Quick Questions Thread

[juv95hrn]

This might be self-explanatory to most.

Regarding the Truck numbers in Theatre (25.5.1) boxes they read that "Trucks(used) x(y). Most TBs have a truck number x of zero. Whereas all of them "use" some y number of trucks, within parenthesis.

What does this mean?

They have used the second paranthesis number to supply the TB units, and have the first x number left available?

Or they would want the second y number, but usually have no trucks (first number 0) available?

Are these numbers the trucks used for the units themselves? Or for freight transport? Or both?

My best guess (if comparing the freight explanation in 36.12.1) is that the first number is the available trucks, and the second in paranthesis is what the TB would want. Is this correct?

Thanks!

[juv95hrn]

Is there a way to turn off, so that new reinforcing HQs dont get 3 SUs of each type when they arrive? I have locked in-game HQs and Locked HQs is checked. Yet, new HQs fill up with more than 3 of each category, even if they are auto set to 3 SUs max.

How do you prevent this?

Thanks!

[carlkay58]

That could be by the reinforcement schedule.

[juv95hrn]

Is there a better way to transfer air groups from the Reserve to the TBs? I identify the group, I want to transfer, then have to go out on the map, find the exact group among 100 others, and then send it?

Or is there a better way?

I fail to understand why you cant transfer from the Commanders report? Or at least see what air groups cant be transfered, like with ground units.

I hope there is a better way, please let me know if there is.

Thanks!

EDIT:

I really love the game, and all its amazing improvements since WITE1, but this is the one thing I find to cumbersome, so I hope I am missing something...

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: juv95hrn

Is there a better way to transfer air groups from the Reserve to the TBs? I identify the group, I want to transfer, then have to go out on the map, find the exact group among 100 others, and then send it?

Or is there a better way?

I fail to understand why you cant transfer from the Commanders report? Or at least see what air groups cant be transfered, like with ground units.

I hope there is a better way, please let me know if there is.

Thanks!

EDIT:

I really love the game, and all its amazing improvements since WITE1, but this is the one thing I find to cumbersome, so I hope I am missing something...

you can use the AOG label which is my usual method, click on the option to use multiple airbases and will allocate them out automatically to airbases with capacity in the area occupied by that AOG

anything in the reserve (as long as its been there more than one turn) can be transferred, so its not much of a constraint?

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: juv95hrn

This might be self-explanatory to most.

Regarding the Truck numbers in Theatre (25.5.1) boxes they read that "Trucks(used) x(y). Most TBs have a truck number x of zero. Whereas all of them "use" some y number of trucks, within parenthesis.

What does this mean?

They have used the second paranthesis number to supply the TB units, and have the first x number left available?

Or they would want the second y number, but usually have no trucks (first number 0) available?

Are these numbers the trucks used for the units themselves? Or for freight transport? Or both?

My best guess (if comparing the freight explanation in 36.12.1) is that the first number is the available trucks, and the second in paranthesis is what the TB would want. Is this correct?

Thanks!

just done a check as some of the TB values are less than obvious [;)]. Afaik units in the theatre lose their organic trucks but then gain a truck allocation for the supply/logistics phase. So the second number is the usage.

when they come to the map, if they come from a geographical theatre (say Western Europe or the Far East), they then claim some of this truck allocation and bring it with them.

The key difference is units exit the reserve theatre with no trucks and claim what they need from the map. So if its a small or an infantry unit this isn't too important but if its truck heavy (pzr division or Soviet tank/mech corps) then make sure its allocated to the map in or next to an NSS. That way it'll get most or all the trucks it needs. If you bring this sort of unit into a supply poor region it'll seriously lack trucks (& thus MP) and you may well have to redeploy back to a NSS to sort it out. Linked, with the Soviets, even doing this try to stagger the move to map of these corps (and the artillery divisions that need a lot of trucks)

[juv95hrn]

ORIGINAL: loki100

ORIGINAL: juv95hrn

This might be self-explanatory to most.

Regarding the Truck numbers in Theatre (25.5.1) boxes they read that "Trucks(used) x(y). Most TBs have a truck number x of zero. Whereas all of them "use" some y number of trucks, within parenthesis.

What does this mean?

They have used the second paranthesis number to supply the TB units, and have the first x number left available?

Or they would want the second y number, but usually have no trucks (first number 0) available?

Are these numbers the trucks used for the units themselves? Or for freight transport? Or both?

My best guess (if comparing the freight explanation in 36.12.1) is that the first number is the available trucks, and the second in paranthesis is what the TB would want. Is this correct?

Thanks!

just done a check as some of the TB values are less than obvious [;)]. Afaik units in the theatre lose their organic trucks but then gain a truck allocation for the supply/logistics phase. So the second number is the usage.

when they come to the map, if they come from a geographical theatre (say Western Europe or the Far East), they then claim some of this truck allocation and bring it with them.

The key difference is units exit the reserve theatre with no trucks and claim what they need from the map. So if its a small or an infantry unit this isn't too important but if its truck heavy (pzr division or Soviet tank/mech corps) then make sure its allocated to the map in or next to an NSS. That way it'll get most or all the trucks it needs. If you bring this sort of unit into a supply poor region it'll seriously lack trucks (& thus MP) and you may well have to redeploy back to a NSS to sort it out. Linked, with the Soviets, even doing this try to stagger the move to map of these corps (and the artillery divisions that need a lot of trucks)

Wait. So basically TB units work like static units on the map from 1942?

So the "Trucks (used): 123(456) in a TB, would mean that 456 trucks are temporarily allocated to supplying the units in the TB, but this is recalculated every turn?

But then what does the first position indicate, "123"? In my game its only Far East that have some 800 trucks in this position, all other TB incl reserves have 0.


Wow, so TB placing a truck heavy unit will empty surrounding depots? I had no idea. This probably explains a few wonky stuff I have experienced! Cheers for this tip!

But I checked a few NSS´s in USSR. They have like 50-250 trucks each, so nothing to fill a Tank Corps. I am guessing they are using all their massive freigh next turn, to vacuum up unused trucks in far flung, non active depots then maybe? Thus being able to fill new truck heavy units withouth intefereing with the supply equilibrium at the (starving) front?

For me its the first january 1942 turn, and I have just started making some units Static, and it would be great to get some better insight how to fill up my army with better truck disposition.

I guess I have 61 truck factories that make 10 trucks each per week, and the Allies give me 800 trucks per week for a total production of 1410 trucks? makes sense?

Setting Inf. Divs. to Static feels lika a drop in the bucket, but I suppose it adds up and every bit helps? Would it be correct to assume, this gives nearby depots and HQs some more trucks, which allivates the supply situation, which leaves more freight for other areas, which gives trickle down effects of the entire Truck situation, somewhat more than what the spare trucks recieved indicate?

Confused but curious...

Thanks!

[loki100]

I think there are some problems in the game you can't solve and the pre-1944 truck situation for the Soviets is one (the other is the VVS dieing in large numbers).

In 1941 they are fine, you don't have a particularly truck demanding army and are falling back on your supply sources. Up to about mid-42 much the same, from late 42 it starts to hurt. 43 can be grim, you need the artillery divisions and tank corps, you need a large army and you are (hopefully) advancing.

1944 mostly solves this by the high LL allocation.

So its a case of managing that shortage. So let areas sit still, build up depots close to the front, accept there are sectors where your mobile assets are a liability, cherish the LL fighters (& then the Yak-9 sequence) as they can sit back to some depth and still provide decent air cover.

I'm not sure about the static option, say on the Volkhov I'd just rely on a network of small depots close to the front. One reason to be suspicious of the static option is you gat a MP of 2, all Soviet units need to rotate off line to refit (at least till mid-43 when your NM and thus experience finally drive down attrition losses), so 2 MP per turn can make that a long march (esp in poor terrain)

of the Theatres the one to watch is the Reserve, this coming out with no trucks can really catch you out. Even Moscow can probably only fill up the equivalent of 2 tank corps in a given turn (so its another bottleneck to your rebuilding)

[juv95hrn]

That makes mostly sense.

But if I deploy a, say tank division from Reserve, to near Moscow, where will its trucks come from? Moscow RSS doesnt have enough. It cant produce trucks, so they would be taken from nearby (or distant?) supplies, units and HQs? Or just some of them?

Keeping tank divisions in the Reserve, would strip them of their trucks then, and provide more for on map movement and units?

Ie. truck requirement in the Production Screen is, in fact, only on map unit trucks and need, not TBs and Reserve?

Understanding these issues would assist in balancing the amount of forces to deploy.

In fall of 1941 I really had to throw everything, and the bath water at the German spearheads to not lose more than Leningrad, Rostov and Ryazan. Its just now in january 1942 I get some breathing room to look things over a bit.

Your input is greatly appreciated. Love the game, and look forward to understanding it a bit better...

Thanks.

EDIT:

So about keeping Soviet Tank and Mech divisions in Reserve or Static on map until they convert. You would "save" the same amount of trucks, (all are taken out?), but you would use less on map freight to supply them in the Reserve? They could dig forts for this price, of course. I suppose one really should blow up the old tanks during the winter, before they get to rust away in a tank graveyard in Siberia too. But thats non-supply related as well.

Are there any other supply/truck nuances to choosing between this (apart from obivous combat value and preparation, etc).

[juv95hrn]

ORIGINAL: juv95hrn

What happens to SUs attached to a Fortress Unit, when the Fortress unit is destroyed (ie. forced to retreat)? Will they retreat, or be destroyed along with the Fortress unit (that has no movement points). If they are auto-eliminated its very dangerous to attach any unit to a front line fort, kind of defeating their purpose?

Bump.

Im sure veterans know this...

[juv95hrn]

ORIGINAL: loki100

its a frustrating bug, on the list to sort out (hopefully the next patch)

I can't find the thread back as that had a work around. This may be save/reload but I'm not sure

found it:

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

This is a known bug that happened in one of the most recent versions. In my experience it is not consistent. One user reported "Workaround is to click on Assign Support Units, exit and click again. No cost then." I'm not sure that works, but you could try it until we are able to fix the bug.

I found another work around.

Instead of "pulling" the construction unit from STAVKA, where you cant tell if they are in a "c"; city, you push them from the STAVKA subordinates to a Front or nearby army, where you can tell if they are stuck in a city.

[juv95hrn]

I am making this a separate one, although it ties in with my previous pondering.

In a Tank Army sitting idle oustide Stalingrad since winter hit, the allotted Trucks varies between 25-120%. They all been on map for weeks, even though some longer than others.

Shouldnt the amounts have balanced out? Why are some divisions hogging more trucks than they need, even when not moving and at full supply? Could I adjust this with refit, HQ supply level, distance to depot (they are all close). Or is this all under-the-hood?

The rail link Stalingrad-to-Rostov/Krasnodar is really limiting I realize, as it should be. How do I handle this supply and transport wise? In and out of Reserve, instead of rail movement? Detour around Astrakhan/Grozny? Depots on the way suck in freight, ie. supplies for troops in the area, but do they also "cost" trucks and transport resources, so should have few large ones. Or better many small ones, which is what I am going with now.

Thanks

[loki100]

some ideas.

1) Yep that is a horrible sector but Stalingrad is a huge railyard so you can generate a lot of rail capacity despite the single track rails

2) Saratov is very close and its an NSS (hint)

3) In 2 turns on an NSS you can expand a airbase from 1-3

4) you can put a lot of transport planes onto a level 3 airfield (this might give you the means to generate a lot of air supply over a relatively short distance)

lots of depots sounds sensible but remember the key relationship is unit - depot with stocks (so if the nearest depot is empty its no great help). Basically the higher the supply priority for a HQ the more likely it will need to go a greater distance to satisfy its needs (this is the enduring trade off between losing so many trucks that you gain the supply but end up with lower MP/CV on balance).

unit trucks can be varying according to how far they are going to get freight and this can vary according to other variables (depot receipts, other unit demands). Part of the routine is that if it can unit trucks get returned to their original unit but this is sometimes not what happens (they are a lot of variables in the system).

units won't tend to hold trucks over their allocation unless there is a global excess, but it can end up with more for a turn or so as they arrive and maybe aren't sent out the next turn.

Even static unit demands vary. They may miss a supply check so need more the next turn, pick up extra attrition, finally get some replacements or change their TOE.

Operationally if you see that Tank Army as a strategic reserve, I'd send it up to Saratov, it might as well interact with the NSS as Stalingrad. In general on that sector a network of small depots between Saratov and Stalingrad can be invaluable for quick refits.

[juv95hrn]

Thanks for the input. I am slowly learning, that HQ supply demand 3-4 is not always the best solution, even if ground units attached might temporarily suffering from low supplies.

Also overusing refit on the frontline is not to recommend, as you helpfully pointed out.

I disbanded a few low morale/experience Tank Divisions, and railing Tank units with full supply and combat preparation away, but on map, instead of the Reserve, sounds like a very sound suggestion, creating a fast response force for spring (rather than a "strategic reserve" in the reserve TB.

I guess I will have to learn the hard way how to deal with the communication between Stalingrad, and the defense of the Caucasus Front, when the Germans come pouring back next summer. Looking forward to it!

Thanks!

[juv95hrn]

When I transfer an air group into an existing AOG on map, from reserve, there is room on the air base. The air base is not set to zero supply level, there is plenty of fuel, ammo and supplies on the air base itself, there is a large depot in the same hex, why do I get "Failed to resupply air base, do you still want to transfer?". To me it feels like this should be an excellent air base to insert more planes into. What am missing? Too low air base supply level, for the amount of new air planes I try to base there?

This example is in Feodosia, on the Kerch, supplied by sea, but it happens afaik everywhere.

+confused+

[juv95hrn]

I need help to understand why my front lines on the Kerch are starving without supplies. HQs are next to them. The ports of Kerch and Feodosia have freight stored up in them. The rail line behind the front isn´t bombed. Its snowfall in January.

Yet a trickle of supplies are sent from a two Caucasus depots to one division, all but one freight each being lost on the way.

And to the majority of the front line hexes none is sent at all. The port depots have very few trucks in them, but I cant influence that except supply settings I believe. Could I send trucks there manually? I dont think so.

Feodosia is 4 hexes from the front, so no horse drawn transport, but if no supplies are sent out, this wouldnt matter I suppose.

I have a prio 4 depot on the rail line one hex behind the front, 3 from the port. It never receives any freight. A lack of moving stock on the peninsula to get anything here?

My only guess would be a somewhat too low supply priority on their HQs, but this doesnt really make sense either. They are some of the highest on the map.

Is it the frontline forts being built automatically sucking up all the supplies? This isnt the case anywhere else.

The AI isnt attacking, so it isnt combat depleting me. And its the delivery, and not the consumption that wont work.

Is it just that you simply cant supply an entire full Front, through the ports, even if they are stocked to the brim with freight?

Anyone dare to venture a guess?

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: juv95hrn

When I transfer an air group into an existing AOG on map, from reserve, there is room on the air base. The air base is not set to zero supply level, there is plenty of fuel, ammo and supplies on the air base itself, there is a large depot in the same hex, why do I get "Failed to resupply air base, do you still want to transfer?". To me it feels like this should be an excellent air base to insert more planes into. What am missing? Too low air base supply level, for the amount of new air planes I try to base there?

This example is in Feodosia, on the Kerch, supplied by sea, but it happens afaik everywhere.

+confused+

it tests what is there, plus what it can send under the in-turn supply routines (ie what is usually used to replenish ammunition etc).

treat it as advice that maybe there might be a longer term problem there but most likely it'll resolve in the next logistics phase.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: juv95hrn

I need help to understand why my front lines on the Kerch are starving without supplies. HQs are next to them. The ports of Kerch and Feodosia have freight stored up in them. The rail line behind the front isn´t bombed. Its snowfall in January.

Yet a trickle of supplies are sent from a two Caucasus depots to one division, all but one freight each being lost on the way.

And to the majority of the front line hexes none is sent at all. The port depots have very few trucks in them, but I cant influence that except supply settings I believe. Could I send trucks there manually? I dont think so.

Feodosia is 4 hexes from the front, so no horse drawn transport, but if no supplies are sent out, this wouldnt matter I suppose.

I have a prio 4 depot on the rail line one hex behind the front, 3 from the port. It never receives any freight. A lack of moving stock on the peninsula to get anything here?

My only guess would be a somewhat too low supply priority on their HQs, but this doesnt really make sense either. They are some of the highest on the map.

Is it the frontline forts being built automatically sucking up all the supplies? This isnt the case anywhere else.

The AI isnt attacking, so it isnt combat depleting me. And its the delivery, and not the consumption that wont work.

Is it just that you simply cant supply an entire full Front, through the ports, even if they are stocked to the brim with freight?

Anyone dare to venture a guess?

aye, I'd go for volume of demand > over what can feasibly be supplied.

worth bearing in mind what the unit supply priority actually means.

units under a level #1 HQ get first call on the supply network but can only get 50% of their total need, so if they have 50% they claim no new supply, at #2 this is 70%, at #3 90% and at #4 the default is 90% but there are a sequence of special rules that come into play.

So the claim sequence is #1 (cap 50%), 2 (cap 70%) etc. So in a low supply region, setting HQ priority >1 has a few problems but may help. The problem is that the local supply such as it is will have long been claimed so you get into the truck problem (ie your unit trucks spend so long looking for supply they forget to be available to move and fight) but it is an insurance policy against failed logistic checks (miss on round 1, they can go and look again on round 2).

Point here, is that simply raising unit supply priority is not the solution. In a problematic area get most of them to 1 or 2 maybe a single 3 (easier with the axis corps HQ).

You have several problems there. One is that rail cap can't cross sea hexes (even with a ferry) - this also affects Leningrad if that is cut off. So you quite likely lack any rail capacity in the Crimea if retaking it from the east till you regain Sevastopol.

I'd suggest take this to a thread in its own right, and add some images, you say the ports are full would help to unpick this if the above doesn't explain the situation.

[Rollerman]

Is it possible to automate the Hungarian and Romanian armed forces?

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Rollerman

Is it possible to automate the Hungarian and Romanian armed forces?

no, any on-map formations need to be handled manually. But there are only a few available Hungarians in 1941 (most are locked in place till about May 42)