Matrix Games Forums

Hello. Im a new player in the genre. Acquired the game in may and been playing it time to time furiously.


This brings into my mind 2 questions.


1)

How do you guys avoid getting your truck pool destroyed?

I've set my infantry supply priority to level 1 and panzer groups to level 2, And I still get my fleet of trucks trashed usually around turn 10.

I've tried not to rely on horses to haul the supplies as the FBD is having a hard time keeping up with the fast moving frontline, and I thought that the depots would just use trucks anyway to haul freight between depots.

I didnt have this problem in the "Destruction of southwestern front" -Scenario
The truck pool was a lot larger than in the Leningrad -scenario.

2)

I use the Kaunas, Vilnius, Daugavipils, Pskov double rail line for my supply depots.

The rail usage is really low compared to the capacity the rail could handle, even after I priority repair the railyards ASAP.
Usually about 2200 tonnes a logistics phase.

Why wont the trains move?

The double rail lines stay mostly green.



Thanks in advance,

-Ahjo

some ideas, but suggest read the sections in the Player's notes re logistics and also the stickied thread in this forum

That might help give you some ideas.

1) some net attrition is inevitable, it gets used up by unit moves and unit-depot supply runs. Terrain hurts as in both cases its the total MP cost not the hex range that is used, which is why you might have found it a bit better in DSWF than RTL.

In RTL, you have some hard choices re rail lines and what to connect in. In general I'd go Kaunas-Daugavipils-Pskov and then a side trip back to Riga but there are lots of valid alternatives

2) Yes, ideal to me is to get them into yellow, that means they are working but not too overloaded.

Most rail usage is depot (usually the NSS) - depot so the question is why aren't your depots pulling supply. Pskov at priority 4 should be demanding quite a lot, make sure that every feasible rail yard has a depot and set these to 2/3 (again lots of ways to play this).

I'd suspect your green rails and truck problem are connected. it sounds like your combat formations are pulling supply from a distance rather than rail moving it up to the front.

Use the logistics map mode and the '8' key, that will give you a good visual on what is pulling supply from where.

Yes, My panzer forces usually get around pskov on turn 3. I take Pskov on turn 4 or 5, depends on soviet defences. I've only once been able to take pskov on turn 3 with the panzers.

I try to get most the 18th and 16th army over the daugava river by turn 3.
18th army mainly supplied by Riga during the crossing.


My FBD finds it hard to keep up with the advancing forces.

Edit: Yeah, I've used the 8 - key to see where the divisions get their supplies from.
Some of them are pulling them really far away.

One useful trick I've found is to play a few turns as the soviets and watch what the AI does - it can give you strategic ideas in the early turns and is good at managing the logistics. Then switch sides and see what its set up.

Now the rail to Pskov finally turned yellow when I put my FBD on it to turn it into a super depot.

ORIGINAL: Ahjo

Now the rail to Pskov finally turned yellow when I put my FBD on it to turn it into a super depot.

Super depots were nerfed in an early patch. There shouldn't be so many units drawing their supplies from Pskov that it makes a huge difference. I would aim to have a chain of depots in Daugavpils, Rezekne, Ostrov, Pskov. That will put a depot in the rear of nearly every Corps in 18th Army, so only a few units close to Pskov are drawing from there.

And I think that except when you get to winter and are not advancing, the FBD's must be kept on the move and repairing rail, not sitting in depots. As a general rule, though the Road to Leningrad finishes before winter, so there is never a point where you would have the FBD sitting still in Pskov.

The increase in supply throughput can in any case be gained by using an Army/Group HQ in the depot. So, apart from keeping good command range, I would get Panzer Group forward to Daugavpils early, then advance it to Pskov once that is captured, and move 18th Army HQ to Daugavpils. 16th Army sits in Riga from turn 2.

Once 18th Army starts to advance towards Velikie Luki, then 18th Army can sit in the depot at Rezekne. And if I can, I will repair the branch line from Rezekne towards Idritsa. This is much more important than the rail lines northwards from Riga, because you can use import ports at Parnu and Tallinn. But if you are really serious to capture Leningrad in this scenario (I am not certain it is actually possible), you might need to forego that branch line towards Velikie Luki, and instead keep the FBD repairing rail north from Pskov towards Leningrad through Plyussa, Luga, Divenskaya.

There's no way to divert the FBD temporarily off that route to go all the way to Tallinn and to connect the route west over the Narva. That means the whole of your advance on Leningrad is going to be relying on supplies coming north through a single route, and eventually that route turns into a single rail line.

By the way, there is a general problem with the game that sometimes rail lines go in one direction and then immediately reverse on themselves, particularly to cross rivers. Be very careful to make sure you have actually repaired all of the hexes needed. There is one of these unusual routes at Kaunas, instead of proceeding east towards Vilnius the double rail line first crosses the river to Karmaleva, then crosses back again to get to Vilnius. If Karmaleva needs repair, then supplies will not flow up your main rail route.