ORIGINAL: joelmar
Here is a FBD repair weirdness I spotted, here is the new rule for reference:
1.12.04
9. A hex will now be eligible for FBD/NKPS repair if:
a. it is within 4 hexes of a railhead (6 in the Baltic zone prior to Dec 1941) - please note, that since 1.12.00 range to rail or HQ is now measured along the path of lowest MP cost to target hex, not in a straight line);
b. it is within RRV (Rail Repair Value of the FBD/NKPS unit) hexes of a railhead;
c. it is connected to another friendly rail hex that has less than 2 damage.
I have this situation where I can't repair 6 hexes in the baltic because of a single swamp hex which forces to take the path of least MP that goes around it.
I understand the purpose. But by the rule, the repair would have been permitted if there had been a swamp hex to the south-east or east because both paths would have been equal, which doesn't make sense. It's like, if there is a faster path around, you can't repair up to the max, but if there is no faster path around, you can. lol!
This posted got me thinking so I've been testing on the German side.
First FBD/NKPS need construction/labour units or they have no RRV. It's not how many units are assigned but the number of men in the units that matters. Very roughly, one labour grp is equivalent to three contruction Bn or labour det. One Bn/Det is slightly less than 1 RRV with one Grp being slightly more than 3 RRV. This roughly equates to 450 men per RRV.
FBD/NKPS require MP moving at the non-motorised movement costs. This is 16MP and once expended they cannot move any more that turn. The RRC value is the cost to repair a hex, 1 in Baltic, 3 elsewhere and is subtracted from its RRV value for each repaired hex. What is not appreciated is that this is also a MP cost so repairing a Baltic hex also costs 1 MP, elsewhere 3MP. For the Germans with 16 RRV and a max 16 MP its easy to see. The Roumanian one with only 10MP isn't. Having an RRV greater than your movement points is pointless but you can apparently increase it, how far I don't know but it's pointless. I've got one in testing that's 23.
This is why some units may not be able to fully use all their RRV each turn, or vica versa, able to move further but not repair.
The other problem is the range to railhead restriction. 6 in the baltic, 4 elsewhere. This is range in hexes and not MP but you cannot go through an enemy ZOC. I can't remember how it used to work but I think '...not in a straight line)' implies you could.
If I was arranging the order of repair elligibility I list them as below but ALL conditions must me met.
1. It must be connected to another friendly rail hex that has less than 2 damage that is itself conected to fully functional railhead. This excludes repaired rail hexes that cannot be used. (E.g. Green ones with thre white dots).
2. It has enough RRV left to repair it.
3. It's within 4 hexes of a fully repaired railhead (6 in the Baltic zone prior to Dec 1941) - please note, that since 1.12.00 range to railhead or HQ is now measured along the path of lowest MP cost to target hex, not in a straight line).
Example
If you look at the pic below the circled FBD in the Baltic is in a neutral zone with 11 RRV and 3 MP remaining and is 7MP from the railhead. It should be able to repair the hex but it's too far away due to having to go round the ZOC of the Soviet unit and not in a straight line. If you remove the enemy ZOC then the FBD will repair the hex but it will now run out of MPs so cannot move further, hence not use all of it's RRV.
After testing I can find nothing wrong with the manual repair system, it's working as intended. In the eexample in this thread the FBD is seven hexes away from the railhead which is why you cannot repair the hex.
Auto repair
Remember that the 1st rule for auto repair is the same as that for manual repair. It must be connected to another friendly rail hex that has less than 2 damage that is itself conected to fully functional railhead. This excludes repaired rail hexes that cannot be used. (E.g. Green ones with thre white dots).
The other restriction applied is the HQ will only send out construction/labour units out to the their max command range, 90 for High cammand, 10 for Soviet army, 5 for Corps etc. When attacking Corps and possibly Army HQs are likely to exceed the distance from the railhead, so be unable to carry out railrepair.
So during the German Blitzkreig in 1941 for example, putting more than one, possible two construction units in a German Korps is not benificial. Your not digging in. Once mud sets in however fort construction becomes more important so increasing this number becomes more important.
