Finns' railroad repair

[Jusalak]

Since Finns don't have their own FBD unit, the rail line leading to Petrozavodsk and further south cannot be converted following the troops advancing to Svir, since the few construction battalions which Finns have will avoid that rail section to the last (for whatever reason). The consequence is that when mud hits in October, Finns at Svir are out of supply.

To fix this issue Finns could be given their own FBD unit for some time. The unit could be withdrawn in October to prevent any "misuse" of it to repair German rail.

[Mehring]

You need to assign construction battalions to an army HQ advancing on Svir, keep it 5 hexes from railhead and it will progress. No need for FBD.

[Denniss]

Or assign the construction units to finnish high command and lock it (to prevent them from getting sent down the HQ chain).

[Jusalak]

Thanks, it seems to work.

If the HQ is farther than 5 hexes then those construction battalions don't seem to convert rail. And if german construction battalions are left to the OKH, they generally keep converting unimportant side tracks quite erratically. So how do you make use of them trying to reach spearheads?

[Mehring]

Different level HQs have different ranges at which attached SUs will be deployed. Can't remember exactly, but the higher level the HQ, the longer range, it's in the manual.

When you know the HQ ranges you can manipulate the use of their SUs. Not sure if HQ leader initiative/admin factor affects SU repair commitment but suspect it does.

Personally, I don't abuse this too much. Most of the SUs are road repair and construction units which were probably used repairing/maintaining and upgrading roads more than rail lines. I don't think they should even be available to players.

I don't think construction SUs are affected by locking/unlocking HQ, they have to be transferred manually.

[Jusalak]

It is not accurate historically that Finns cannot cross Svir. Finns did not cross lower Svir, but on 6. October crossed upper Svir and captured a bridgehead south of the river. (The bridgehead is represented on the WITE map approximately as X=94..97,Y=11 and X=98,Y=10.)

Captain Yrjö Keinonen, who commanded a bicycle company and whose unit was among the first to cross the river, wrote in his war memoirs "As a spearhead to Svir" that the unit assigned the task to cross first (not his company) at first refused to cross and the crossing was thus delayed. Finns however managed to surprise the Soviets on the other side and the crossing was successful with slight casualties.

Finns south of Svir were able to hear the German artillery growing stronger day-by-day as Germans approached Tikhvin, and many suspected that Germans would soon appear at their front line. As it is known, it never happened, as a counterattack of Siberian troops threw Germans back from Tikhvin. In December Finns south of Svir faced also many fierce battles against the Siberians, but managed to stabilize the situation by encircling and destroying a Siberian regiment.

[Denniss]

Constructions will not move to lower HQ if their HQ support is locked. They will be sent out to rail repair though.
From my experience in the past if they were placed in Finnish HC they prefer going towards Leningrad first, then going north and eastwards. AI usually has trouble to get rails repaired for Finns.

[Sardaukar]

One minor tidbit is that Finns would not need to convert rail gauge, since Finnish railroads used and still use same gauge as Russians. Repairs of course are different thing. [8D]