to build or buy civilian converted carrier/transport ships but actual civilian ships are not currently used. A limitation of the game is that everything within the battalion must move at once and I’m not sure that any civilian ships would be able to move entire battalions. We also have a tendency to make transport ships a little more generic to guarantee a simple transport model. This is one of the areas we chose to not go overly detailed in simulating. We can’t be doing everything you know! :wink:
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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Balthagor on 2003-10-27 07:14 ]</font>
Hunter41
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Post by Hunter41 »

Thanks for the quick response. I understand you have to simplify some of the game mechanics. By the way, a battalion of armour can easily be carried by a large cargo ship.
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Balthagor
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Post by Balthagor »

In general, I suppose you are right, but a civilian ship might not be properly equiped for easy loading/unloading of an entire battalion. For determination of what does fit BTW we take the actual battalion weight vs. the transport capacity of the ship.
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Hunter41
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Post by Hunter41 »

You're right that it can take a lot longer to unload a civy ship if it isn't a ro-ro. Cargo capacity of ships isn't so much a function of cargo weight as it is cargo volume. However, given it would probably be a lot more difficult to come up with volume figures, for the sake of ease in game mechanics I can understand why you would use weight.
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Hellfish6
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Post by Hellfish6 »

Very few civillian cargo ships are capable of transporting military vehicles, I think.
You'd never be able to load, say, an M-1A1 battalion into a modern day liberty ship or dry bulk carrier, though those ships could probably carry light infantry and supplies.

RO/ROs are few and far between, and many already belong to the Merchant Marine or are available for callup by the government.
I know the US has about thirteen RO/ROs just sitting in ports (Guam, Diego Garcia, and I think Rota, Spain) around the world loaded with Army and Marine equipment and waiting for the call to deploy.
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Post by Jan »

Hellfish6 wrote:(...) Diego Garcia(...)
i can't locate it in game on the world map, am i blind?

Jan
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Feltan
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Post by Feltan »

Jan wrote:
Hellfish6 wrote:(...) Diego Garcia(...)
i can't locate it in game on the world map, am i blind?

Jan
It is a tiny group of islands in the Indian Ocean & a former coaling station for the Royal Navy. The main island has an airfield, and there is a protected anchorage but no real port facilities. It isn't represented on the game map.

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Feltan
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Balthagor
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Post by Balthagor »

Some islands were too small so got deleted from the imagery. Diego Garcia/Lakshadwep/Chagos Ridge/Whatever-you-want-to-call-it will be on the map for SR2020, but it is only one hex in size.
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Jan
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Post by Jan »

nice, even one hex large, it will be used as a "carrier island" ;)

PS: will it be enough room in one hex to put an airstrip and a pier (for supply)?
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Balthagor
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Post by Balthagor »

Jan wrote:...will it be enough room in one hex to put an airstrip and a pier (for supply)?
You should read my last blog ;)

yes, now that we can have multiple components in one hex.
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Syagrius
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Post by Syagrius »

And what is the utility of civilian cargo ships? I have some of them and dont know what they are able to do exactly?
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tkobo
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Post by tkobo »

For many low tech regions, they function as that regions military sea transport.

You can load military units onto them at a sea facility (pier or port), and than use them to transport said units across the water .

You will often also need a sea facility on the other end to unload those units to,so capturing one during any invasion is a plus.
This post approved by Tkobo:Official Rabble Rouser of the United Yahoos
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Post by Syagrius »

Thanks! I was suspecting that they were to be used only in port facility, it make sense :-)
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Post by SGTscuba »

You dont laways need a port. Just set an engineer to bridging and you are able to unload anything into its hex. BTW the civilian ships should be included and so should the landing craft but you have to build them as a squadron. However It would be interesting how you would be albe to transfer units onto other ships from ships, unlessssss you make it so that you put the landing craft in the ships, then bring up the cargo units then tell them like on sr2010 on the right hand side (which says select transport) the load them into the squadron.

YEs All amphibious units should be albe to swim from a few hexes out, maybe to the lines that mark world market territory as a basis.

I will elabortate more if u want but u must ask (nicely!)

:D :evil: ?+
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