Matrix Games Forums

According to the manual, conquered oil fields yield 100% of their face value to the conqueror.

This flies in the face of anything even vaguely resembling objective reality.

The Russians destroyed all wells and associated equipment before the Germans got anywhere even vaguely near them. The Germans had such limited resources they were able to get, IIRC, one well back into limited production ... from memory on the order of 200 bbl per day (1 bbl = 42 US gallons and refines, using modern techniques, which are more efficient than those used in WW2, into about 19 US gallons worth of petrol).

There is precisely NO chance that the Germans would have gotten any oil out of the Caucasus fields unless Russia surrendered AND, even then, for a several years after that.

Any German invasion of the Middle East would run into similar, but worse, difficulties ... the allies would have destroyed any wells and refineries. Then the problem is that the Germans had enough oil industry specialists to outfit and man exactly ONE 'Oil Technical Brigade' ... the one that was committed to the Caucasus and managed the stunning 200 bbl per day capacity before being withdrawn in the face the Russian counterattacks.

The Japanese, in a similar situation, never managed to get NEI olfields back to peacetime pre-war production levels because of allied destruction.

This is a serious issue. I know that it's because you want game balance (like HoI placing oilwells in Yugoslavia), but that isn't the way to manage it.

Phil

When you take an oil field, and I don't remember at the moment if it is anyone or just scorched earth, the oil field is 100% damaged and repairs over time. Recently I set it back to 2 repairs per turn.

So a 40 oil field would take 20 turns or 40 weeks to fully repair.

And a 5 oil RP such as Maikop would take 5 turns, or 10 weeks, to fully repair ... and is that 2 points per oilfield (i.e. only two points for all oilfields combined) or two points for each captured oilfield (i.e. if you have captured all four Caucasus Oilfields EACH of them repairs 2 points per turn)

Oh deer.

The Germans NEVER managed to get the Maikop fields back into production, beyond the one well and 200 bbl (~8400 US gallons) per day ... effectively NOTHING in Warplan terms.

And they had exactly ONE Technical Oil Brigade which managed this wonderful feat ...

Is there some way to reduce the rebuild rate (i.e some way I could mod it rather than you change it)? To one point per month, total, for all oilfields captured by the Germans rather than for each oilfield? Even that would exceed what the Germans achieved ... and, indeed, exceed what the Germans were capable of achieving.

Either that or I will have to figure out some way of reducing the amount of oil the Germans can capture in the Caucasus to represent their minimal rebuilding capacity.

* Either reduce the oilfield ratings ... Maikop, Grozny and Baku ... to 5 Oil RP each, removing the 5 Oil RP hex between Grozny and Baku completely ... moving the capacity to the Urals

or

* Put breaks in the RR lines connecting the Caucasus back to Germany as I have with France-Spain-Portugal and Turkey-Syria-Iraq-Palestine to make it impossible for the Germans to ship the oil *back* to Germany unless they ship it *through* Turkey and its mediterranean ports (since I have made Istanbul a road hex to break the rail line between Europe and Asia Minor.

or

* Turn the oil hexes in the Caucasus to Coal RPs and move all the oil to the Urals.

Yes, I know. A game not a historical simulation.

Phil

Another related matter.

Again, according to the rulebook, if the Germans take all the Caucasus oil the Russians are forced to rely on their stockpiles ... and the minimal oil in the Urals and at Ufa ... implying that that's all they get ...

Historically almost 100% of the AvGas the Russian airforce used was sent by the US in Russian flagged tankers via Vladivostok (off map) ... and, of course, the US could have sent more oil, if the Caucasus was lost, via that route or even through Persia by rail or via the Murmansk convoys. Likely by all three.

Or was this just a mis-speaking in the manual?

Phil McGregor