Noob Questions on Random Scenarios

[MPHopcroft1]

As an utter noob, I've been advised to try my hand at some of the random scenarios as a way to learn the game. However, I am becoming hopelessly lost in the production phases to start out. I produce units, but if I move them they go out of supply and nothing I can do can restore them, and I cannot get assigning an HQ to a unit (even another HQ) to work properly.

Is there a proper way to do this that I have somehow not been able to fathom?

[MPHopcroft1]

I know it sounds weird to reply to my own post, and I don't mean this as a needless bump, but I think I've refined my supply issue a little bit.

When my units go any distance, they find themselves out of supply. I had thought building headquarters might help, but supplies generated at the Supreme HQ have to find a way to get to the front and the land carrying capacity isn't really adequate for forces of any size, particularly in certain map configurations.

Even building supplies closer to the front at captured cities doesn't seem to help.

What should I do?

[darrellb9]

You need trucks in your HQs to add land transport capacity.
Also build roads with engineers if there aren't any.

[tweber]

The supply range without roads is quite limited.  You will need to build engineers to build roads or play a random scenario with a better road infrastructure.  There is a supply overlay button on the bottom right part of the game.  You can click it to see if you units will be in supply or not.

[Twotribes]

It is my understanding trucks have nothing to do with supply. That is purely a function of distance from assigned headquarters ( modified by roads and terrain). Roads are critical for a supply line.

[seille]

Reading this i think it could be fun to finally play again a random PBEM mirror map without any roads [:)]

[PDiFolco]

ORIGINAL: Twotribes

It is my understanding trucks have nothing to do with supply. That is purely a function of distance from assigned headquarters ( modified by roads and terrain). Roads are critical for a supply line.

Yes, AFAIK trucks/cargoes aren't needed to transport supplies (except manually).

[MPHopcroft1]

A few other questions:

1. When is a good time in the typical random scenario to build things like tanks?
2. Are tanks more effective in formations by themselves or as supplements to infantry formations?
3. Should one immediately build a HQ in a captured/annexed city for units that are constructed closer to the front?

[Ande]

1. I put tanks in my units when I need to attack and thats usually at contact with the enemy
2. I have standalone armored units with suplementary motorized or mechanized infantry making them less vulnerable  against counterattak
3.usually it is best to gather all production at top HQ and use large numbers of trucks for flexibility and have your hq stand in the middle of your front.

[Twotribes]

ORIGINAL: Ande

1. I put tanks in my units when I need to attack and thats usually at contact with the enemy
2. I have standalone armored units with suplementary motorized or mechanized infantry making them less vulnerable against counterattak
3.usually it is best to gather all production at top HQ and use large numbers of trucks for flexibility and have your hq stand in the middle of your front.

I do not do this but the idea is sound, it allows you to have the best bonus for HQ. Large hqs with production pouring in don't move very well at all and are hard to transfer around.

[Axeking]

My answers:
1. As soon as you need them. It really depends on both the terrain and your general position. If you are defensive, tanks are a low priority - you need troops to fill the lines. But if you are having to defend in the plains, then you will need tanks to handle the AI tanks and armored cars.
If you are offensive, then tanks are more useful as infantry (eg. rifle) aren't as good on attack as they are on defense.
 
2. I've never had my tanks in a formation by themselves...  Always include some infantry with them. The inf is cheap, and will draw away a lot of attacks from your tanks (especially fighters .
 
3. Depends on how big the land mass is. If you are fighting on a mostly land map, you probably wont need a second HQ until after 20 or so turns. Just make sure you have _lots_ of trucks (I usually aim to have 100- 150) in your HQ and you can move your troops wherever you need them.
 
 If it is an island map, I build an HQ on each new island and have all production on that island go to that HQ. One extremely important thing - make sure your supreme HQ is in a port and has a lot of cargoships (20 to 40) attached to it  so that you have a large sea transport capacity.
 
One major advantage of this is that when you capture a port on the new island (or build one using engineers), you place the new HQ in the port, and you can immediately start shipping stocked up troops and supplies from other HQs in ports to the new one. This lets you land 1 formation on an island, build 3 or 4 more on the same turn, and be likely to hold the beachhead...
 
One last note - trucks are needed to move supplies. If you don't have any land transport capacity left at the end of your turn, you will find a lot of your units (those more than 1 turn move away from the HQ) will not get resupplied. Also, if you don't have trucks in the HQ, it can't store very much supply...

[seille]

ORIGINAL: Ande
3.usually it is best to gather all production at top HQ and use large numbers of trucks for flexibility and have your hq stand in the middle of your front.

That way i thought myself until i played tweber the first time in russia 1941.
I had all my production routed to OKW and from there (with high readiness penalty !!) to the front HQ´s.
While he routed his production WITHOUT that penalty direct to the front HQ´s. Good production management.

Of course the first way is more flexible, but the high readiness penalty is a thing that made me thinking to change to his
way. This and the fact he kicked my ass....
These days i play his way and route my production direct to the places where it´s needed. Central i let only the supply and maybe PP arrive.
Planes are also no problem since they don´t get any readiness penalty in transfer or attaching to new HQ´s.

[Ande]

It is a matter of flexibility vs efficency, and personaly I think the micromanaging of production is too complicated for most situations, you must not only consider your own actions but also predict actions of your enemy and have sufficent mobility capacity at all of your HQ's. But the russia 1941 scenario is a scenario with small marginals and predictions might not be that hard due to the scene, giving this startegy an advantage. So yes it might be a good idea in that type scenario. I tried it in a official ladder game to save production on mobilecap and my hole structure became very shaky, not allowing me to allocate replacements as I wished

[tweber]

In the Russia 1941 scenario, Germany has 4 front line HQs and 2 main production locations to manage so shifting production of the 2 across the 4 should not be too much of a chore. 
 
I think you cannot afford any extra units in the ladder special (especially if you play Xenomath).  You have to send production straight to the front and think seriously about every single hex you enter. 
 
So to answer the original question, I think it is important to always send reinforcements directly to front line units.
 
To your questions on tanks, I think tanks are decent in both offense and defense.  I also think they should always have as many infantry as they can carry (5).  It just gives the unit more flexibility.