Important production tip to new German players

[Dalwin]

This one escaped me until my second game as Germany.

Late in the war, there will be times when even at the start of your production turn the population value is negative meaning that you do not have enough to bring in all of the units that only have one turn left in the queue. This much is obvious.

What is not so obvious is that the units that do not get finished and remain in the 1 turn left box, tie up a factory and resource for that turn.

It is critical whenever you find yourself showing negative population to go into the queue and right click on a few units to put their production on hold. Keep doing this until population shows either zero or 1. This frees up a number of factories that can either be used to start building something that takes a few turns to come in or the freed up factories (and resources) can be used immediately for research and supplies.

[Dalwin]

As a second point, I find it best in areas such as Netherlands, France and so on to only rebuild one point of rail and to only rebuild that one half way. Anything more is a waste of resources that could be spent better elsewhere.

The exception would be an area through which you will be shipping a large number of supplies and strategically moving a large number of units. A good example would be Eastern Poland. Here you should fully rebuild all the rails. Depending on how far east you push it might also be good to rebuild two points worth instead of only one in Kiev.

This may not sound like a lot since the total saving over the course of the game for not overbuilding railroad is maybe 50 supplies. However, since I don't see a real downside to being a cheapskate in this area, I can't imagine doing it another way.

[dobeln]

Great tip- missed that one despite playing Germany a lot!

[aletoledo]

nice tip

[Willy Liao]

I agree with Dalwin. I never do more than one-half-rail repair in Netherlands & Denmark.

Something else deceptive in the game: screen F7 (production summary) tells you how many resources are not "in your rail net". This is a lie! The help tip is deceptive--you do NOT need functioning rail to transport resources. You only need FRIENDLY land regions & a chain of transports in friendly sea regions. Your country can transport resources across barren rough regions with nary a single railroad. No ports are needed either. So if you invade Turkey, you don't need a single rail repair to get Turkey's resources via Bulgaria. (Of course you might want to repair it anyway for the SR capability.) Want Finland's one resource center in your network? Make a two transport link from East Prussia up to the Gulf of Finland. No ports or functioning rails required, on either side.

[Grotius]

I find it best in areas such as Netherlands, France and so on to only rebuild one point of rail and to only rebuild that one half way.

So does it matter if you rebuild one rail unit entirely and ignore the other, or rebuild half of each?

Also, if I'm planning to invade Spain, don't I need the rail capacity in France to strategically move enough units to Western France?

Finally, how much supply per turn should Germany build in the early going? I read somewhere that 100 supply per turn is what you need for an offensive. Man. How am I gonna build any units or do any research with that big a supply load?

[Grotius]

you do NOT need functioning rail to transport resources.

Whoa, I didn't know that. I've been routinely repairing rail to get resources and to make sure that factories in captured regions could receive resources. It sounds like the first priority is to fully repair the resource; then the industry; and maybe the RR if I plan to use strategic movement thru the region. Right?

[Dalwin]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

I find it best in areas such as Netherlands, France and so on to only rebuild one point of rail and to only rebuild that one half way.

So does it matter if you rebuild one rail unit entirely and ignore the other, or rebuild half of each?

Also, if I'm planning to invade Spain, don't I need the rail capacity in France to strategically move enough units to Western France?

Finally, how much supply per turn should Germany build in the early going? I read somewhere that 100 supply per turn is what you need for an offensive. Man. How am I gonna build any units or do any research with that big a supply load?

To be able to strategically move units and supplies in and out of western France all you need is to repair one of the two rails half way. Doing more than this increases the amount that you can SR, but I never find that I need the extra capacity.

[batou]

I usually build up the rail in Western France to be able to strat move troops out of Spain after I take it and Gibraltar.

[Dalwin]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

you do NOT need functioning rail to transport resources.

Whoa, I didn't know that. I've been routinely repairing rail to get resources and to make sure that factories in captured regions could receive resources. It sounds like the first priority is to fully repair the resource; then the industry; and maybe the RR if I plan to use strategic movement thru the region. Right?

I think this statement is somewhat misleading. You do not need a rail link if you have a functioning transport link.

Are you saying that if I only have transports in the Central Med I will still collect the resource from Vichy North Africa? I know that I need a fleet in the Western Med to collect Sardinia but I thought I also needed that transport for the one in NW africa.

Is it perhaps a case of being able to cover one non-rail space but not more than one or is rail just not needed at all? I usually repair the rail between Cairo and Iraq, but perhaps this is unnecessary. It did seem like I had no trouble collecting those in Persia and Saudi Arabia, though in both cases the resource was adjacent to a functioning rail line.

[Willy Liao]

Executive summary: Rail is NOT NEEDED for resource flow. This was a big revelation to me.

Example: I have Egypt. I have transports between Italy & the sea zone north of Egypt. I now pop out one transport into Red Sea. I drop one militia into Italian East Africa which is ungarrisoned. I then walk over the entire African continent, repairing resource centers as I go. With that one transport and no rail anywhere near east africa, I get all resources INCLUDING South Africa (I didn't even repair the rail there!). I can prove this because my production point soars by EIGHT on the victory screen when I pop the transport out into the Red Sea (that's how many resources I hold currently). As you have no doubt noticed the only rail is in the 2 southernost Africa regions...and I haven't even repaired those. I can also tell the resources are being used because all the resource pools got burned up and are now equal to exactly the number of resource centers in each region (instead of 3 or 6), so I know they're being spent & regenerated each turn.

So once I realized this I went nuts repairing resources. Screw the rails. You just need a transport in Central Mediterrean to grab Vichy France's African resources--they flow from N Africa into Italy (you'll probably have one there anyway to get Sardinia's resources). And a 2 transport chain to grab Finland's if you have no USSR regions.

I believe Free Trade works similarly--to trade with neutral Sweden, you should just pop that transport out into the Baltic Sea (assuming it isn't already flowing through Finland via conquered soviet land regions). You only need one transport in Baltic to do Free Trade with Sweden, but you can't get Finland's resource without a Gulf of Finland transport because I'm pretty sure your own resources will not flow through neutral land regions, only friendly ones. Of course, once Finland is "connected" to the fatherland by two transports, neutral Norway's resource pool should become available for free trade as well because it is adjacent to Finland, which is connected to the fatherland...Clever, eh?

Free trade, BTW is very important when you're starving for resources. To "prove" that free trade works, start 1940 compaign & compare the resource pools on Sweden during the production phase when you do & when you don't have a transport in Baltic Sea. (Also check F7 screen Free Trade totals.) When you do have a transport there, Sweden's resource pool goes from 3 to 2, and 1 point gets added to free trade in the production summary screen--you've gotten the 1 point (half his 3 pool points, rounded down) in trade. If Norway had had 2 points in its pool, you would have gotten one point from Norway.

I think but am not sure that resources flow through frozen zones based on their alliance, independent of their being frozen. So I assume Bulgaria lets you trade with Greece & Turkey in 1940, for example. And Finland also works for you. Again, rail status shouldn't matter; physical adjacency is all that matters (land border or sea transport).

Summary:
In 1940, you can
1) Put two transports into baltic & gulf of finland to grab resources from Finland (you get everything), Sweden (half its pool), Norway (half its pool).

2) Put one transport into Western Mediterrean to get Sardinia (everything) and Vichy France's N. African resources (everything).

3) Consider a heavy fleet for AA protection of your lone transport, unless you need a harsh lesson in what carrier-based Allied/land-based Soviet airpower does against your precious lone resource-carrying transport.

[Dalwin]

Actually, based on what you said about Africa, you only need one transport in the Baltic if You take Norway.

One Transport in the westernmost Baltic space could could collect directly from Norway, Indirectly from Finland, and trade with Sweden.

[Willy Liao]

Quite right about seizing Norway and needing only one transport. I like to leave Norway neutral because I can hide behind the straits with my two transports. A lone transport in Western Baltic is probably toast though . Even the entire German Navy in Kattegat is probably toast if the WA have significant navy near, unless you crush Britain.

[Dalwin]

I have taken Norway in every game and have left a lone transport in the zone that connects Norway and Denmark. The AI has not attacked this transport even once. I always considered this odd considering how aggressive it is in destroying anything I put in the Western Med.

I do put 2 artillery in Denmark on the first turn.

[Grotius]

For what it's worth, the manual could be read as supporting the conclusion that rail is not necessary to move resources. On page 82, a table describes "linked resource centers" as those linked with Factories "through interrupted land or sea region connections."

That said, I'm still wondering whether the devs intend it to work this way. I don't mind it, but it sure makes it easier to move resources.

[Dalwin]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

For what it's worth, the manual could be read as supporting the conclusion that rail is not necessary to move resources. On page 82, a table describes "linked resource centers" as those linked with Factories "through interrupted land or sea region connections."

That said, I'm still wondering whether the devs intend it to work this way. I don't mind it, but it sure makes it easier to move resources.

The place in the game which if not a bug is at the very least extremely misleading is the production summary screen that lists at the top in huge numbers these figures both for factories within and outside of your "railnet". If that screen did not do more than just imply that rail was needed for resources I better sharpen my reading skills.

I have no doubt at this point that resources are being transported without rail but I wonder if this in itself is not a bug and whether the intended design wasn't to require either rail or sea transport. The idea of shipping hundreds of thousands of tons of metal from South Africa overland on camel caravans to Eritrea before taking a short naval hop around the Sahara and across the Med seems pretty darn silly. Yet that is exactly what some are describing having done and are beginning to build strategies around this quirk.

[Uncle_Joe]

Changing it to requiring rails would make most of North Africa useless to the Axis. The investment to get the Middle East rolling would probably make it very marginal and very vulnerable. Every time someone squated anywhere in there requires another 5 Suppies to be shipped in, basically negating one resource for one turn and hogging up Strategic Transport points.

I doubt it would work well without other changes if you actually had to rail in the resources.

[Dalwin]

I am not necessarily saying that it is wrong to be able to transport resources without rail. I am just concerned that that might be the actual design intent considering the screen that clearly points out how many resources are outside your "railnet."

If nothing else, that screen should be editted to say something more clear.

[Willy Liao]

I thought it was odd at first, but there is otherwise absolutely no point to a region with a resource center but no rail that's inland. You'd never be able to get it unless there was a factory in the very same region. I'll just live with it for now, since otherwise half the regions on the map in the USSR and Africa are utterly worthless and the game would become unwinnable by the Axis save by surviving to a predetermined end date. I don't think this was the game design. Didn't people manage to exploit the interior of Africa in the late 19th century in the absence of rolling stock & rail lines anyway? I don't think they built huge rail lines to mine diamonds and rubber. I'll assume the resource center abstracts the infrastructure as well, i.e. pipelines for oil.