Depot and HQ

[midgard30]

Hi, I have some questions on depot and transport columns

1) Does distance between a depot and a unit affect how well this one will be supplied?

2) If so, should I place my depots at equal distance from the sep to the supplied units (i.e. SEP -> depot -> units)?

3) What are the impacts on suppling units if I order a depot to move? (same as if it was forced by enemy units?)

4) What are the impacts of bombardment on a depot? (Killing personnel, destroying vehicles?)

5) And along the same lines, what are the impacts of bombardment on HQ?

Thanks

[navwarcol]

Hello Macob.. I will give a shot at these, just mostly so that you know you are not alone on the board lol.
If someone knows factually better than I, be my guest..mine is ENTIRELY based upon my own observations.
1) Yes.. it seems to me that the invisible units, trucks, etc carrying your supplies, will obviously move faster, so your supplies will arrive in timelier fashion... also your units footprint seems to have some good effect on how much supply gets through from what I have been able to see.
2)Personally I put the depots for each level as far forward as prudent, along the same idea as HQ...so regimental depots are more forward than are divisional, or corps..etc.
3) From what I can tell, moving the depot makes it take awhile..sometimes QUITE awhile, for higher echelon depots, to begin sending supplies through again.
4)I have observed bombardments on depots killing and destroying vehicles, eventually you can also destroy it as any combat unit. For this reason you want to keep it in a place entirely out of enemy LOS, and if it IS seen and targeted, move it asap.
5) Same as above

good luck!

[wodin]

The advice was always don't move the depot unless you really have too..if your supply is cut it's much easier to find and eliminate the enemy thats cutting it rather than trying to move the depot..which 1. Takes too long and the time your units are out of supply for that duration is longer than the time spent in opening up the supply lines again through either pulling back abit or using a reserve to track and destroy the enemy cutting i. 2. Could come across enemy units 3. just to risky generally.

I very very rarely move depots.

[jimcarravall]

ORIGINAL: macob30

Hi, I have some questions on depot and transport columns

1) Does distance between a depot and a unit affect how well this one will be supplied?

2) If so, should I place my depots at equal distance from the sep to the supplied units (i.e. SEP -> depot -> units)?

3) What are the impacts on suppling units if I order a depot to move? (same as if it was forced by enemy units?)

4) What are the impacts of bombardment on a depot? (Killing personnel, destroying vehicles?)

5) And along the same lines, what are the impacts of bombardment on HQ?

Thanks

I'll get a little technical first. In the US command structure, the Depot is a static location far removed from the combat zone. In command ops, the SEP reflects the place on the map where supplies pushed from the depot enter the combat zone.

The supply base (identified by the depot symbol ) is the unit that receives supplies pushed from the depot and administers their distribution to the combat units based on their demands for resupply.

Most of this operation is outside of the player's direct control.

As Navwarcol said, the supply base should be kept out of harm's way because it's the hub in the combat zone where supplies going to combat units can be interdicted.

There's a penalty of reduced supply for moving the unit (notionally because the trucks which normally would be used to ship the supplies to combat units would instead be hauling everything to a new stockpile location before they resume the distribution from that stockpile).

But, in the event the routes to combat units are cut off, it may be better to relocate the hub formed at the supply base to improve communications than it would be to stay in one place and defend an untenable supply hub in the combat zone. Keep in mind that attacking units not only have the potential of destroying the supply base, but even if they don't destroy the base, their attack cuts lines of communication to the combat units drawing supply from that base causing disruption (those nasty "supply column suffered 100 percent casualty" messages).

The decision might depend on the scenario length (a long distance supply base move in a 3-day scenario would have a greater impact on supply flow than that same distance move might have on the second day of a nine day scenario) or the criticality of the base (the fewer the bases the more critical each is to assure receipt of supplies from the SEP and distribution of those to combat units when demanded).

Hope this helps.

[midgard30]

ORIGINAL: navwarcol

Hello Macob.. I will give a shot at these, just mostly so that you know you are not alone on the board lol.

Thanks for your concern. [;)]

The supply base (identified by the depot symbol ) is the unit that receives supplies pushed from the depot

Thanks for the clarification [/quote]

2)Personally I put the depots for each level as far forward as prudent, along the same idea as HQ...so regimental depots are more forward than are divisional, or corps..etc.

ORIGINAL: wodin

The advice was always don't move the depot unless you really have too..

3) From what I can tell, moving the depot makes it take awhile..sometimes QUITE awhile, for higher echelon depots, to begin sending supplies through again.

I very very rarely move depots.

To move or not to move, that is the tough question for supply bases! [8D]

I know some of these answers seem obvious, (and I did do my homeworks by reading older threads) but supplies are the most abstracted elements of the game. It's not really clear how they behave under fire and how much they affect other combat units.

their attack cuts lines of communication to the combat units drawing supply from that base causing disruption (those nasty "supply column suffered 100 percent casualty" messages).

About that, can we use the path tool to figure out the route used by transport columns? Could be helpful to clear these disrupted roads or to find good hub location.

good luck!

At this time, I'm wandering between draws and marginal victories on the smaller scenarios. It's not so bad, my last game was really instructive; even a draw can be satisfying when you tries ideas and they work!

Really interesting stuff to read here, thanks everybody for your advises!

[jimcarravall]

ORIGINAL: macob30

. . .

To move or not to move, that is the tough question for supply bases! [8D]

I know some of these answers seem obvious, (and I did do my homeworks by reading older threads) but supplies are the most abstracted elements of the game. It's not really clear how they behave under fire and how much they affect other combat units.

their attack cuts lines of communication to the combat units drawing supply from that base causing disruption (those nasty "supply column suffered 100 percent casualty" messages).

About that, can we use the path tool to figure out the route used by transport columns? Could be helpful to clear these disrupted roads or to find good hub location.

If I recall correctly, the default supply routing is "normal speed / covered path" as portrayed in the sidebar tools.

Keep in mind that what might be considered "covered" changes depending on what friendly units currently observe as enemy positions.

Monitoring a unit detailed to probe a "covered path" (in most cases it should be a motorized unit) between the base and units which might experience supply delays should result in discovering any interdicted points along the route.

Depending on the criticality of the supply delay to a combat unit, the decision to do this should be made after researching where the "covered path" might go near an enemy unit identified as being located near the path with the "recent" or "all" intelligence filter turned on (units near the path with the "current" filter turned on are almost certainly candidates for immediate action.

A less active but more unit intensive approach would be to assign rear units to defend in places from which they are capable of observing / guarding crossings and road communications choke points along a potential supply route. It expands "current intelligence" observation space to include the more likely places where a route could be seriously interdicted.

Hope this helps.

[Lieste]

Hmm.. I'd understood it as a modified version of 'Fastest with avoidance priority'... but this only based on *known* enemy presence, which has historically been a bit buggy. Supply will sometimes attempt to go across the FLOT to reach units if there is an ambiguous route and this 'appears' to be the easier route.

This can be managed by 'direct' support of the FLOT segment from the Rgt base, pushing it forwards and centred on the supplied elements, and should be more consistent in the future for other cases.

[jimcarravall]

ORIGINAL: Lieste

Hmm.. I'd understood it as a modified version of 'Fastest with avoidance priority'... but this only based on *known* enemy presence, which has historically been a bit buggy. Supply will sometimes attempt to go across the FLOT to reach units if there is an ambiguous route and this 'appears' to be the easier route.

This can be managed by 'direct' support of the FLOT segment from the Rgt base, pushing it forwards and centred on the supplied elements, and should be more consistent in the future for other cases.

OK, I stand corrected. As it turns out, I was recollecting an answer you'd sent on another thread, but unfortunately couldn't remember the thread or who answered other than thinking "that makes sense" when I read it.

Was under the thread on Supply Entry Points called "help with SEPs" tm.asp?m=3268257&mpage=1&key=

There was some good discussion on supply operations.

[Arjuna]

Just to confirm David's advice that supply routes use an avoidance route which is essentially a quickest route but avoiding known enemy firepower influence. Safest routes, which are covered routes with avoidance, are used when units rout.

[midgard30]

Thanks everyone, again very complete and instructive info. Now I have a better picture on how to handle supplies. It's great to see that people take time to detail tactics and game processes. Now I just wish it will give me the little edge I need to shift toward decisive victories! [8D]