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How do Transports work???
There's no "Questions" forum is there? <-- If so I didn't see one, if not, there should be one.
Sooooo Transports... They are quite interesting on many fronts...
HOW DO THEY WORK?!?!
Let me explain, I know how they work "basically." I just don't know how they work when in conjuction with Naval takeovers, blocking on land/sea, timing, etc etc...
I am sorry to not have any examples of anything I'm about to ask, but any theories or answers you have would be much appreciated.
How do you want to do this? How about numbered questions so I don't get ahead of myself.
1) Transports load and unload at the END of the turn right? Does this mean they also MOVE at the end of the turn? What if they didn't pick anyone up? They still move with the fleet right? What if they picked up only ONE unit instead of two units? What if they have to stop on the way to pick up a unit or two before they rejoin the fleet?
2) If there are enemy units in the territory you're unloading units into, they do NOT fight on that turn, they fight on the NEXT turn?
3) Going along with the above question, any units you send into combat with the territory you've unloading units into will participate in combat BEFORE your transport units are unloaded? Does this also mean that if I sent 4 planes to attack a territory and 1 transport with 2 troops on it, there is potential for me to lose my planes if the defender defends instead of losing the much lower value troops that are being unloaded?
4) Is there such thing as "Naval Invasion" in this game (where the attack of the boats/planes/land troops/transport troops are all factored into the land battle).
5) Going back to question #2, why do you take the territory at the end of the turn if there is no one there, but you have to wait a FULL turn to do combat if there is someone there to defend.Also, does this rule ever change? RIGHT NOW in an Indian Ocean game, I unloaded a guy and a tank onto a territory with NO ONE there on turn 2004. Next turn(2005) my units are there, but the territory is still owned by the original owner and they are getting income from it. This goes back to my original question of: when do the unloading take place and if there is ever an exception?
6) Why are there times where a Transport only unloads or loads a SINGLE unit after being blocked? I've seen countless times where a Transport gets to unload its forces even though its clearly blocked by other enemy boats in the same sea zone as it.
7) Does the ORDER in which the units are loaded/unloaded off the transport have anything to do with blocking order, movement order, or anything? IE: Does having the units on the transport at the START of the turn makes the boat able to unload those troops before the end of the turn?
I don't know if I'm conveying everything here as good as I can, but hopefully those who have the answers understand most of what I'm asking.
Bottomline is that I've seen some crazy stuff with Transports that no matter how good my defense is, they are still getting through my blocks, or my transports are still getting blocked...
1) Movement
Nope. A turn is made up of lots of move turns (I'll abbreviate to MT). If a transport moves, loads one unit, moves unloads, then that's a move in MT1, loading in MT2, moving in MT3, unloading in MT4.
But if it loaded and unloaded 2 units, it would be move in MT1, load in MT2, load in MT3, move in MT4, unload in MT5 and unload in MT6.
So if you want to block a landing with a bomber (or fighter or sub, but with access to 6 move turns bombers are the best) but don't want a fight, you need to figure out in which MT it's likely to happen and overfly then.
Another example. Say your fleet is by your capital. If a transport moves 2 squares with the fleet, it would only use 2 move turns (like a normal ship). If it loads 2 units it'll get left behind and then catch the fleet up, which leaves it exposed in MT1, 2 & 3 (in MT4 it will have caught up with the feet).
2) Combat
Nope, they fight on the turn that they're unloaded. You're probably thinking of new builds, which don't fight until the turn after you place them.
3) Combat order
Nope. Everything moves (or tries to - it may get blocked) and then whoever is present fights it out.
4) Naval support
Nope.
5) Territory takeover
Sounds like they had planes involved in the combat and those planes survived and then landed elsewhere. That counts as units still being present at the end of combat, so the original owner keeps the (empty except for your troops) territory.
6) Blocking
Transports will always be able to unload in any move turn before they've been blocked. Once blocked, they can't unload even if the blocker (sub, plane) has buggered off. There are times when you may deliberately choose to block a landing part way through, so you can defeat half his forces this turn (most common when your fleet/air is too weak to prevent repeat invasions, so you break up their landings to defeat him on land).
Or maybe you want to block before he has a chance to unload anyone (maybe your fleet is bearing down on his transports and you'd like to use the kill priority rules to destroy his planes and destroyers).
Loading may be different. I'm pretty sure that transports are able to load even when blocked. That can be a bit upsetting when you lose a loaded transport worth 50 instead of an unloaded one at 20 :) .
7) Load/Unload order
"Yes" to unloading, "no" to loading. Obviously, if you are blocked after your transports have unloaded their first units, then you might wish you'd unloaded your tanks first rather than infantry & AA :) . As I said, I don't think the loading order makes much difference as I think loading occurs even when blocked.
Pre-loaded transports are able to keep up with the fleet (as they're not spending MT1 & MT2 loading), which can be very useful. Likewise, just loading one unit can mean that you're not still there when your enemy arrives (most useful when grabbing undefended territories).
8) Bonus
A spin-off from (7). As I said, you might want to unload your tanks first if there's a chance that you might be blocked (but only if that wouldn't lead to a massacre of your tanks :) - if that's the case, don't unload at all).
So, assuming your assault force isn't 100% tanks, it might make sense to spread the tanks around different transports. BUT, you may want to keep a transport or two with just infantry. If you start taking casualties, they (value 40) will die before you tank+inf transports (value 45), which in trun will die before your tank+tank transports (value 50). Depends whether there's a possibility of a massive naval action or not.
9) Bonus II
Unloaded transports can help win a naval battle for you by soaking up hits that would otherwise be applied to subs (same cost but better attack value) & destroyers/air.
O.o, thanks for all the answers, I didn't know about the Movement 1, Movement 2, Movement 3, Movement 4....etc etc phases... I've tried to comprehend it by watching the replays, but it just doesn't work to me. Very interesting that a Transport can only MOVE 2 SPACES, but can occupy 4 "Moves" during the Movement phase.
"2) Combat
Nope, they fight on the turn that they're unloaded. You're probably
thinking of new builds, which don't fight until the turn after you
place them."
Are you sure??? I am POSITIVE that the forces always sit there untl the next turn, no casulty box is brought up, and all the units (mine and my enemies) are always there on the next turn as if nothing happened, then the following (3rd turn) is when I see the units actually do something (kill or be killed).
Perhaps this goes along with your MT1, MT2, MT3....etc answer... You think the Movement Phase the boats are on when unloading effects the order or if the units even participate in combat or not? IE: If a unit is unloaded into an enemy territory during MT1 or MT2 it will participate in combat normally? However if the units are unloaded during MT3 or MT4 the units will have to wait until the next combat phase (next turn) to attack?
I've done it numerous times (in fact this is the reason I opened this thread in teh first place), and used two examples from games I was currently in.
I'll watch the replays more closlely, but just the answer of MT1, MT2, MT3, etc etc, is enough to keep me busy for a while, I had no idea each load/unload counted as a movement on the movement chart... Very interesting...
>Are you sure???
100%. Whenever I've unloaded it's always led to combat (or me taking the territory if no one is there). That doesn't mean that you're not seeing something different, but if you are one of us is bugged.
>You think the Movement Phase the boats are on when unloading effects the order or if the units even participate in combat or not?
100% not. Movement turns are clunky, but they follow a set of basic rules. If a unit is in the same territory as another unit at the end of MT6 (I can't think of anything that would go beyond that, but if there is just change it to MTx), then they fight. So it doesn't matter when the transports unload. If they succeed in unloading then the troops are available for combat in that turn.
I agree with how bromley stated it. It works exactly how he said for me everytime. Bottom line, all movement is done before combat is done, so if a unit is in that territory then it is involved with the combat. At least from what I have seen.
I have routinely seen up to Movement Round 8.
But I couldn't think what might use it.
Transports go to 6 max. Likewise bombers. Fighters 4.
I've only got one game running ATM and nothing much happening in that. Can someone post if they see something happening in MT7 or 8?
it always goes up to MT8 but nothing ever happens during mt7 and mt8. I think it might be to help prevent bugs, maybe it's something to do with a bomber moving 6 spaces then landing, or it could be just something for down the line in case they wanted to add or change something.
I have a purely technical question about unloading transports. I can take a stack of 20 tanks and drop it on 10 transports to load them with one single motion. When it comes time to unload on the other end I have to unload each individual tank one by one (for 20 or more mouse clicks). Is there a shortcut to doing this? This makes attacks by sea fairly tedious, especially if you need to move lots of troops all at once.
Unloading has to be done unit by unit.
Oh, well. I was hoping I had missed some trick to make things easier . . . . I was playing a solo game the other day and had to finish off the computer where it had 30 troops stacked up on one island. I unloaded my massive invasion army one by one, only to have them blocked that turn. I had to repeat everything again the next turn.
Could just make it so that if you drag a transport onto a landzone it would unload everything it can onto that zone. Seems like an easy fix tbh.