Are depots required to keep the production system ticking over?

[cato12]

My general rule of thumb regarding depots is to keep depots in major ports, near the front line and also near active airbases to keep supply ticking over and disband the rest to save on truck use.

im now trying to apply the same rule to my first axis campaign. ive noticed that koningsberg and Bucharest have massive truck usage.

if I was to disband a bunch of depots am I going to mess with the production system? for example if I disband the koningsberg depot am i stopping resources getting to factories etc?

[Denniss]

As Axis you'll see some high truck usage on eastern depots as they have to supply the eastern front. Disbanding them will just see truck usage shift to western depots.

[cato12]

ORIGINAL: Denniss

As Axis you'll see some high truck usage on eastern depots as they have to supply the eastern front. Disbanding them will just see truck usage shift to western depots.

You sure about that, why isn't rail being used for that purpose?

Am I safe to disband all the other depots apart from the ones I mentioned above? I don't want to go and do it and then notice in a few turns my industry has ground to a halt.

[loki100]

my strong advice is to disband none - unless you are likely to lose them. You can get away with putting most of the depots in Germany at #1, a few #2s where you have the Luftwaffe concentrated. Some can go to #0 - also make sure that unused airfields are at #0 (use the filters in the commanders report for this). This allows you to bring them back on line easier than if you deleted them.

You need a network as well as the end user depots or the system will fall apart.

Easiest is to do some tests with the 1943 campaign. Set it up so you play both sides, cancel all air directives and try out different depot strategies (play about 10 turns).

So in one test delete all the depots to the east of Berlin, in another delete all the depots in Germany, then try the strategy above.

Once you feel you have the big flows sorted out, try tricks like for about 4 turns have all the depots and commands in Italy at #4 - see if that really improves the combat power of your front line. Then flip to supply priority to France, is Italy any worse off? (remember that you are not facing interdiction and/or rail bombing).