Send to foreign station

[scaffold]

Hello everyone!
Might sound like a stupid question, but I don't undertsand the actual meaning of Send to Foreign Station as opposed to Move Ship. Can you please explain?

[wlbjork]

*Each Sea Zone has a minimum tonnage requirement (which can be as low as 0)

*Ships actively assigned to a Sea Zone by use of the Move Ship function count towards the tonnage required in that Sea Zone only.

*Any tonnage not covered by ships assigned to (and on AF or TP duty in) a Sea Zone is added to a global requirement. Ships assigned the Foreign Service role count their tonnage towards this global value. Ships on FS duty will move through random Sea Zones on each turn.

What ships on FS do not help with is preventing invasions (unless you are fortunate enough that those ships are in the correct zone). I believe that they are treated as being on AF duty in the Sea Zone they occupy at the time, which means that they are limited in operations they carry out.

[director]

Ships on FS will eventually move to an appropriate sea zone. Of course, they will move to other places first, and their crew quality may decline.

Putting ships on FS is an easy, non-micro-management way to handle tonnage requirements on foreign stations.

[gurudennis]

Importantly, FS "spreads" your ship out over all of the colonies as opposed to overflowing one particular zone with tonnage, so it's more efficient. If a zone requires 5K tons and you put a 7K ton ship on AF in that zone, the remaining 2K is wasted. Conversely, on FS the remaining 2K tons will be used to cover any deficiency in tonnage in other regions. It's handy, but it does give away the control of where and when such a ship will move.

To this end, I find that building a large number of cheap colonial KEs (1600 tons + Colonial box checked so that each counts for 2K colonial tons) and sending them to FS is the most cost-effective and hassle-free way of fulfilling the colonial tonnage requirements for any of the usual suspects (UK, US, France, Germany). The only downside is having to occasionally decline a battle in a sea zone where you have no other presence, but these are quite rare.

[brygun]

Jan 3, 2022 13:07:41 GMT -6 gurudennis said:

To this end, I find that building a large number of cheap colonial KEs (1600 tons + Colonial box checked so that each counts for 2K colonial tons) and sending them to FS is the most cost-effective and hassle-free way of fulfilling the colonial tonnage requirements for any of the usual suspects (UK, US, France, Germany). The only downside is having to occasionally decline a battle in a sea zone where you have no other presence, but these are quite rare.

Also noted in my guide is you dont have to fill up the KE types. They can have a few hundred unused tons which makes the $/ton even more cost effective. I treat the FS KE extra tonnage as local military shipping like troops or outpost materials or VIP work.

My current KE builds are 19 knots. TP and MS ~600 or ~900 tons with the MS one gun forward and the TP having for and aft. The FS KE are 1600 tons, 19 knots, for and aft 5" with a few 2" or 3" on each side. More than enough for local colony influence or critical shipping/escort.

I do find it good to make the KE FS in batches to spread out when they come up for refits.

[scaffold]

Thanks for the feedback!
I can't get my head around the fact that even if sent to FS, the ship is still listed as stationed in a particular sea zone. I'm confused.

[kellig]

I prefer using obsolete DD's for FS. Their maintenance cost is a fraction of a KE. Of course I normally play a smaller country that doesn't start with an immediate FS need.
I build a few KE for minesweeping, 2 or 3 per zone, but now I avoid them as their long term cost is outrageous & they are always AI controlled. They just make for target practice.

[rs2excelsior]

Jan 8, 2022 15:28:49 GMT -6 scaffold said:

Thanks for the feedback!
I can't get my head around the fact that even if sent to FS, the ship is still listed as stationed in a particular sea zone. I'm confused.

It still exists in a specific sea zone, and it won't move the moment you hit the foreign station button. But when you hit end turn, you should see it making its way off to some sea zone where you have possessions.

[brygun]

I you look on the Area tab you will things like foreign score needed. A negative number means you are lacking there. So the your AI sub commanders will grab some of your FS set ships to sail there.