Allow access and Ports

[Palmerdale]

I ran across something I hadn't noticed before.

As Italy, I am preparing to join the war against the USSR. I want to take Sevastapol with a Marine invasion so I can have some spoils from my efforts. I have my marines waiting in Greece, and wanted to quickly ship reinforcement into the port when my invasion succeeds.

To that end, I get Access to Turkey, and am moving my reinforcement through Turkey to one of the ports on the Black Sea. This way, I can avoid the longer portage to and from Greece.

However, I can't seem to Rebase some transports into the Turkish port. The units are waiting there, but the boats can't/won't land to pick up these reinforcements. I think this might be because the game won't stage an invasion from a port that isn't mine. I plan to invade from Athens, just reinforce from this port. Can anyone elaborate on this?

 

[Kovax]

You should be able to Move them to the Turkish ports, rather than Rebase them. You should then be able to load the transports normally, and conduct the invasion.

 

[Palmerdale]

The units in Turkey are not part of the invasion force. But thanks, Kovax, I was having contact issues this morning and couldn't see any valid operations for the transports, not even the Move To operation. That's a me issue, unless you can make RGP contacts suddenly behave.

How would an actual invasion work with transports starting in a friendly foreign port? Would the game use the last port the transports were Based at?

 

[Wraith11B]

You can't launch attacks from a neutral (to the conflict) third party. If Turkey hasn't joined the war that's not going to work out for you.

 

[Kovax]

I don't think you can base them in a neutral port, although they can stop and repair there. To launch an invasion, you still need a supply line to your own port, so rebasing to a neutral country wouldn't help you. As far as I can tell, the game doesn't track which port you were in last, so you should be able to load up, MOVE to the coast of the country you wish to attack, and then have the infantry march ashore. I've used neutral ports as staging grounds for landings before (not in TFH, though), but you still need that supply line to your own (or allied) port to conduct the assault, which limits your range.

If you can't use a "Move to..." command for the transports, how would you get them out of the neutral port? (Rebasing, if that's available, but still rather pointless.)

 

[Palmerdale]

I've always understood that a landing traces its supply from the port where the transports are currently based. Invading from a level 2 port is certainly a lot different than from a level 10 port, at least it seems operate that way.

Speculation
I *think* that the port affects the amount of supplies that go with the invading force, that could easily be wrong. My observations to support this. I invaded near Casablanca from a level 4 port, and was out of supply just under 2 days. A similar invasion from a level 10 port lasted over 3 days before they went out of supplies. (Both made me wish I had built more transport planes). Once your land forces take a port, then normal supply transportation and distribution rules kick back in.
/end Speculation