Out of supplies question

[mariovalleemtl]

I made some tests.

Has the German, I close the pocket on the Russian units on the West side of the map.

It look like they never become out of supplies !
They could move has they wont for ever. They never loose energy.

What do you think ? Is it normal at this scale ? In the other games, they stop moving after just a fews turn.

[e_barkmann]

a few points here.

A unit that is out of supply will not regain it's attack bullets - so after a couple of attacks out of supply it's going to only be able to defend and will require some other gallant units to come to its rescue.

Units are generally more resilient on the defense - and so they will retain their normal defense value although defense bullets also won't be replenished when out of general supply - additionally they will become very fragile once they run out of defense bullets (these are the jerry can icons in Defense bar in the Unit display). Every time they receive an attack, they'll burn up a defense bullet - as well as when they entrench, for instance.

So a non-static defence inside a pocket is likely to end in tears as the units burn up their defense bullets and eventually they will become Isolated (27.7 in the manual) - and then it's all over very quickly.

Cheers chris

[mariovalleemtl]

Maybe I was not clear Chris, I am taking about movement ability of a isolated units.[/align]My Russians units could move galore, turn after turn, without running out of fuel.[/align]

[e_barkmann]

Hi Mario

Units inside pockets were more than capable of moving - just look at Hube's Pocket or the breakout migration out of the Korsun Pocket.

Question is - why are they still being allowed to move? If it's a pocket I would assume it is actively being reduced?

Once a true pocket is formed - it would not be wise for the defenders to move about at all, until or if it becomes critical. Breaking entrenchment is not done without good reason.

Cheers Chris

edit - ah I think I see where you are coming from - that's a design question best answered by SSG, but I'll tell you this - the Germans will become quite familiar with Soviet pockets in this game, and I can assure you the Soviet units are not making a picnic trip of it each day

[Gregor_SSG]

ORIGINAL: Mario Vallée

Maybe I was not clear Chris, I am taking about movement ability of a isolated units.[/align]My Russians units could move galore, turn after turn, without running out of fuel.[/align]

What I think we are seeing here is the difference between an isolated unit or small group and a large pocket containing complete formations and retaining a reasonable measure of military organisation. The small groups can be smashed fairly quickly, but the reduction of a large pocket does not happen overnight.

Historically, the Germans at Kharkov did form a large pocket containing many Russian units, but they couldn't reduce it overnight. In order to reflect, in game terms, the higher resilience of a large pocket, we have given the Russians a couple of supply dumps which will sustain them for a while if the Germans do complete the encirclement.

I know that the gamer in us likes to see all enemy units removed from the map by the end of the game, but this just wasn't possible in historical terms within the period of the scenario.

Gregor