Matrix Games Forums

A couple questions. I hear that 8 hexes is max for truck stops being apart, how far for rail? And how come the map doesn't show new rail lines very confusing.

One: Trucks stops can, depending on factors I do not fully understand, be much, much further than 8 hexes apart. A single L2 truck stop pushing 50% LP/LIS/truck points along a sealed road can push enough supply to keep a brigade and a half fighting fit over about 15 maybe 20 hexes (have deleted that save so cannot check). I know this because I had a Siwa class where I started at the top of the map and, after conquering a couple of nearby majors, had to conquer down the map about 20 hexes to reach the other minors. Map did not allow easy east-west movement from my starting position.

Two: rail lines are shown on the map physically. However, there is no way to view the effects of just your rail logistics. I find this pretty annoying personally and it makes it hard to evaluate whether railways do anything my roads were not already doing. Not sure exactly how far rail can be spaced either.

That said, more truck stops is probably good. Note you can only build 6 hexes away from a city without penalties. After that point, you take penalties to your ability to govern a settlement (basically a modifier gets applied to your governor's skills and rolls). This is called administrative stress. It goes from 0-100% but takes effect in decile increments (10, 20 etc. 29 is no worse than 21). Ideally you would want your cities all spaced exactly 7 hexes from one another with a truck stop in each one.

Two: rail lines are shown on the map physically. However, there is no way to view the effects of just your rail logistics. I find this pretty annoying personally and it makes it hard to evaluate whether railways do anything my roads were not already doing. Not sure exactly how far rail can be spaced either.

That's not exactly the case. In the Logistics panel (right side), in one of the map overviews, you can view the logistics output of a particular truck depot or train station.

Trains are tricky, but they can output a lot of logistics points and move them very far (2ap per tile). The restrictions are prohibitive expense for hills and mountains, and the need for Railhead buildings to output logistic points (a tiny fraction of the network's points are available without a railhead).

A great place to put a railhead is at the end of your railline, near your frontline. Your troops will grab a huge number of supplies from the Railhead. Also, if you're using a train to support rural facilities, build a railhead for each tile with a facility.

Trucks are flexible. Rail lines are powerful. Use both wisely.