Supply Ships - Why and Bother ...?

[AnotherHooligan]

I honestly don't understand the purpose of them. What do I do with them? How do I use them? Why do they even exist? Clearly I missed something in the tutorials provided.

I've been researching the topic for awhile now and I've yet to find a thread that tells me the basic answers: How do I use them, what's the purpose, and why bother with them.

[bmorgan077]

Supply ships, well they provide supply, so do DDs and Cas, to troops on land, Move them to the shore line. Press the space button to see supply.

[conboy323]

You don't need them unless you are supporting troops who have landed during an invasion. In which case, they are absolutely necessary. Pull them up to the beach onto a hex owned by your troops. They provide 20 supply points. As bmorgan077 pointed out, other ships also provide supply - destroyers 3 gunboats 2 cruisers 4 (I think, from memory)...

conboy

[AnotherHooligan]

Bugging the heck outta me. Went back to boot camp to see but there was such a vague explanation... Originally thought I was just suppose to pull them up next to, not on. Amateur, lol, thanks guys!

[Pavane]

Don't forget that the supply unloaded is doubled in the warf hex of a friendly port.

[AnotherHooligan]

Originally posted by Pavane:

Don't forget that the supply unloaded is doubled in the warf hex of a friendly port.

So i should try and use them in a port rather then on a beachhead? Does it matter then if troops are near the port, do they have to be in order to receive supply benefits?

[Pavane]

As long as the friendly port is connected to your supply bubble then the Supply Ship in port will help twice as much (40 vs. 20). You can always start out with beach supply and then move the Supply Ship to a friendly controlled port when one is available. Capturing a port was always a high historical priority in amphibious invasions.

[oddball]

Originally posted by Pavane:

Don't forget that the supply unloaded is doubled in the warf hex of a friendly port.

Hol up are you serious? It makes sense but I’ve never seen this happen.

Gonna have to put down Starsector and try this tonight

[Boredflak]

Originally posted by moca loca:

Originally posted by Pavane:

Don't forget that the supply unloaded is doubled in the warf hex of a friendly port.

Hol up are you serious? It makes sense but I’ve never seen this happen.

Gonna have to put down Starsector and try this tonight

Yes he is serious. I had played for 5 years before I stumbled across the port doubles supply for ANY ship on said port. It will double destroyers, cruisers, battleships etc. I do not think it is in the tutorial or manual.

[cool]

Quite a few parts of the manual are outdated (it has never been updated), but this particular feature is mentioned in it: "When deployed in a port hex, ships provide twice as much coastal supply as they normally do."

[Boredflak]

Originally posted by cool:

Quite a few parts of the manual are outdated (it has never been updated), but this particular feature is mentioned in it: "When deployed in a port hex, ships provide twice as much coastal supply as they normally do."

Thanks for pointing that out. I will reread it it has been several years since I read it. I might catch a couple other things I forgot about.

[Boredflak]

One thing to keep in mind is as a supply ship takers damage the amount of supplies go down. A full strength ship supplies 20 for each point lost it is reduced by 2. This can be a very big deal on some of the invasion maps in the Pacific. Also in some scenarios the supply ships only supply 10. So when you are deploying hit the space bar and see what they supply. First time I encountered this I had put ashore troops based on the 20 per ship and found my forces devastatingly under supplied.

[AnotherHooligan]

Originally posted by Boredflak:

One thing to keep in mind is as a supply ship takers damage the amount of supplies go down. A full strength ship supplies 20 for each point lost it is reduced by 2. This can be a very big deal on some of the invasion maps in the Pacific. Also in some scenarios the supply ships only supply 10. So when you are deploying hit the space bar and see what they supply. First time I encountered this I had put ashore troops based on the 20 per ship and found my forces devastatingly under supplied.

Yo, I just had the same thing happen during the Marine Corps campaign. ♥♥♥♥ popped up on the north side of the map with more forces then anticipated. Their airfields were sending bombers out the wazoo. Mistake was I did nothing about the air field, completely ignored it, so I ended up losing the majority of my supply ships. By the time I reached the main objective less then half my troops were capable of fighting. Lesson learned.

Not to get off topic, gonna also address this elsewhere: Anyone else having an issue with putting troops to sleep permanently? I was able to do it, but I think the new update changed that. Little upsetting - especially with supply ships, since now I have to constantly address them whether that is to constantly move them or hit the "Zzz" button.

Just curious. Cheers to those who helped.

[GKnight]

The sleep-thing seems to be a bug in the v9.0.3 update. But I've read that using the hotkey "Z" should still work.