Naming Transports Simplifies Boarding Confusion

[DukEngnr]

I stumbled across something in my last game that really made life easier when preparing a naval invasion force, I thought I'd pass along. I know some people have talked about the new feature in PTW that lets you customize a name for any unit. Up until now I thought it was cool but kinda trivial.

However, I found a practial use for this feature today. Usually to simplify things I dump all my caravels or transport ships in one coastal city and queue all my units there for transport. Sometimes I'll have several, 5-10 ships waiting at the dock but only want to load a handfull of troops, perhaps to send to a far away city for defensive reinforcements. However, after loading into one ship, it's annoying to click on each one to see which Galleon had the 3 pikeman I just loaded... To alleviate this problem I started individually naming each ship... Santa Maria, Mayflower, Maine etc...

When I load my small force into the one ship out of many, it's easy to remember, ok I just loaded the Mayflower - saving time when I want to send that ship out. I know this isn't groundbreaking strategy or anything, more a case of laziness. But I thought I'd pass along a useful and fun tip using the 'rename' feature of PTW.

 

[Rammstein]

Pretty clever.

 

[Igmod]

Hmmm....I have been resisting the urge to buy PTW but this is just one more cool feature. I will go back and count my pennies now to see if I can afford it.

 

[zenga]

Good idea, should save a bit of confusion when loading ships.

 

[Gothmog]

Good tip, this has pissed me off more than once when trying to assemble an invasion force.

 

[Plume]

I don't have PTW (yet anyway) but it sounds like this would also be useful for ship hopping. When, ship1 full arrives on top on ship2 empty and you want to transfer the units, you right click on the stack, activate your (land) units and then make them board a ship. Obviously, that ship has to be the one that hasn't moved yet. The only problem is, which one is the one with full movement left and which one is the one with no movement left. With names, it should be easier to distinguish them.

 

[Cannon]

Beautiful....that was ticking me off.

 

[Unique Unit]

So I assume this means that the name of the ship appears in that little pop-up screen that asks you which vessel a unit is boarding.

 

[xCHUCKLEHEADx]

Good idea. That helped me out a lot.

 

[Cannon]

Quick Question: How exactly do you rename a unit?

 

[MTheil3508]

Originally posted by Cannon
Quick Question: How exactly do you rename a unit?

There is a order button that has "ABC" on it. Press this button and it will ask you if you want to rename the unit (just like when you get a leader).

 

[MTheil3508]

When I do landing assults, I rename units and transports for faster reconization. Such if it is offensive units, defensive units, artillery units, etc. This helps me not make an error in placing them on the landing.

I also rename the unit that destroyed a civilization. I would rename it "Destroyer of the ..." This way I know what unit is responsible. Just an interesting perk.

 

[battle ship]

cool i have not buyed this yet but it wood be cool to name elite units so i can tell them apart or to name units that did some amazing things like a sub kills a battle ship

 

[kring]

I had read about this a while back, and tried it in my last naval game. It worked great; no more trying to figure out which ship you just loaded.

 

[hbdragon88]

This is why I do not stack naval transport units together. On a coast I'll spread them out, and then stack them up. When I fill up a transport (usually Marines or MAs/MIs) I pile them up.

In a case where I was transporting many nuclear submarines to war against India, I had empty subs on one square and full subs in another. When I got four full subs I started to ship them to INdia.

Good to use, and no need to name the transports. At least until I get PTW.