pasternakski
Posts: 6565
Joined: 6/29/2002
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Actually, Ron, it can play itself if you set it that way in the preferences.
Seriously, though, there's a lot of subtlety to playing UV, and I agree with you completely about the lack of utility to the manual. Still, there is a lot of information there that you can put to use, although it doesn't translate intuitively to the game. This manual suffers from a serious deficiency I have seen over and over in my three-plus decades as an editor of professional publications. I call it the "I know what I am, but what are you?" disease (a bastardization of Pee Wee's line, of course).
Writers and compilers of guides, manuals, indexes, and similar materials often forget that the reader is not conversant with the subject being addressed. As a consequence, it all makes sense to the writer, but frequently is completely opaque to the uninitiated reader. Particularly with regard to the UV manual, those who wrote it seem to have forgotten that the poor user has no idea how to translate all that verbiage into specific keyboard commands when attempting to play the game. Also, the organization of the material tends to "penny packet" bits and pieces all over the place that should have been collected into one place for edification of the reader (try, for example, to figure out the effect of headquarters units on ground combat by looking in one place, or even finding the correct places to look for the information). Manual Chapter 8, "Interface," is worth careful review, however, as it gets into a lot of the "how to" stuff.
Notwithstanding all that, the game is terrific fun once you get into it, particularly when you start playing PBEM. It's not easy, and it takes time, patience, and a lot of "oops, I screwed that up, time to start over."
The best place to get tips and advice is right here in these forums. Don't be afraid to ask questions. A lot of these guys are amazingly conversant with UV and write clearly, practically, and informatively when explaining the "how to." They are the most valuable source of learning outside the game itself (except for you guys who are a pain in the @$$, and you know who you are).
Okay. Barges. These are light craft designed for short-range transport of troops and supplies. They don't carry much, but can be very valuable in supplying forward bases that are vulnerable to enemy air attack. They are cheap and expendable. You can ferry troops this way, as well, although barges are so small they don't carry much at one time, and you are exposing your troops to the possibility of annihilation if your barge traffic runs into surface forces or submarines (which will surface and bang away at barge TFs).
The Japanese get huge numbers of barges that start to accumulate from the very beginning of a campaign game. The Allies get fewer, and don't get any until about the end of 1942. You can check your barge availability by opening your "ship availability" screen from the "intelligence" display. The number available is given in the lower left corner (if you are playing the Allies, you also get availability information for PT boats).
The way you create barges is to form a transport TF at a naval forces entry port (Truk for Japan, Brisbane or Noumea for the Allies) and load supplies. Send the TF to (or near) where you want to create barges, then go to the TF screen and click on "activate barges." Presto! You now have a TF of barges available for duty (if you have enough supplies, you can create several barge TFs from one transport TF, if you want to). Be sure to access the barge TF order screen and change the home port to the one you want them to be at, or they will try to return to the naval forces entry port the transport TF just came from (also see manual section 9.20, particularly for supply costs for creating barges and the effect of designating barge hubs and how that sets up an automated forward supply system when you station barges there).
PT boats are created by the Allies the same way. They are useful for shooting up enemy barges and engaging enemy surface forces, although they tend to evaporate pretty quickly in surface engagements against enemy surface combatants. They can slip the occasional torpedo into a battleship or cruiser, though, so there's no reason to be shy.
Hope this helps. Stay with it, man. It's a great ride.
_____________________________
Put my faith in the people
And the people let me down.
So, I turned the other way,
And I carry on anyhow.
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