Matrix Games Forums

In places where railroads exists (India, Oz), they are used to move airgroups large distances. Can they be used to move ground troops? It takes a long time to march around australia and most units are restricted so will not board a ship. I can only assume they are used to distribute supply and fuel but I have no proof of this assumption.

Ground units do move faster by rail than in other hexes. That said, the restricted units are largely stuck in Australia anyway.

It's a matter of speed (for troop movement) and efficiency for supply and fuel movement.
The better the connection the faster your troops move and the longer a supply chain can be with less loss to the moved supplies (according to the manual so to verify you have to set up a test scenarion which probably someone has done during the years).

The movement rates vary per unit types also in some cases so if you want precise figures check chapter 8.3 in the manual. There's a table there. An example for Infantry is Rail 90, Road 30, Trail 5 (miles per 24 hour and each hex is 60 miles). Fatigue will decrease these figures so in case you see less movement it's not a bug.

Supply movement is more difficult. See chapter 14.3 for some figures and explanation. In general you start with a movement value. For each hex you trace a supply path a sum is deducted from your value (better connection less deducted) and if the value is positive when you reach the target (unit or base) supply is moved.

There's a few more parameters to this but this is a general description.

In my experience you will have to keep an eye on the supply levels for bases and units and if not enough and not increasing you have to ship in the supply yourself if possible (difficult in China [:)] ).

I hope that clarifies it a bit. Should get you started at least.

/BPRE

I think each hex is 40 Nautical miles... not 60 miles. Hal

Each hex is 60 miles - 40 miles is used in WitP: Admirals Edition.

Oh.... funny I just assumed that no one plays the original game anymore... my mistake! Sorry

In early 42, I have moved large amounts of supply & fuel to Sidney from DEI and US. Does this get automatically moves around other bases by RR?

Hi,

In general yes. Depends a bit on the distance but in general it works fine. You can always add more in Perth from India to keep Northern Australia supplied from a closer source.

I would also ship it straight into Brisbane or further north depending the threat level.

/BPRE