But with respect to my distinguished former opponent, he couldn't see first-hand what was happening because he didn't play the Soviets and I'm not sure people understand very well how the Soviet production system works. That is the one area I certainly didn't and so i've spent a lot of time diving into lately.
For starters, heavy industry provides all general supplies for the two major components, the Soviet industrial complex and the Red Army. The industrial complex uses general supplies for 4 components: vehicles/trucks, aircraft, ground elements/AFVs, and armaments(artillery pieces/rifles). And it's important for Soviet players to understand that the industrial complex always gets first call on supplies. The Red Army gets whatever is left. What the Red Army gets is general supplies and when they reach an army by way of the supply grid, then magically some of those supplies are converted into ammunition. The rest remains as food for the soldiers and fodder for the horses, along with boots, buckles and so on. If not enough supplies get to the unit, then they do not recover from fatigue well because basically they're going hungry or worse, they're starving.
Since virtually all Soviet players leave heavy industry behind in 1941 due to the high evacuation cost, the basic engine that provides supplies shrinks as these factories disappear. There is a sustantial surplus of general supplies, about 350,000 tons at the start of the war but it gradually is eaten up as the war grinds on. When there isn't much fighting going on, the Red Army can gradually build up stocks. But when the Axis player launches a flurry of attacks over the course of weeks, the defending units can rapidly draw down these supply stocks. The problem then becomes exacerbated the larger the army is as more units are needing to be fed/equipped/supplied etc.
Where it's most difficult for the Soviets is in 1942 because there is only a small HI multiplier to boost the production of supplies and this is the year which can arguably decide who the winner of the game is. It gets better in 1943 and beyond with higher multipliers, but by then of course the Red Army has grown considerably and needs the corresponding boost in supply.
Below I have a comparison of my supply situation in my game with Pelton on turns 40, 70 and 100. Turn 2 is there just to give you an idea what the Red Army starts the war with. The turns below, 55 and 60 are in the current game with farfarer. If you look at Supplies in Units, in Pelton's game I was running anywhere between 65-80% of what the Red Army needed to be properly supplied. It was also a game where I had quite a few less divisions to equip. If you look at the bottom turn 55 where I had 57% of needed supplies, farfarer was in the early stage of the summer campaign and in just 5 turns that fell to 45%. What that means is I basically started the Summer campaign with relatively low supplies and the situation only got worse, which in turn severely limited my Dnepr offensive and made it much more difficult for defending units in the north to get good movement rates at the start of each turn. That is also why you saw so many units with a zero supply level.
My lesson learned then is the Soviet player needs to guard against building an army that effectively can't be supplied by the industrial complex of 1942. The following year is something of a different story once the higher multipliers kick in for Heavy Industry. But the overall aim is a sense of balance between the supply engine and the army.
