Stupid rail repair question

[pat.casey]

Playing as axis I have about 5 on-map rail repair units.
I can happily move them onto a section of damages rail and click the little "fix the railroad" button to repair a section.

I also have a lot of labor units associated with various headquarters units and, unless I'm hallucinating, it looks like the AI is deploying them on its own to fix various rail segments it thinks are important. Can I manually take control of these units to increase the number of on-map rail repair regiments I have?

[heliodorus04]

No. You only control the 5 FBD units. There are methods to 'incentivize' the HQ-controlled ones, by moving the HQ to a rail crossroads, and selecting (on the construction battalion, not the HQ) - "Return to HQ"

But I'm having piss-poor success with that.  It seems like they deploy to the HQ, then go right back where I pulled them off the line from.

2nd ACR has indicated he can manage that well; I would love to hear from him on how he does.

[Mynok]

Me too. My const bns tend to repair side lines that are meaningless to getting the critical railheads forwards. I'd love to be able to stick an Army HQ on a rail line I need that the FBDs aren't available to repair and get them to bring it forward, but no dice. They don't even seem to send them out. Just the Army Groups and OKH seem to send out rail repair.

[krieger]

I disagree, the contruction Bns do an invaluable job, but at a diferent pace and with diferent objectives than the contr. brigades. Their main value is creating multichanneled supply paths that partisans cant take down eventually...

[Kharkov43]

Hope to explain this right,[:D] can the Construction units issued to the Army Groups start a new rail unit in Minsk for instance once it is taken to hurry up the progress or can rail units only be started at the Front.

[pat.casey]

ORIGINAL: krieger

I disagree, the contruction Bns do an invaluable job, but at a diferent pace and with diferent objectives than the contr. brigades. Their main value is creating multichanneled supply paths that partisans cant take down eventually...

I still think its unreasonable from a historical and gameplay perpsective that you don't have at least some degree of control over them.

The impact isn't gameplay neutral either since it largely impact the axis during the summer of 1941. Later war soviet offensives tend to be smaller (they don't get from the gates of moscow to the polish border in one season)

[krieger]

ORIGINAL: Kharkov43

Hope to explain this right,[:D] can the Construction units issued to the Army Groups start a new rail unit in Minsk for instance once it is taken to hurry up the progress or can rail units only be started at the Front.

It need to be continuous, in other words... only if you've built rail up to Minsk already, otherwise you wont be able. If you did, the construction bns would work wonderfully and automatically but not at the speed of light, converting any remaining rail hexes.

I've just finished a 41-45 campaign and most of the rail convertion was done by the Bns. For example all the pripat marshes was converted by them. The way I see this, the construction corps are for quick convertion in the most needed axes of advance.