GE rail repair discussion

[Nix77]

Rail repair in WitE2 is different from it's predecessor since the logistics system has changed so much, lets start an open discussion about German rail repair strategies! And why not share some Soviet depot secrets too!

Which would be your preferred lines of advance on German T1, and which are the key depot candidate cities and towns to reach early?

FBD4(AGN): Raseiniai, Jelgava, Riga? Or just have Riga act as a main import port in the north... is that enough for AGN in the beginning? Is it worth to build depots south of Riga? You can get Raseiniai online on T2, but is it really useful? Should FBD4 perhaps concentrate on getting the Vilnius - Pskov double rail line online to allow two FBDs operate in AGS area?

FBD2 (AGC): This FBD can be diverted to either northern approach (Vilnius-Daugavapils), or handle Vilnius-Minsk supply to allow two FBD in south?

FBD3 (AGC): Brest-Litovsk => Kowel => Rovno => Zhitomir? Or maybe double with FBD1 toward Vinnitsa? Or even more south if sending FBD1 to Romania is still a thing?

FBD1 (AGS): Lvov-Proskurov-Vinnitsa => link with Romanian FBD toward Odessa? Can you still send this south to Romania to get quickly to Odessa?

These are just my random musings, and are based on WitE1 experience. FBD depot boost makes everything probably even more complicated? Also I'm not sure how effectively port supply works, take Riga for example. You can probably boost it to work on quite high capacity with AGN HQ stationed there?

I liked to micromanage (indirectly) my support RR battalions in WitE1, and it seems to work still! How risky would it be to remove RAD/OT battalions from FBDs to act as pin-point repair units on Corps/Army HQs? I noticed that I could leave only 3 road construction battalions for FBD4, and it could still operate at full efficiency with some repair margin left at RRV5 (RRV4 is still 1MP/hex). Doing this I received three support battalions that each repair 1 hex per turn. Problem here is that they can't be returned to the FBD which makes it vulnerable to attrition and probably bad weather later on in the campaign.

Depot placement is a big mystery for me still since I haven't had time to play around with that yet. You probably don't want to spend too many APs spitting these out, but at least for now it's still really difficult for me to figure the exact spacing and capacity of the depots that I should have. AI assist places "up to 10 depots" with a max cost of 5AP, that seems like AI depot assist could be even more efficient than placing them manually?

[carlkay58]

Some general comments and ruminations.

1. Yes the Axis support RR battalions (the RAR Labor units) still work independently and can be 'gamed' to repair where you wish them to. Good examples are readily available in my current AAR. I do not bring it out explicitly but notice 18th Army HQ in the Baltics and the Hungarian VIII Corps in the south.

2. I do not tend to use the Super Depot (HQ + non-moving FBD) because I would rather those FBDs keep moving and converting rails.

3. An FBD that is NOT repairing a double rail line is potentially being wasted.

4. You can strip an FBD down to five construction units and not have more than a single hex repair loss (if you keep them in good supply and assign them to a local HQ). This frees up an additional three RAR Labor units for the Axis.

5. ALWAYS keep Army and AG HQs on rail depots - preferably in level 2 railyards or better.

6. The new logistics model is an art form - there really is no true and tried science to it. You will find that all of the playtesters have their own ways of doing things and they all kinda work well.

But the two true facts are:

1. Axis had better protect railyards such as Minsk with fighter and/or flak because these large railyards are just begging the VVS to bomb.

2. No matter what you do as the Axis the rain and blizzard weather will break your logistics in 41.

[dudefan]

"You can strip an FBD down to five construction units and not have more than a single hex repair loss (if you keep them in good supply and assign them to a local HQ). This frees up an additional three RAR Labor units for the Axis."

5 normal construction units or rail repair/O.T. units?

[Nix77]

OT/RAD units, they're the ones that do the passive repair. Pulling them out makes the FBD a bit too weak I've noticed after all. They lose RRV too fast when repairing if they have too few support units, and you cant reattach them.

Better to just leave them there, unless you want to use one FBD strictly for depot boosting.

You can transfer a couple of RAD units from Norway if you have TB control on.

[dudefan]

Oh no. I made a big mistake then. I pulled out nearly all rail repair units out of the fbds. Damn. A lost case?


That's really bad. I am in turn 24 already

[loki100]

you can't return them, so in that sense yes. Auto-repair is not a total disaster for a breadth repair strategy (if you are careful about where they are assigned) but it won't chain for depth, ie each one will only repair a hex that was connected to the existing rail net

[dudefan]

ORIGINAL: loki100

you can't return them, so in that sense yes. Auto-repair is not a total disaster for a breadth repair strategy (if you are careful about where they are assigned) but it won't chain for depth, ie each one will only repair a hex that was connected to the existing rail net

Ok. Thank you. Very annoying that I can't reassign them. What is the reason this is not possible? Too gamey?

[loki100]

not sure to be honest, breaking out the component parts of a rail repair HQ has always been a one way option going back to WiTE1, so it maybe simply a coding constraint or reflect a wider design view

I've done it a few times in WiTW, you can sometimes manage to get quite depleted allied rail repair formations and then it maybe better to have 3-4 well fitted out auto-repair formations rather than the command moving painfully slowly

[Jajusha]

I belive the answer is "it depends",

Will you go for the classic move and blast your panzers through Pskov, or will you be taking the north hook to clear the Talinn port as fast as possible?

In my limited experience,
If you are charging Pskov, the Riga Port will supply your spreadhead while both your AGN and AGC FDBrepair the Kaunas Vilnus double Rail. AGC will then keep going to Minsk, while AGN will head to PSKOV. I usually use the Totenkopf division to flip the hexes north of the Vilnus junction so that the 16th army can move faster. Alot of the rail will be taken intact. You'll have the Pskov depot up and running in no time, and the capacity will do just fine for the full AGN

If instead you prefer to fake the Pskov move and charge north at the last moment then you will really need to connect the rail to Riga and push it to Tallinn. The rail capacity will be just enough to keep the panzer group + 18th army supplied while 16th army forces it to Pskov.

[Jango32]

Question about section 7.2.5 from the manual. In there, it is stated that yellow hexes (with railway mapmode on) are going to be fully functional next turn along with the orange ones.

At the start of turn 2 though, almost none of the yellow hexes repaired. What am I missing?

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Jango32

Question about section 7.2.5 from the manual. In there, it is stated that yellow hexes (with railway mapmode on) are going to be fully functional next turn along with the orange ones.

At the start of turn 2 though, almost none of the yellow hexes repaired. What am I missing?

yellow means it is intact but not connected to your main rail net (ie by rail/port to a NSS), for eg:

[Jango32]

Ah, that makes sense. Thank you Loki for the quick reply.

[Richard III]

Are Rail Repair units automated, if so how to set that ?

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Just FYI

You can repair with 2 FBD's(or more) on the same track. For instane, if you have all clear terrain hexes 1 FBD can repair 8 hexes. You could continue that repair with a 2nd FBD if desired to do so to repair even more hexes.

Just throwing this out there.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Richard III

Are Rail Repair units automated, if so how to set that ?

Negative, not automated.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

You also need to consider adding Lvl 2 rail yards to your converted track too.

[bairdlander2]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: Richard III

Are Rail Repair units automated, if so how to set that ?

Negative, not automated.

?? I thought RAD support units attached to Hq's automatically go out and repair,forward.

[MechFO]

ORIGINAL: bairdlander2

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: Richard III

Are Rail Repair units automated, if so how to set that ?

Negative, not automated.

?? I thought RAD support units attached to Hq's automatically go out and repair,forward.

He's talking about the FBD's.

[jallison86]

Hopping onto this thread for a total newb question about rail repair. I'm playing through Road to Leningrad as the Axis against the AI. I made good progress initially, but now my units are bogging down due to poor supply. Looking at rail damage, it's clear why: may rail net is a disaster! Heavily damaged. Per the rules in 21.6.1 and 22.6.1, I got the impression that rail repairs would happen automatically as repair units spawned from HQs. But I'm not seeing this happening. Seems like I'm missing some obvious step, but I'm not sure what. Any advice appreciated.

Thanks!

- Jeff

[carlkay58]

There are two RAD Labor Units assigned to your Army Group North HQ in that scenario. They will only repair two hexes per turn that are adjacent to other repaired rails. You will capture rail in the Baltics that you will be able to use without repair but it is random and only in locations where you did not fight a battle.

The key that you are missing is the FBD unit. This is a unit that you control that will repair rail hexes where you move it to and tell it to repair. Find that unit and use it! When you select the unit it will highlight all rail hexes within its movement capability that are not repaired. If you move it to one of those hexes and press the 'r' key it will repair the hex. You can then move it again and repair, etc. The usual method is to move it to the rail line that you wish repaired and move it along the rail while repairing the hexes that require repair.

You can then either create depots along the repaired rail yourself or activate the AI Depot button and let the AI figure out where to place your depots.