|
loki100 -> RE: Suggestions for manually creating depot routes (12/16/2021 11:18:51 AM)
|
There are 3 bits to the problem and they interact, so:
a) in 1941 there are places where the Axis player will be effectively off the supply grid, especially as the weather changes and motorised costs rise. I have my own instinctive feel for where this line is based on how I work the depot system, but its all judgement not rules. To make it worse, my safe line is game losing in that you will fail the 1942 HWM test, so in effect the German player needs to go out of the comfort zone
b) never forget you have tools to set demand as well as to influence supply. Keep a really close eye on the army freight table in the logistics log. If an army is constantly not getting what it asks for, drop the supply priority. This makes a real difference, one reason for long traces (and the hit on trucks) is the units are trying to get the supply you tell them to, so simply tell them not to. Oddly they may do better looking for (& getting) less than trying to get more - trucks stay in units (=MP and CV), trucks don't get damaged in supply traces.
I personally think a lot of German players really miss this side of the equation, equally the Soviet player needs to keep it in mind as 1943 progresses and they push back towards Minsk/Kiev etc
c) Layout.
Very roughly I divide the map into 4 zones
ci) the deep rear, here depots are mostly at 0 or 1, the few that are higher are usually connected to either a base with level bombers (& I don't buy the LW is useless arguments) or, later on, where I am constructing fort lines
cii) Pskov-Minsk-Kiev, I put these to pri 4, let them fill up, drop to 2 and the supply goes forward (& I can get it consistently to go forward)
ciii) the immediate rear, these depots get #3, some at #4 if there is a nearby LW base that matters, usually these depots are not actively supplying the front line formations but some migt
civ) the front. My best guess is that units ideally use depots within 10 hexes so this is that zone. I've come to a view the best layout is a layer of 2 pri 4 depots behind each combat sector/rail line
So I avoid long traces in part by using the demand tools. I never see say Minsk's freight wandering off to Poland, I do sometimes see it pop up in the Ukraine. I don't care - I live somewhere where the nearest rail system is somewhat random in peace time and the biggest threat is an irate otter - in other words SNAFU. But these oddities never really add up to a problem.
Final bit, at least till late 1942, the game assumes an axis player doing well has a stressed supply system. I, for one, do not want to see a WiTE2 variant with an 'easy' supply system.
edit - never forget a fundamental rule, a depot can only send freight to one at a higher priority, so by definition a pri 4 depot will only supply combat units not other depots. That is why the Minsk etc trick works.
|
|
|
|
