Rail Repair ?

[Ski01]

The small repair units seem to pop up each turn in strange and unhelpful places. How do I direct them, or place them where I need? (This may be a very dumb question - but I have searched the manual....)

[loki100]

They are hard to control.

If you really need them in a specific area the best solution is to re-assign to a corps command that is in that region. That way they can't wander too far while if they are at SHAEF etc they can be assigned pretty much anywhere.

Problem with my solution is you will probably have to move them to a new command later on so they can repair somewhere else so its really a matter of how much effort you want to put into this.

Also, over time they will repair some useful, more remote, secondary lines. So the auto routine with them in a very high level HQ is not a complete disaster.

[GeneralDad]

They also like to vacation in places like Sardinia (as WA). It costs admin points to affix them manually to a hex but sometimes that is the best solution, at least for a few of them. I like to affix at least one engineer to a newly captured port that needs repair. I also affix them to invasion temporary port airfields that start with a damage of 50% so as to repair the damage. Just remember to release them when they are done. I have had less success with airfield expansion, sometimes they do it and apparently sometimes the required materials are not available so they sit there and do nothing. So I just set airbases I want to expand to do so and hope the engineer and materials show up.

If you click on the city name for a hex in the upper right corner you get a dialog that allows you to assign units to a city at the cost of an admin point.

Also remember that at least as WA (I have not played much Axis) you have dedicated rail repair corps (xxx). These can be moved around the map. When on a repairable rail hex they have an "RRC" button in the unit box along the right side of the map. Also, repairable rail hexes are shaded red when these units are selected. A rail hex has to be adjacent to a repaired hex or be a port to be repaired.

Hope that helps,
General Dad

On edit - did not mean for the growly face to be there.

[cfulbright]

I take a different approach. If I know I'll need construction units in a particular theater soon, I'll leave units that have completed their work where they are, so they don't go wandering off. Sometimes I'll have two or even three construction units assigned to a healthy city, just to have them ready when I need them nearby.

Cary