Convoy Size

[brotebjo]

Is there a limit on the number of ships in a convoy? I was looking at increasing the size of some of the covoys. Any help will be great!

[Castout]

That is one great idea Brotebjo. I'll be keeping my eyes on this thread progress

[bigboywooly]

You can increase the size to whatever you want within reason
May lead to a slowdown the more you add though

I wrote a single mission for testing in GWX 2.0 based on convoy HX 282
That has 99 merchants and 8 escorts as was the case :o

Played ok though a little sluggish at times

[Woof1701]

Cool. BBW. Sounds really exciting. Was that a large escort screen for a convoy this size? In GWX 1.03 I sometimes had the impression that a large escort screen with 6 or 8 DDs and DEs on a relatively small convoy was a bit too much. However I have no idea about what real convoys were composed like.

[bigboywooly]

All depends on date

HX 282 was March 44
Hunter killer groups a plenty and the threat of the uboats disappearing

As SH3 uses RND convoys its a bit hard to show true escorts
Typically early war convoys would be escorted by local escorts to a prearranged point where those escorts would turn for home
Leaving the altantic escorts alone to cover the convoy
The atlantic escorts early on comprised of just maybe one dd if lucky maybe a battleship or an aux cruiser
At a prearranged point close to England local escorts would meet the convoys ( much like the Happy times single mission ) and escort in - this was seen as the most dangerous time for attacks

This cannot be simulated in SH3 as all convoys span a year or so and have random waypoints so they follow different courses so getting escorts to meet them would be nigh on impossible

As war progressed and convoy attacks took place further out into the atlantic more escorts stayed the whole course but due to fuelling problems escorts came and went so its hard to get an exact count of what escrts at any one time

HX 282 for example

Departed NYC 6th March 44
Arrived Liverpool 22nd March 44

The records state 20 escorts
But those came and went

AGASSIZ ESCORT 06/03 - 08/03 <-----2 days
BRONTES ESCORT 21/03 - 22/03 <-----2 days
BUTTERCUP ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03 <-----10 days
DIGBY ESCORT 08/03 - 09/03 <-----2 days
GROU ESCORT 11/03 - 16/03 <-----5 days
HADLEIGH CA ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03 <-----10 days
KRIEZIS ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03 <-----10 days
LAVENDER ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03
MEDICINE HAT ESCORT 08/03 - 09/03
PORTAGE ESCORT 06/03 - 11/03
RUTHERFORD ESCORT 11/03 - 20/03
SAPPER ESCORT 21/03 - 22/03
SHERBROOKE ESCORT 06/03 - 11/03
SOUTHERN BREEZE ESCORT 21/03 - 22/03
TOMPAZIS ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03
TRANSCONA ESCORT 06/03 - 11/03
VIMY ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03
VOLUNTEER ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03

As you can see the escorts are in and out all the time AND records arent always accurate

HX 8 in 39 had 3 escorts - 2 local that left after 2 days and the Revenge as the sole atlantic escort

HX 77 had 12 escorts in and out ( late 40 ) for 39 merchants

SC 149 in Dec 43 had 14 escorts for 33 merchants - 7 of those escorts ran across the atlantic plus a MAC ship

So its hard to do exactly as true without scripting each and every convoy seperately

and as around 3000 convoys :o

[Woof1701]

All depends on date

HX 282 was March 44
Hunter killer groups a plenty and the threat of the uboats disappearing

As SH3 uses RND convoys its a bit hard to show true escorts
Typically early war convoys would be escorted by local escorts to a prearranged point where those escorts would turn for home
Leaving the altantic escorts alone to cover the convoy
The atlantic escorts early on comprised of just maybe one dd if lucky maybe a battleship or an aux cruiser
At a prearranged point close to England local escorts would meet the convoys ( much like the Happy times single mission ) and escort in - this was seen as the most dangerous time for attacks

This cannot be simulated in SH3 as all convoys span a year or so and have random waypoints so they follow different courses so getting escorts to meet them would be nigh on impossible

As war progressed and convoy attacks took place further out into the atlantic more escorts stayed the whole course but due to fuelling problems escorts came and went so its hard to get an exact count of what escrts at any one time

HX 282 for example

Departed NYC 6th March 44
Arrived Liverpool 22nd March 44

The records state 20 escorts
But those came and went

AGASSIZ ESCORT 06/03 - 08/03 <-----2 days
BRONTES ESCORT 21/03 - 22/03 <-----2 days
BUTTERCUP ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03 <-----10 days
DIGBY ESCORT 08/03 - 09/03 <-----2 days
GROU ESCORT 11/03 - 16/03 <-----5 days
HADLEIGH CA ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03 <-----10 days
KRIEZIS ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03 <-----10 days
LAVENDER ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03
MEDICINE HAT ESCORT 08/03 - 09/03
PORTAGE ESCORT 06/03 - 11/03
RUTHERFORD ESCORT 11/03 - 20/03
SAPPER ESCORT 21/03 - 22/03
SHERBROOKE ESCORT 06/03 - 11/03
SOUTHERN BREEZE ESCORT 21/03 - 22/03
TOMPAZIS ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03
TRANSCONA ESCORT 06/03 - 11/03
VIMY ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03
VOLUNTEER ESCORT 11/03 - 21/03

As you can see the escorts are in and out all the time AND records arent always accurate

HX 8 in 39 had 3 escorts - 2 local that left after 2 days and the Revenge as the sole atlantic escort

HX 77 had 12 escorts in and out ( late 40 ) for 39 merchants

SC 149 in Dec 43 had 14 escorts for 33 merchants - 7 of those escorts ran across the atlantic plus a MAC ship

So its hard to do exactly as true without scripting each and every convoy seperately

and as around 3000 convoys :o

Thanks for this comprehensive summary. :up: I get the idea of what you were facing BBW. And even if someone COULD script all 3000 convoys it would completely take out the random aspect AND would increase the scripted layer to enormous proportions. Thanks for your work!!

[brotebjo]

You can increase the size to whatever you want within reason
May lead to a slowdown the more you add though

I wrote a single mission for testing in GWX 2.0 based on convoy HX 282
That has 99 merchants and 8 escorts as was the case :o

Played ok though a little sluggish at times

Thanks, I was hoping that it was limited to the speed of the computer!!!:p

[Pablo]

Cool. BBW. Sounds really exciting. Was that a large escort screen for a convoy this size? In GWX 1.03 I sometimes had the impression that a large escort screen with 6 or 8 DDs and DEs on a relatively small convoy was a bit too much. However I have no idea about what real convoys were composed like.
Hi!

You may want to check out this site, which lists the detailed composition of many of the convoys on the North Atlantic run and, if you look hard enough, links to other convoy sites:
(http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/index.html)http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/index.html
Pablo