ORIGINAL: SeriousCat
I apologise if this has been asked before. I promise I did read through the entire thread.
Will you be able to attack the enemy's logistics networks directly?
For example, German encirclement of enemy forces during Operation Barbarossa depended heavily on cutting off Soviet units from supply depots in reality, as opposed to complete encirclement in WITE before units become isolated. Since WITE is using a version of the WITW logistics system, if you cut off all sources of supply but one railhead for an entire pocket, will Soviet resupply be limited by the capacity of that railhead, therefore leaving some or all divisions undersupplied?
The massive flaw in WiTE that a rail line can support entire fronts/army groups/all 4 Pzr Armies is gone. At the moment there are two types of rail line - dual and single track. The normal capacity of a dual line is 5000 units of freight and of single line is 2000 units.
You can exceed this up to about 15,000 (that was the WiTW rule anyway) for a dual track line (and I guess to 10,000 for single track). But what you do is then start burning off more of your rail stock. This means that you can move less supply/troops elsewhere so its not a great game. Also this rail cap is also needed to move up combat units etc.
Once freight arrives at a depot it is broken down into replacement manpower/fuel/supply and ammunition and then allocated out to the combat HQs in range (by truck). Depots come in 4 sizes and a small one can't process much supply in any case.
So yes a single track line rail running to a small depot will really not support very much combat operations. It is likely that units will be under-supplied.
You can control this by playing around with the supply priority of the Corps/Army HQs. So a #1 will just about get enough to enable the unit to function defensively if not attacked. #2 is fine if you want to defend and are not facing regular attacks, #3 gives you attack supply and #4 prioritises that formation.
But remember that these priorities simply determine who gets the supply that is available - so a #4 priority command in an area of poor supply will probably still not get enough for its own purposes and will strangle the supply given to everyone else.
You can test this in WiTW - give an allied corps in the Vosges/Belfort sector level #4 - you'll see it probably is still short but any other corps in that region will really struggle.
All this is making control of key clusters of potential depots and the double track rails key to play in WiTE2. Far more realistic than the WiTE situation - and I suspect is going to be a bit of a shock to some players who only play the axis side and exploit the current logistical rules.
ORIGINAL: SeriousCat
How will motorised divisions be modelled?
Motorised troops were very good on the defensive, being able to quickly mass infantry and towed artillery, which was why they tended to follow behind the panzer spearhead. However, they're soft targets. Yet in WITE they're almost like pocket panzer divisions. Is this modelled by motor pool attrition?
Those doing the detailed OOB work will be better placed to comment. Overall trucks are scarce for both sides - and due to the supply changes above, they are more important for resupply work than they are in WiTE. From my current PBEM with the axis for T5 I have 210k/220k of the trucks needed in units, 81k in the pool and 60k/150k of those needed for the supply operation. I'd suspect this might change but it means that any serious losses in my motorised divisions will really hurt.
I suspect there won't be special rules for any unit but given the new supply game and the importance of the truck (for both sides), you are going to have be cautious over the deployment of the Mot divisions. But I suspect they will remain as they are in WiTE - a good substitute for a Pzr division where you perhaps need mobility more than raw combat power.
