Matrix Games Forums

Please forgive my ignorance, but how are Ammo Trucks used? I can't find anything in the on-line manual.
Do they have to be in the same hex as artillary or an adjacent hex?

I would also like to add this question. How do you load ammo from the "dump" onto the truck in the first place?

I believe the ammo truck and the vehicle/gun being resupplied must be stationary in the same hex to resupply.

Ammo isn't loaded onto the trucks from the Dump, a Dump is simply a faster method or resupplying (and immobile).

This is the relevant section from the ver 5.0 manual.
- - - start quote - - - -
Players may receive ammo trucks and dumps in scenarios, or they may purchase them in
campaign game. These units provide ammunition resupply to units that are adjacent and not
overly suppressed. The larger the caliber of the weapon on the unit being supplied, the slower the
rate of resupply.
Ammo dumps are immobile units that can never move or be carried whose primary function is to
resupply units in the hex with it. A unit in the same hex as the ammo dump that neither moves nor
shoots for a turn and is not too suppressed is supplied with twice the amount of ammunition
provided by an ammo truck.
- - - end quote - - - -

Ammotruck need to be same or adjacent hex, when you want resupply your troops/vehicle !

More ammotruck/ammodump you have, faster resupply going on !


Steel

Thanks Guys!

Also: for units with more than one kind of ammunition the resupply rate is variable but seems to be related to the total percentages of the original types of ammo in the original load. EG a tank with 2X as much AP as HE will load more AP. Also the specialty rounds such as APCD load less often.

that was a typo, I meant APCR.

Think I read in another thread that if you use more than one ammo truck the resupply is faster.

Hello Drex, that is correct.
Ammo Trucks are acumulative. Two Ammo Trucks will reload a unit twice as fast, Three Ammo Trucks, 3 times as fast, etc....
Also , Being Adjacent to an Ammo Dump is sufficent to allow reloading of Ammo.

Thank you all. Your input is most appreciated. I have yet to include either the ammo dump or ammo truck in any of my campaigns because I was not sure how to employ them and did not want to waste the points necessary to purchase them without the knowledge as to their use. Once again, thank you.

The most common way you'll see them used is with 2 or 3 artillery units around them (esp. larger caliber guns since their initial supply of ammo is lower).

Generally I take at least one ammo truck section in any battle (certainly in campaigns) where I have on-board artillery. I put all of my artillery in the 6 hexes around one of the ammo trucks and use the other one as a 'roving' resupply truck.

This works well against the AI, less well against a human opponent who uses adequate recon and finds the artillery.

I'm finding with 6.1 its even more important to use ammo trucks because it takes so many shots to kill the infantry. I'm in a campaig now as Germans in France 1940. I'm facing hordes of infantry. I have them surrounded and on the run, but several of my surrounding units have run out of ammo! You know its been a bloody battle when tanks run out of coax ammo!

Just a final note on use of ammo dump, if the enemy has air support your ammo dump and or your ammo trucks will be a "preferred" target, so it is wise to provide some AA guns for defense purpose.
Bye

The sequence for loading is Left to right in the unit info screen, HE first, AP second, HEAT third, APCR is Fourth (I think this is the order in the unit screen). If the unit being loaded does not use a particular type of ammo then the next type is loaded if the unit uses it. For example the German 75mm Infantry Gun has 40 rounds of HE and 4 rounds of APCR so it will be loaded with 40 HE rounds then 4 APCR. You will be loaded to the max amount before moving to the next type of ammo.

Personally, I dislike the way Ammo Dumps/Trucks work in the game. I don't think it's at all plausible, or realistic, and, in fact, it's the only part of the game I'd call twinkish.

Now, ammo crates are useful in certain scen's to simulate, for example, para's having to get to dropped weapons/ammo, and dumps and trucks make good objectives for scens, but the 'lets set up an ammo dump 200 meters from the front' is really very silly, IMO.

Of course, that said, nothing is more pleasant to sneak infantry up to that dump/arty concentration and wipe it all out

Alex