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I played a complete game of Road to Moscow - Crossing the Border using the Standard Rules (yup, I'm a noob). Part of my success as the German player vs IA (all objectives captured) was using railroads to shuttle rested infantry up to the Minsk area. Upon then playing under advanced rules, to my horror using rail lines in captured territory is virtually impossible.

Rail crews with rail repair capability of 2, and requiring one hex per turn, on a map this large with only 12 turns makes the use of railroads pretty much out of the question. Is this supposed to be? Tell me it ain't so.

This is WAD (works as designed). Remember that historically the Russian gauge differed (and still does) from the other European railroad gauges. Hence the whole tracks had to be re-set; even the ones that weren't destroyed by the Soviets.

Which version of the RTM series you got? Rob released a few updates lately... *e.g. more RR repair crews*.

Klink,Oberst

Thanks for your observation, Herr Oberst.

Indeed RR repair and supply is something that needs to be carefully managed. I initially assinged the RR repair two to each Pz Armee. Indeed, that is not enough to get very far.

In the latest version, all RR repair units have been consolidated into a single formation in Warsaw. All can be used on a single rail line, leapfrog the repair. Minsk now also contains a German supply point.

Like Herr Oberst say, the RR repair was limited...

As an aside, when I play Germans vs AI, I find myself a turn short of reaching all of the Berizina River crossings... The Germans can reach Minsk about the historic date, but then get bogged down. Let me know how it goes...
Cheers
Rob K

Thank you both, Klink, Kunz, for your replies. I had indeed forgotten about the Russian rail gauge problem. Oh, those pesky logistical details...It looks like I have v 3.4.0.202, and I'm a little unclear about updates, but I seem to have RR repair units scattered about at the start as opposed to being in Warsaw.

I just found an interesting article that talks about the logistics of supply/rail transport in summer 1941. It sounds like they did gauge conversion at 20 km/day/battalion, and going from Brest to Baranovici was done by July 1; rail not reaching Minsk till July 5.  Link is at the end of the post.

Getting even to Baranovici (those 20-26) hexes in 10 turns sounds like a real challenge to me, but I'm going to play with it. It looks like the RR repair capability varies per RR unit between 22-32%? Ouch!

Ah, the simply joys of unrealistically favorable supply and rail lines of the standard rules...it was fun while it lasted. Now the real work begins I guess. I don't anticipate the same crushing victory I got using standard rules. Thanks again for the replies, as I really appreciate it.

Link to truck/supply/RR logistical stuff:

http://militera.lib.ru/h/stolfi/11.html