Logistics

[milesjb]

Why do I have a green truck column but a red HQ symbol ?
Please help. I'm confused.

[lancer]

Hi miles,

The colours are a quick reference for the state of your logistics.

Trucks and HQ's are separate components of your logistical system.

Green is good. So green trucks indicate that you've got an adequate number of trucks on hand.

Red is bad. A red HQ indicates that it has less than 1 quota's worth of fuel available ready to be transported forward. A quota is a shorthand means of figuring out how much fuel you have. One quota is enough fuel for your Panzergruppe/s in that theatre to operate at full tempo (expend all their Action Points) for one turn. It's calculated dynamically by the engine and takes into account your current PG strength, etc.

Normally an HQ would have enough fuel for two or more quota's, eg. two turns worth of PG movement flat out, which would be shown as a Green HQ. Red indicates that it's down to less than 1 Quota's worth, not the best.

Visualise the HQ's as the fuel pump. Your trains and trucks form a very long, multi-link fuel hose that extends to your PG HQ's. In an ideal world the fuel pump would have plenty of fuel on hand (Green HQ) to pump down the hose which would also be long enough and wide enough (train and truck icons both Green) to handle the flow to your PG HQ (which uses what fuel it has to fill up the tanks of it's Panzers). It's similar to filling up your car at the local petrol station. There's a pump (HQ), a hose (trains and trucks) and your car (PG HQ / panzers).

If you're short on fuel to pump or the hose isn't up to the job (the rail or truck links) you'll see this visually as yellow or red colouring of the relevant icons. All colours are consistent in their meaning. So a Yellow HQ, for instance, has between 1 & 2 Quota's of fuel ready to pump. A yellow PG HQ has the same amount of fuel on hand for it's panzers. A yellow train or truck link has enough trains or trucks to move the same amount of fuel forward in a given turn.

If everything was yellow you'd have a perfectly balanced system with the HQ pumping between 1 & 2 quota's down the 'hose' which has enough trains and trucks to deliver all of it to the PG HQ in the same turn.

The key to playing the Germans is to manage your logistics well enough to allow you to use your Panzergruppes effectively. Not easy and the Germans, on the day, made a mess of it more times than you'd think. To be fair they started the campaign with woefully inadequate fuel and transport and burdened themselves with a logistical command structure that was pre-configured for internal conflict.

There's more information in the manual, p165 and a couple of hands-on short video's on Logistics in the in-game tutorial tab.

Cheers,
Cameron (designer)

[milesjb]

Cameron, I guess I need to ask this question a different way. Under what circumstances would a PzG HQ and all of it's divisions be out of supply when the HQ is 9 hexes from a main base and the truck columns are all green. And on turn 3.


BTW, I have been playing wargames since 1958 with the release of the board game Tactics II by Avalon Hill in 1958. It is my opinion that the Decisive Campaigns series, especially Barbarossa,is the best wargame series since Atomic Games/Avalon Hills World at War series in the mid '90s. Also the printed manual for Barabossa is the best manual for a wargame ever published ( in my opinion ). You did magnificent work with this series and it was a very sad day for me, and I'm sure alot of others, when I saw that you were not going to continue it. But, I will be playing and enjoying it for a long time to come. I wish you well in any future endeavors and hope I will be one of your future beneficiaries.

Miles

[lancer]

Hi Miles,

Thanks for the compliment. Glad you're enjoying it.

The trucks and trains form the fuel pipe, as described above. If there is no fuel to pump down the pipe they aren't going to do you any good.

The pump, the main HQ is where the fuel comes from. Check it's colour. It then gets pumped to the Forward Supply Base which is the mini-base that connects the train and truck links of the pipe.

Check it's colour. It's possible you don't have any fuel there due to a recent relocation.

Finally check your PG HQ colour. If your PG has been very active it may have simply chewed through all the available fuel. The early turns are full of combat which has an associated fuel cost.

You can also check the various reports that let you see how much fuel there is at the three key links in the chain -> Main base / FSB / PG HQ

Failing that post a screenshot or send me a saved game. We'll figure it out.

[Edit] I reread you're original post. Green trucks, the pipes are good. Red PG HQ. You've used up your available front line fuel. You start with a reserve and gain extra fuel through the pipe each turn. Looks like you're panzers have been busy. I wouldn't be too worried as the Germans, on the day, also ran into problems very early on as they found their fuel consumption to be dramatically higher than what they estimated. A severe lack of decent roads.

Cheers,
Cameron

[milesjb]

Thanks Cameron, This is a great help in understanding what's going on. Mystery solved !

[lancer]

Hi miles,

You might also consider switching your PG's out of their starting 'Blitzkrieg posture'.

It's a balancing act in that it provides really good combat bonuses but it ramps up their fuel consumption.

By the way I only did DC3 Barbarossa, Vic takes the credit for DC1 and DC2. It's also his engine that I used for Barbarossa and he tackled the AI.

Vic's currently making his new game, Shadow Empires (4X SciFi) and has indicated that he may circle back and make another DC series game after that.

Cheers,
Cameron