Understanding and managing depots - i give up..

[SchDerGrosse]

This goddamned depot system.

So I thought that I had the whole concept nailed down. Freight flows from lower priority depots to higher ones. Thus one should just set front line depots to 4, and assign progressively lower numbers to anythign behind those.

I have been conducting my game (GER vs a challanging SOV ai) in accordance with the above but at one point in the game it came to that that my supply situation was quite bad, so i tried the "ai depot management" and lo and behold the ai actually did a much better job of getting supply to my units as I.

The one thing I dont understand is HOW.



As you can see it on the picture, the AI set a bunch of depots to level 4 and SOMEHOW managed to deliver supply to all of them despite the fact that they are along a single railine, meaning that suppy SHOULD HAVE stopped at the very first level 4 depo (Plyussa at 193,115).

On a completely different note, why arent the ports at crimea receiving supply from constana despite the fact that constana is an export port with a lower priority as the ports at crimea?



I have watched/read countless tutorials on the subject and still feeling utterly clueless on how to set up a properly fuctioning logistics chain. So either I am complete moron (378 hrs clocked in to wite2 as per steam) or the depot system in wite2 is a mess.

[M60A3TTS]

If you have a discord account, you can PM me. We can do it here as well, it will just take significantly longer.

[Staufenberg44]

I want to hear more about this as well. The depot supply system is rather mystifying. I need enlightenment please.

[jasonbroomer]

A few pointers about depot setting 4.

a) Depots on 4 will not transfer freight to other depots
b) Consider freight travelling along a rail line (sent from distant depots on 3 or lower), as per your screen shot. Some freight will stop at the first depot set on 4, other freight will continue along the rails to other depots if they are on 4. Thus there is little downside to setting numerous depots on 4. Thus having loads of depots on a line can be a good thing. A line is limited to a certain capacity, it is more than you think and I suspect more than is documented.
c) There appears to be some undocumented 'demand' factor that attracts freight to its destination. 'Demand' can be caused by a unit (land or air) or a depot set on a higher level (eg 4)


Some pointers on moving freight:

1. Be aware that freight can only be railed a limited distance from a starting rail yard (200 SMPs). To move freight, you need trains. This is only hinted at in the manual. (I'm using the word 'train' to make things easy to understand, I know that they don't really exist but the algorthym tries to reflect their role)
2. We do not see the number of trains we have, nor the way that they move. Trains are based at rail yards sized 2 or greater (press F2 and the size of the rail yard is displayed on a city eg Pskov. The capacity is dependent on the damage of the rail yard. Depots are often based at large rail yards).
3. As you move east, it is a good policy to connect your rail network to as many of these major rail yards as you can. They only really come into play once you get out of 200 SMP range of Berlin/Vienna. (remember rail lines can and will become congested)
4. I'm guessing that trains move from their starting location to a depot holding freight which is on a low demand setting, pick it up and deliver to (or towards) a depot on a higher demand setting. We don't get to see this but we see the activity on the rail lines (press N and look at the colour of the rail lines) indicating where it has taken place and where the pinch points are in your network.
5. Freight always(?) flows easterly for the Axis and westerly for the Soviets

Some implications of this:

a) Freight may leave from say Berlin, head east, hit a congested rail line and not be able to be reach where you need it. If there is no depot which is accepting freight (i.e. greater than 0, the default setting of a NSS) within 200 SMPs - the freight will not be delivered. You are not maximising your rail network.

b) Have some depots in the 'rear', say on turn 10 Minsk or Smolensk, on a high (4) depot setting. Once supply has been stock piled, it can be reduced to a low setting (1), from where it will flow east to a depot on a higher setting. This will materially boost supply at the front. I will term these depots as 'intermediate depots'. Warsaw is another good location for a intermediate depot.

c) On turn 1, I set very many depots on 4 including those in Poland and Germany. This draws a huge amount of freight from your NSS, I typically drain around 1m tons over the first 4 turns (There is no shortage of freight at your NSS). As these depots reach capacity, and as your front line runs low on supply, these intermediate depots can be reduced to allow the freight to move east. Once they are empty, they can be reset to 4. This is often referred to as pulsing on this forum.

d) In an existing campaign, I suggest you dial up the supply level of depots in the 'middle' to act as intermediate depots. You will be terrified that supply at the front will diminish as a consequence. I promise you that you will not notice the difference. These can then be used to pulse freight on later turns.

[jasonbroomer]

Sea Supply.

I agree that you have set up your sea ports correctly. However, the system doesn't always (and often rarely) delivers freight to the Crimea and Tallinn. I find it better to set up receiving ports at Riga and Kherson.

Note that significant quantities of freight can be moved by ships, although your merchant fleet degrades very quickly. I believe that it is worth preserving as best you can by keeping control of the sea lanes (fly constant NP to keep the interdiction level at around 2). Think of this as a mine clearing programme.

Incidentally ports on the rail network appear to be deemed as a 'high priority' by the game's logistics engine. Ports receive freight first, therefore before the rails become congested and thus receive high amounts of freight. This is useful to know in you logistics planning.