Central Asian Entry Point???

[el cid again]

I have been playing with making the "caravan and truck route" between China and Mongolia a road - and it does not seem to cause any trouble. It would not support a major force - but it will permit movement and small forces - so it means the Russian Right and the Japanese Left flanks should be covered (troops cannot be withdrawn with impunity for more offensive operations - there is risk - something I always seek). That requires a change in pwhex and eventually map art - but not much.

I have been much more troubled about what to do with the existing "caravan and truck route" (both these are quotes from the US Army Atlas) up to Sinkiang??? Especially now we know it is more or less ROC at the start of WITP - how to make sense out of this "road to nowhere"???

How about making it a "road to somewhere" I thought? But where? How about a new entry hex on the map edge.
My model here is Peshiwar in Pakistan/Afghanistan area. RHS introduced it as a minor supply source - and it has caused no trouble. It is part of the RHS system of more (and also less important) Allied sources of map edge supply. It gives the Allies somewhere to retreat to - and to come back from. And the more of these we have, the less it matters if some awesome Japanese offensive takes one or more of them.

Another consideration is art. Cobra is tied up just now - and RHS is not his present priority. So I want to do this without any art requirements. My current theory is this: what if we call the map edge (well - as near as we can put a location - row 2) hex 44/2 Yining and make a Peshiwar like entry point out of it. We might call it Soviet controlled, and put those two units (8th regiment and a small air station) formerly at Urumchi there. Yinning is near the border - an undefined thing - on the traditional route to places like Alma Ata. There is no meaningful connection from this area to Mongolia or to Soviet Central Asia to the North - except off map to the West. The length of that connection exceeds even a zig zag route, and is so poor it would be only a trail - and it would need art - so a connection to the Soviet main supply point of Krasnoyarsk seems not worth bothering with. Even if we did it - nothing could move along it except maybe resources. This leaves me thinking that a small, isolated entry point is the best solution here. It gives meaning to the otherwise pretty useless road to the Northwest through Sinkiang. And the Soviets can invade Sinkiang and go to Urumchi if they wish - something not really practical now. If movement of a regiment qualifies for the term "invasion."

[el cid again]

Testing indicates this base should be at 45,2 - so Soviet I-16s can reach it - otherwise it never gets fighters in the early war period. I had to recode pwhex to suit.

Strangely - the base - if fed just enough to meet the requirements of its units - steadily builds its supply stocks. Seems that idle units do NOT actually need their supply requirements. At truly isolated bases - islands - I have noted ZERO production as well. Not sure what this is about? But here - a small supply source - it is OK if it is available to feed Urumchi a bit. My final test settings are 280 supply points per day - plus 5 resource centers - with an initial stock of 2850 supply points and 50 resource points (the WITP norm being 10 days production - the real world norm).