Dealing with transport ships is INFURIATING!

[King Jon]

I just bought the game today, and there are a lot of things that impress me about this game, but I do not understand what is going on with transport ships. I am fairly new to the 1942 version of this game, but I played the old Iron Blitz CD-ROM for literally hundreds of hours, so I am familiar with the basic concept and mechanics. Nonetheless, I can't for the life of me figure out how to move transports and what the rules are for moving them in general.

Maybe a link to the rules somewhere would be the easiest way for me to understand, but are the following true?

1. You cannot move and then load a transport? It seems like the only way to do a transport move is to load first and then move all the way to where you want to unload them. If you forget to unload and instead just move the ship, you seem to have to go back and cancel the whole move (by the way, the "cancel" mechanism takes WAY TOO MANY precise clicks to accomplish). In the CD version you could load troops, then decide to move the ship, then decide to unload the troops, it seems like one fell swoop is needed in this one or the game doesn't understand.

2. You cannot attack ships with airplanes without first sending some ships into that zone?

3. You can't choose to lose your transport ships, since they are "noncombatants"?

4. Transport ships can only be moved during combat phase if you are using them for an amphibious landing?

5. Transport ships can only be loaded and moved during the noncombat phase if you are using them to unload the troops somewhere? It seems like it won't let you just sit in the middle of the ocean anymore with loaded transports unless I am mistaken.

Again, I am sorry for my ignorance on this, but I seem to do okay with land combat (I easily won my first game as Germany, where sea combat was not required), and most of air combat, but those transport ships are driving me crazy because I don't understand (1) the rules involved their movement, apparently and (2) how in the world the mechanic works for moving them. It took me like 5 tries to finally complete part 3 of the learn to play (the one with the transports) because it just kept telling me to "follow the objectives" rather than provide any piece of useful information about the steps involved with actually loading and unloading the transports.

With the Iron Blitz version you would use the left mouse button to do something and the right mouse button to undo something. That was a whole lot easier than the current cancel mechanic. Anyway, I don't mean to complain and there is a lot that I like about this version, but boy those transport ships are driving me nuts. Thanks!

[nicewolf64]

i agree that transports are overly complicated there are a few other threads about transports. have you read thru those, i think you'll get some hints there.

1)you move it, then click on the black diamond, then select the transport, and then click the unit you want to move onto it.

2)only subs. i really, really hate this as airplanes were a major deterrent to subs.

3)true. at 1st i hated it, but i think it's more realistic not to allow us to use them as cheap cannon fodder

4)yes, movement is broken up my combat and non-combat moves

5)not true. i suspect that you loaded them during the combat movement. if you dont end in combat, i think the transports are automatically returned to their pre-movement location. just make sure you do it in the non combat movement phase. i always hated that those moves were separated. logically, all the ships should be moving at the same time instead of waiting to see the outcome of the battles.

[76561198870661734]

Hi there,

I'll try to answer your questions below, as well as provide some hopefully helpful guidance for Transports as well:

To control and move Transports:

1. Select the Transport stack you wish to load (left-click)
2. Right-Click on any units you wish to load in applicable/adjacent regions.
3. Right-click on region you wish to move Transport to

If moving THEN loading:

1. Select the Transport Stack you wish to move a Transport from (left click)
1a. If you have already loaded a unit into the Transport you wish to load, make sure its still "selected" by opening the Dossier and find your Transport in the list. As units are loaded onto a Transport, they're removed from the original stack as they've done an "action" and can be found listed in the Destination Marker for the region OR in the Transport stack in a collapsible section for the region you're currently in under "PENDING MOVES"
2. Move the Transport to the Target Region by Right clicking the Region you want to move to
3. Load the target unit(s) by right clicking them
4. If Amphibiously Assaulting, right-click on target region to complete the drop.

Notes:
1. Open the Dossier (e) when the Transport stack is selected to see how your selection for the "current Transport" changes as you load your units. The "current Transport" will have a white glow around it

2. In order to avoid confusion, I recommend the following flow (it takes a few more clicks, but it will reduce potential confusion):
- Select the Transport stack
- Load and move Transports one at a time. Load a Transport with the 1 or 2 units you wish to move, then right click on the region(s) you wish to move to
- Select the Transport stack again and repeat

2. Units will load onto Transports to accommodate the most amount of variety. For example, if you have 3 Transports and 3 Infantry and 3 Artillery, it will load your Infantry onto 3 different Transports rather than moving all 3 onto 2 Transports.

3. You can mass move and load Transports by holding SHIFT and right-clicking on the units (to load) and the regions(to move). There are some flow hiccups with this (we advise you load all of your units first, then do movement).

We realize there is some room for improvement regarding the visibility of specifically what is selected within that stack of Transports at any given time, and will be working to streamlining this in future updates, but we have no ETA or additional comments on that at this time.

If you're having issues with Transports, I highly recommend following my 2nd note about slowing down and working through them one full set of actions for a single Transport at a time. it'll lead to a lot less headaches as you learn the system.

2. Fighters and Bombers cannot hit submarines unless an friendly Destroyer is present. No other warships will allow them to hit Submarines. Fighters and Bombers must also have a valid landing position possible for the moves to be allowed as well.

3. Yes, this is in the rules for Axis & Allies 1942 2nd Edition

4. All movements in Combat Move must result in some form of combat. Non-combat moves can be done in the non-combat move phase, as per the Axis & Allies ruleset.

5. You can load Transports in the Noncombat move phase and move them wherever you please. The movement doesn't need to result in a drop. Transports with units present will be shown with a small dot filling the circle in the upper left corner of the Transport sprite.

For cancelling units, you can either cancel them manually by clicking on the cancel button in the Dossier, or mass cancel full movements into regions by holding Shift+Right clicking on the Destination Marker (black diamond). We have some improvements to cancelling units coming in our next content patch across the board, for both Transports, loaded cargo and other units as well. We'll be releasing the patch notes closer to the patch delivery day once we're happy with the quality of the patch, so stay tuned!

[Sevaekor]

Slightly changing my perception of what I was controlling helped me a lot.
In the physical board game and in the 1998 CD-ROM game, your perception is on moving troops ONTO a transport, you sort of think of it from the troops perspective, so you try to select troops by left clicking on them.

Here in this version, you have to think about it as the transport doing all the work, so you're picking stuff up instead of stuff boarding you. So you have to select the transport and make every successive move with the transport selected, picking up, moving, picking up again if needed, moving, and unloading, all in one fell swoop with the transport selected, not a land unit.

That slight perception change will slowly make you understand how transports work in this game.
I had worlds of trouble in my first 2-3 matches until I started seeing it in a different way, now transport usage is incredibly easy.

[RyansPlace]

TripleA which is a free Axis and Allies online game has a much simpler system for this (drag and drop). I rather wish this version worked closer to that one.

[King Jon]

It would help A LOT if when you moved ships it showed the ship actually move rather than the silly arrows. I don't know how many times I have left one ship behind that I intended to move, just because it only moved 1 of my two destroyers or 1 of my 2 transports. If the space you are are leaving actually appeared to be empty when you do your moves, it would be REALLY helpful. Why can't the ships move to the new space and only show the ships that haven't moved in the space you are leaving, that would solve SO MANY issues I have with ship movement. This is true on land too, but seems to be a bigger deal on the water. I hate to say it, but the current interface on this game makes it so painful to play...

Or maybe if it was possible to click on the space you are leaving and quickly see what would be left behind after the proposed move. Currently, it seems like you have to count the ships moving to the new space to make sure that you aren't leaving a ship behind. And leaving one ship behind once can cost you the game in many cases.

[Old Soldier]

Originally posted by RyansPlace:

TripleA which is a free Axis and Allies online game has a much simpler system for this (drag and drop). I rather wish this version worked closer to that one.

Yes. You and I, and dozens of others.

[[n47]mathis]

I agree with this user starting this thread. Controlling a transporter seem to be too complicated. It's about being userfriendly or lack of in this case. I'm new to the computergame as i bought it a few days ago. I'm a huge fan of Axis & Allies and was stoked to see that there was a "new" game in the making. My boardgame is about 20 yrs old.

But the first hour of gameplay made me more frustrated than happy. I even struggled getting through the turtorial. Why on earth ain't this a drag and drop based game? It would have been much more userfriendly imo. You can still put limitations as you do with the current system even if it's drag and drop.

Another example where I struggled a bit was the carrier. Is the plane on the carrier or not? It was hard to tell. Might be that I'm just not getting it... yet... but it should be easy or easier to tell.

I realize this is an early phase of the game, and I'm looking forward to see how the game developes. But from my point of view. Make the game more userfriendly. Cause right now it ain't. :) Keep up the good work.

[Sevaekor]

Originally posted by n47mathis:

Another example where I struggled a bit was the carrier. Is the plane on the carrier or not? It was hard to tell. Might be that I'm just not getting it... yet... but it should be easy or easier to tell.

If up to 2 planes are on the sea zone where the carrier is, then yes they are on the carrier.
If a 3rd plane is present, you need to move it somewhere else or it's going to experience a watery crash.

You can usually tell if a plane needs to be moved because it will be flashing in the non-combat move phase.