Avoid units in low supply and understrength status

[Majola]

Hello,

Is there a definitive answer on how to avoid having units in low supply and understrength?

I'm currently on turn 6 of the Operation Typhoon 41 scenario, and I have some units in low supply and others understrength for a few turns already, and this happens with more units each turn, and I don't have a clue how to revert this. I have several depots and use the AI assist for the logistics phase, but it doesn't make a difference.

I've also tried to advance a couple of turns without combat or moving them, but the result is the same. I'm new to the game and watched several tutorials regarding logistics, but it seems I'm missing some basic stuff.

And I know that there are no simple answers for a game so complex as this, but I'm hoping that someone can shed a light on this.

[DocHawkeye]

The more remote and distant the location is + nature of the terrain eg: bogs, heavy forest makes it more and more likely you should send only a regiment-or even better a motorized regiment-to convert the hex. Forts can also be used to improve with supply draw, but I admit i'm not too familiar with the mechanism behind that. I also feel like Mountain, Light, Jeager Divisions etc do visibly consume less supply and work better in those places than Line Divisions. The champion of low supply use however is motorization, and the more remote a location the more you should seriously consider motorizing the unit you want to send off hex flipping.

I really suggest avoiding the AI assist tool for Depots, it places them by averaging them out and doesn't at all fathom your plans or consider the strategic importance of your force commitments. The automated rail-road repair battalions are better about this but should also be watched. Press N and periodically check the "stress" level of the nearest railroads to get a sense of whether the supply system is matching your strategic plans. If the tracks are yellow that's fairly typical of the supply system moving greater than basic supply loads around, Green generally implies light use and not much more than basic supplies. Orange probably means heavy loading or that you also moved units up and down the rail link in the previous turn and there was some competition with the supply trains and Red means really bad overloading and lots of supplies are behind schedule. Units probably can't be moved far if it all on red tracks. Crucially make sure there's some kind of loading, because black/uncolored track means nothing is being moved by that rail probably because it's unusable or cutoff!

Believe it or not the system prioritizes the number of total depots around for supply more than it considers their selected priority. A pair of 3 depots are more likely to build up supply more rapidly than single 4 depot is, especially if there's a local railyard larger than level 2 around. You should also very seriously consider building "rear" depots on long lengths of track far from the front in your strategic depths especially if those track sections are typical stressed out. Track within about 5 hexes of the frontline is normal to see stressed out but single sections of track heavily loaded just running routine supply shipments around needs to be lightened up with depots. Never set any Depot to 0 except for a National Supply Source so they export everything they make. Setting a non NSS depot to 0 makes the supply system avoid resting moving supply stock there and this will burden the other track and supply depots.

[Majola]

Thanks a lot for the explanation, some things are way clear now, and I'm digging more tutorials to watch. I wasn't paying too much attention to fix railroads, and it's good to know that the AI management isn't a great option, I'll try for manual next time.

Just another quick question: regarding your last paragraph, this means that it's a good strategy to build several depots instead of being conservative?

[DocHawkeye]

Yes, especially if you are marshalling troops, tanks, and guns in that hex region. Generally, for places where the terrain isn't bad, and the rail links are numerous you won't need to build that many but up near Leningrad it's common to have to build a Depot literally every hex you can if you're serious about an attack. The terrain is so dense and hard on logistics. Combat Units and HQs draw supply from depots with their baggage/vehicle trains and that train is beholden to the same movement rules that the Combat Units are. Their pathing is directly affected by the distance a depot, the terrain between them and the Depot, the weather, and the quality of the local roads. I think there is also a degree to which Support units contribute to supply movement and "unpacking" so units like Construction Battalions, Engineers etc all help with Combat Readiness and supply quality to some degree. I'm not entirely sure on that one myself. I know that Combat Preparation also affects supply quality, so you will definitely want to pull units with low CP Points off the frontline even if they're otherwise fine as far as their ToE and Supply status looks. This is all hard to see because it happens during the Logistics Phase which is just calculated for you and then displayed afterwards. Generally, though if it's hard for your unit to path to a given hex it's hard for their supply train to path out of that hex too. You can see it like this, logistics will try to "drop" any supply they can't take to a demanding depot in the same turn right where that supply is. So it's good to build intermediate depots so supply can "rest stop" there. You can also build a large backlog of supply for an upcoming offensive this way, and then set all those depots to lower than your frontline depots to get a "supply spike" for the next turn. I don't typically do this, but I know it can be done.

Be advised, air groups, especially Bombers, need supply too and it helps to build depots on airfields you plan on staging many airplanes and especially many bombers out of. Single engine fighters aren't as demanding, and their small airstrips can be built in fairly remote places. Most guys have found that setting an airfield depot to Level 2 is fine for supply maintenance there.