purpose of armed merchant ships (AMC)

[Nova]

does anyone know what the purpose of armed merchant ships are in the game and by extension how to use them?
i've already discovered that they literally do absolutely nothing on FS

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

On TP duty they can ambush convoy raiders (subs, cruisers etc.) and engage at close range, they can also do similarly on raider duty.

You can also convert them into carriers, and they might show up in battle on regular active duty.

[smashgrab0]

its great for appeasing bureaucrats that complain you dont have enough ships on defense
or even raiding but just like the soviet invasion of Afghanistan it go's well intill it dont
but i find they can be quite silly when they have missiles

[Toblm]

Cheap disposable raiders in general.
TP is better handled by almost anything else.

There is a niche role for cheap 1st CVL conversion. But most nations are better off using an old cruiser.

[B@d Cop]

Originally posted by Toblm:

Cheap disposable raiders in general.
TP is better handled by almost anything else.

There is a niche role for cheap 1st CVL conversion. But most nations are better off using an old cruiser.

Not true, as a AMC becomes a Q-ship (once you have this research), witch is a submarine trap. Pretty awesome in my experience.

[Toblm]

Originally posted by B@d Cop:

Originally posted by Toblm:

Cheap disposable raiders in general.
TP is better handled by almost anything else.

There is a niche role for cheap 1st CVL conversion. But most nations are better off using an old cruiser.

Not true, as a AMC becomes a Q-ship (once you have this research), witch is a submarine trap. Pretty awesome in my experience.

That's what old DDs converted to ASW corvettes are for.
AMCs just dont have the stats I want for ASW. Or equipment.

[Daikhan]

Disposable raiders. Just spawn them as much as you can. You should make them as cheap as possible and build lots of them

[Andrew Cree]

Agreed on the cheap disposable raiders part.

If one gets intercepted, just auto-resolve and lose it. Won't cost you any VPs if memory serves.

[tbrsim]

You can easily make them with extreme range reliable engines and, after 1915 or so, 1 floatplane. They are, correctly designed, very cost-effective raiders. They can, like submarines, be used to turn a loosing war and/or cause the enemy to collapse due to too many merchants being sunk.

[Brygun]

I have two main uses for AMC

1) Early game you can maintain 2 in peace time so make them large 5,000 to 6,000 tons to carry a lot of mines once you have that unlocked. This lets you access 200+ (100+x2) mines before the CL and DD have rails. Also some of their encounters are with AMC and the AI only uses 2,000 tons.

2) Rapid build raiders. I prefer to use a lot small (1890s 2,600 to 3,000 ton) light cruiser raiders but in wartime they take a long time to complete. AMC take 4 turns and at 1,800 to 2,000 tons can decent raiders. They will miss on speed and will lose if caught by a warship. ITs useful to get more TR kills >if< you are trying to starve them out. UK is vulnerable to that but Russia isn't.

[Andy]

In a war vs Germans as UK, the Germans used AMCs to take out about 12 subs. despite having them blockaded never managed to generate a battle against them.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Andy:

In a war vs Germans as UK, the Germans used AMCs to take out about 12 subs. despite having them blockaded never managed to generate a battle against them.

If they were taking out subs, that would have been on trade protection, which doesn't require them to run a blockade and doesn't expose them to most battles (though they might appear as detached coastal forces or maybe convoy escorts).

They would have to run the blockade if they were deployed as raiders, and you'd probably have caught some of them.