How to use the transport ships for supplies

[Tex Willer]

Hi everybody!
I don't know how to use the transport ships (on the sea) to bring supplies from the other countries, like the blockade runners did.
I build them, but I can't see any variation on the transportation panel..always at zero for sea ships...
Somebody could help me?

[Spharv2]

If you're talking about for the US, transports go in the shipping box and distribute supplies from your back areas to your coastal depots. and increase your shipping reservoir. Transports in the blockade boxes don't bring in supplies at all apparently.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Chertio]

If you are playing the CSA build some brigs (only - they are fast ships and can evade most Union shipping, they will occasionally get caught by Union frigates) and put them in the Atlantic and Gulf blockade boxes. They will bring in some extra money and war supplies as blockade runners, if they survive a few months they will start making a profit.

For the Union, transports in the Atlantic Shipping box, as Spharv2 and GL say, push supplies to unblockaded Union coastal depots. Also they bring home money and war supplies.

In my experience ships in the Atlantic Shipping box suffer very little attrition - it is possible to keep a fleet of transports at sea there for an entire 1861-5 game without problems. They lose cohesion but they are not supposed to be doing any fighting anyway. Ships in other sea boxes suffer attrition very quickly and start taking damage (especially January to April) and suffering from hunger, they have to be rotated back to port quite regularly. CSA ships seem to last longer. Attrition in the sea boxes can be switched off as one of the game options.

[Jim-NC]

Hi everybody!
I don't know how to use the transport ships (on the sea) to bring supplies from the other countries, like the blockade runners did.
I build them, but I can't see any variation on the transportation panel..always at zero for sea ships...
Somebody could help me?

If you are the CSA, you do not get any sea transportation. Brigs allow you to run the blockade (bringing money/WS - see Chertio's post above). Transports allow you to move units and/or carry supply with them(the transports), but don't give you any sea transportation in your box in the upper left corner of the screen.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Chertio]

For some reason I assumed he was playing the USA

Perhaps because Mr Willer is talking transports and there is no point in the CSA building transports so it must be USA As Jim-NC says the CSA can't use them for sea supply. I believe they can be used as blockade runners but with a life expectancy of about 0 turns. They could be used to bypass a Union fort along the CSA coastline but that is an expensive way of achieving very little.

If anyone has the Knowledge to produce a "What's Not in the Manual" guide to the naval & blockade rules they would get several from me. All I know is, you can't have too many river ironclads* arty:.

* [SIZE="2"]unless you are the Union, it is 1864 and you are about to win anyway.[/size]

[Tex Willer]

I always play with the South. I mean the thing displaied in the pic I've attached. I want to increase the naval supply capacity, if could be usefull for my supply sistem or economy in general..
It could be very usefull to supply my blockade runners in the blockade areas, so they could stay there for a long time without come back to our ports to reload supply

[Tex Willer]

If you are the CSA, you do not get any sea transportation. Brigs allow you to run the blockade (bringing money/WS - see Chertio's post above). Transports allow you to move units and/or carry supply with them(the transports), but don't give you any sea transportation in your box in the upper left corner of the screen.

Thank you! That's what I wanted to know

[Jim-NC]

I always play with the South. I mean the thing displaied in the pic I've attached. I want to increase the naval supply capacity, if could be usefull for my supply sistem or economy in general..
It could be very usefull to supply my blockade runners in the blockade areas, so they could stay there for a long time without come back to our ports to reload supply

If you don't want to mircromanage your blockade runners, you can set an option (in the main screen under options) that will make your ships not consume supply. This slightly (or greatly depending on option picked) lowers their effectiveness, but takes away the worries of rotating the ships in and out of port (unless they suffer battle damage).

[kglorberau]

How long do you have rotate the CSA brigs back to port? I usually do it every turn once they are in the blocade box. Can I leave them there for 4-5 turns? Do they bring back supplies / money each turn even tho not rotated to port? I thought they had to be brought back to port to get the supplies / money.

Kglorberau

[Chertio]

Worth checking them every turn for damage from weather or enemy shipping (the ship element icon has a red edge to it) and for hunger (the supply icon is down to around 1/4 full).

Brigs unless they are unlucky can stay at sea for a long time, certainly 6-8 turns or more. Every turn they are in the blockade boxes they gain money and war supplies, no need to return them to port.

If they get damaged it costs the same to repair them as it would to build a new ship, so a brig with around 1/6th damage, a frequent combat result, will when it returns to port cost 1/6th of the cost of a new brig to repair. Usually the CSA get a naval engineer in Mobile, build another one in, say, Charleston and it is easy to keep a fleet of six to eight blockade runners at sea year round covering both blockade boxes. Until the Union gain control of a fort in the approaches, that is, or build enough frigates to damage the brigs continually.

In the full campaign game it is volunteers not money or war supplies which becomes the CSA bottleneck, so it is not IMHO worth building more than a few brigs.

[Jim-NC]

How long do you have rotate the CSA brigs back to port? I usually do it every turn once they are in the blocade box. Can I leave them there for 4-5 turns? Do they bring back supplies / money each turn even tho not rotated to port? I thought they had to be brought back to port to get the supplies / money.

Kglorberau

I always hold brigs the longest time possible. I also keep them separate with the avoid battle move order (it helps them last longer).

From the Gulf blockade box, it takes approx 2 turns to get to NO (my brigs always get delayed in their movement). For the most money/WS, I keep them until they have only 3 turns of supply left.

From the Atlantic blockade box, it takes approximately 3 turns to get to Norfolk or Wilmington (with the delayed moving). So I keep them until they have only 4 turns of supply left.

As for damage, I rotate them out the turn after they fight in a battle and take damage. If not, then I run the risk of a 2nd engagement, causing them to be lost. It is very rare for a ship to be sunk during it's first engagement.

They bring money/WS when they are in the box, not when they are transiting or sitting in a port.

I also keep them in port for 1 extra turn (1 for supply, and 1 for repairs - cohesion gain). Ships at sea only lose cohesion, they can't get it back.

[TheDoctorKing]

Brigs also work well for the CSA as commerce raiders. I think that each ship in the shipping box destroys a certain number of USA $/WS each turn (without it being real obvious to the USA - this is a problem with the system in my opinion). A couple of brig units are as effective at this as the Florida or the Alabama. And none of your naval units can stand up to actual Yankee warships anyway.