Graymane
Posts: 520
Joined: 3/31/2005 From: Bellevue, NE Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: deggo I've searched for clues on here for what to do with those LCI's, LST's and the LCI(G)'s. This is somewhat covered in the manual, especially the important part on why and when to use them. BTW, you can fire up the marianas campaign as the allies and see how to use a bunch of them. Basically, barges are the best way to get your troops on shore in the shortest amount of time. This is especially true on atolls. In the manual there is a section on amphib landings and there are two tables. The first table gives you the loading cost of each barge/transport/fast transport type. You'll find that LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) are best for loading infantry, for example. Some craft will only take infrantry (LCI) and some will take both at various costs with some better for armor, vehicles and tanks. The main reason to use them though is the unloading time which is covered in the second table. You will find that barges unload faster than transports (AK/AP) by 50% or so. Another reason to use them is that if you are attacking a place with shore batteries, it is better to lose a cheap barge than an AK/AP. The next thing you have to do is decide how to do an invasion mix. Basically, you want some escorts for your invasion fleet. You can use anything from cruisers on down. LCI(G) are basically another gunboat. The more escorts you have, the fewer shots your transports will take. I like to divide my invasion fleets into 3 parts. I do a landing force that has all the barges and escorts in it for the main invasion. My other fleet has the AGC (if one is available) and all the reserves/engineers/support troops. These won't land until the base is mine. The third fleet will have the supply transports (they don't take fire). If you want to get a good mental picture of barges, you can think of it like this: - If the name of the vessel has an 'S' in it, it means Ship (an ocean-going vessel). If the name has a 'C' in it, it means Craft (a smaller boat). An LST was the main ocean-going vessel for the invasion fleet. It would put to see and be loaded with other land craft nested inside of each other. AKA and APA (in game, AKA/APA/AK/AP are all kind of merged together) took supplies/vehicles/armor/troops as well. When the invasion got to where it was going, they would drop the various landing craft over the side and the troops would climb down the ropes into them.
|