Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: The German-Soviet War 1941-1945 is a turn-based World War II strategy game stretching across the entire Eastern Front. Gamers can engage in an epic campaign, including division-sized battles with realistic and historical terrain, weather, orders of battle, logistics and combat results.

The critically and fan-acclaimed Eastern Front mega-game Gary Grigsby’s War in the East just got bigger and better with Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: Don to the Danube! This expansion to the award-winning War in the East comes with a wide array of later war scenarios ranging from short but intense 6 turn bouts like the Battle for Kharkov (1942) to immense 37-turn engagements taking place across multiple nations like Drama on the Danube (Summer 1944 – Spring 1945).

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Odin
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Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Odin »

Hello,

as i am a beginner, i have this simple question:

What can i do to speed up the repairing of railways??

This awful slow FBD´s cannot simply keep up with the troops in front and now my Panzers are sitting in front of their objectives without fuel!!!

Maybe this is a newbie problem but forgive me, i was not very familiar with this game today.

Thanks!

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Stelteck
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Stelteck »

I think there is no miracle, the FBD is your fastest units to repairing railways. You can always stack 2 or more for important link, but you have only 4.

You can optimize the fuel supply of your panzers by keeping the HQ close (HQ can have some turns of fuel reserve).

You need also to have enough trucks to move the fuel from the railway.
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Hagar
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Hagar »

The FBD is indeed your fastest/most controlled unit for rail repair. Construction units can repair rail too, but are AI-controlled. AFAIK those attached to a HQ in friendly (rail) territory will be used for AI rail repair. So in 1941 you're best off by assigning those support units to higher HQ (Army Group or OKH). Mind you, I'm kind of tweaking my FBD/rail repair tactics myself. There are some minor tactical tweaks possible (like railing your center FBD north and using the Vilnius/Minsk route for AGC, and railing the AGS FBD to Romanian territory). And apparently there's the option for an HQ buildup for your armored units, though I'm still trying to find out to find it's best use (as its use will imply a loss of trucks). And obviously airdrops to your armored spearheads are advisable too.

Be sure to read some of the AARs on the forums - I find those very helpful!
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EwaldvonKleist
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by EwaldvonKleist »

To be sure: To repair railroad hexagons, the construction units have to be attached to a HQ located on a friendly repaired rail line which is connected to the national supply source? Is this correct?
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Odin
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Odin »

Thanks guys.

Yesterday i found out that my railways were "broken" at one hex near Rostov.

The rails going south of Rostov are green, but with a white line trough it...should that mean that the tracks are ok there, but there is no traffic because there were broken somewhere else right??

Thats the situation in the south, in the north my main problem is the slow moving FBD..

And about this Airdropping...i have airfields in range with Ju52, but the game tells me no transport aircraft available..??

Thanks again[&o]
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Hagar
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Hagar »

Correct, your rail line is disrupted despite being OK further on.

As to airdropping: the JU-52 need to be within 5 hexes of friendly (repaired and operating) rail, and should not have moved IIRC.
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manofwar
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by manofwar »

Agggh! these Construction Bn's are driving me nuts.If I got this right- Must be in 'range' of their HQ's to repair automatically ?
Hoe do you get them to move? recall them to HQ?
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Hagar
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Hagar »

I haven't been able to get them to repair from regular army HQ or lower. Sending them off to Army Group HQ or higher does seem to work, and they will start repair automatically once the advance gains momentum (and the repair workload piles up). Reassigning them to Army Group HQ will give you a bit more control where they will move off to compared to OKH, but the latter has greater range. The only real control you have are the FBDs. Construction units attached to an Army HQ will focus on fort construction, not rail repair. Those attached to Army Group HQ and above will focus on rail repair. I've only tried moving the construction battalions up once, but in turn 4/5 it did start to make a difference. So the first batches of German Admin Points will in part be spent on relocating your construction units.
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Denniss »

For the construction Bns - try to keep maximum of one per frontline Korps/Army and send all others (except those from FBD) to OKH. Ensure support level at OKH is locked so they don't get sent down the train back to other HQs.
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Odin
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Odin »

Ok thanks guys![:)]
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Nix77
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Nix77 »

ORIGINAL: Hagar
I haven't been able to get them to repair from regular army HQ or lower. Sending them off to Army Group HQ or higher does seem to work, and they will start repair automatically once the advance gains momentum (and the repair workload piles up). Reassigning them to Army Group HQ will give you a bit more control where they will move off to compared to OKH, but the latter has greater range. The only real control you have are the FBDs. Construction units attached to an Army HQ will focus on fort construction, not rail repair. Those attached to Army Group HQ and above will focus on rail repair. I've only tried moving the construction battalions up once, but in turn 4/5 it did start to make a difference. So the first batches of German Admin Points will in part be spent on relocating your construction units.

I've tested out construction units in RHG HQs, they seem to work just fine, and you can localize the repair effort easier this way. Seems like the battalions double-team one rail hex per turn if you place the HQ just ahead of the railhead you want to extend. Remember the automatic rail repair units don't operate adjacent to the FBD units!

See the picture attached, 102nd RHG has sent 6 battalions to repair the nearby rails, and the effect is really controlled & local.

EDIT: OK seems like I'm too newbie to post pictures yet, but I'll attach it later on once my quarantine is over :)
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Mamluke »

ORIGINAL: Nix77

I've tested out construction units in RHG HQs, they seem to work just fine, and you can localize the repair effort easier this way. Seems like the battalions double-team one rail hex per turn if you place the HQ just ahead of the railhead you want to extend. Remember the automatic rail repair units don't operate adjacent to the FBD units!

See the picture attached, 102nd RHG has sent 6 battalions to repair the nearby rails, and the effect is really controlled & local.

EDIT: OK seems like I'm too newbie to post pictures yet, but I'll attach it later on once my quarantine is over :)

I'm doing a new Campgain as Axis, and Im trying to use RHG for maximum RR effect, I put up to 10 Const. battalions on each of the 3 RHG, how ever it seams I can only get up to 4 Battalions at best doing actual repairs....

how do you place the RHG HQ?( do you place it ahead of the rails you want to repair?) how many Const. do you have in then? (Im thinking of limithing then to just 5 MAX. I CAN NOT afford to have up to 12 - 16 Const. Battalions doing nothing in 1941....
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Nix77 »

ORIGINAL: Mamluke

ORIGINAL: Nix77

I've tested out construction units in RHG HQs, they seem to work just fine, and you can localize the repair effort easier this way. Seems like the battalions double-team one rail hex per turn if you place the HQ just ahead of the railhead you want to extend. Remember the automatic rail repair units don't operate adjacent to the FBD units!

See the picture attached, 102nd RHG has sent 6 battalions to repair the nearby rails, and the effect is really controlled & local.

EDIT: OK seems like I'm too newbie to post pictures yet, but I'll attach it later on once my quarantine is over :)

I'm doing a new Campgain as Axis, and Im trying to use RHG for maximum RR effect, I put up to 10 Const. battalions on each of the 3 RHG, how ever it seams I can only get up to 4 Battalions at best doing actual repairs....

how do you place the RHG HQ?( do you place it ahead of the rails you want to repair?) how many Const. do you have in then? (Im thinking of limithing then to just 5 MAX. I CAN NOT afford to have up to 12 - 16 Const. Battalions doing nothing in 1941....

Can't send a picture or a link because of the new member quarantine...

Anyway in my test case I had 9 construction batallions and 1 brigade in the 102nd RHG, just for testing purposes. I placed the HQ so that there were only three repairable railheads in the range. Apparently repair range for army HQs is 5 hexes, I tested this out. If there weren't repairable hexes in 5 hex radius, the batallions stayed home. Manual states it should be the command range?

The HQ sent a double team of construction units to each railhead, 6 in total. 4 were left to HQ. So it seems like they try to repair all the railheads in range. Didn't test if it'd send more units, or what kind of order it used when selecting railheads to repair.


If you have a single railhead that you want/need to repair only 1 hex/turn and use the FBDs somewhere else, then a RHG HQ with 2 construction batallions is enough. You'll get problems in intersections where you can't align the HQ so that only the desired rail is in range though, so 4 battalions may be a good option if you don't want to lose a turn and you're about to come to a crossroad :)

Main points:
- 2 battalions repair 1 hex / turn, don't waste brigades on specialized rail repair HQ because they team up with a battalion so a part of their capacity is wasted
- If you want to repair specific rail hexes, you need to have ONLY those railheads in range (or if there's more hexes, have 2 bns / hex if you want max progress)
- Army HQ (at least RHG) has only 5 hex "repair range", which is good for localized repair operations
- Army Groups seem to have repair range equal command range (or at least 25+), as stated on the manual
- Automatic repair units DO NOT operate adjacent to the FBD/NKPS units!

EDIT: RHG/Army HQ can send at least 12 batallions, I guess it's not limited.
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Champagne »

ORIGINAL: Denniss

For the construction Bns - try to keep maximum of one per frontline Korps/Army and send all others (except those from FBD) to OKH. Ensure support level at OKH is locked so they don't get sent down the train back to other HQs.

If you LOCK OKH won't all of the subordinate Armies and Korps also be Locked?
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Mamluke »

Thank you for the detailed reply!

you help me confirm Army HQ RR capabilities, I also went to the manual to check the "range" of Army HQ Const. Bat. it says it's command range, and the manual say command range for Army HQ is 25 hexes, thanks to you I know that is not the case.

if Army Group HQ range is 25 hexes, that would be very good as well, I'm thinking of putting 20 Contruction Battalions for each Army Group and the rest for OKH, with maybe 30 for Army group Center since that is the road to Moscow, and Army group South already have the help of the Romanians (they provide 12 Const. bat.! they sure do their part for Barbarossa).
what do you think of this?

Do you think OKH HQ "range" for their Construction is actually 45? that is a lot of range already.

BTW, A tip to help you know how many Construction units are actually doing thier Job.
you go to Commander's Report, only select Contruntion units, now toggle "ONMAP", discount the Main RR units and BAM, you know exactly how many Units are doing repairs and how many are doing Nothing!
Fun fact, I acutally came up with this when playing the Soviets, wondering if I should build more Const. units to help Blitzing Red Army. (this was in 1944 lol)

ORIGINAL: Champagne

ORIGINAL: Denniss

For the construction Bns - try to keep maximum of one per frontline Korps/Army and send all others (except those from FBD) to OKH. Ensure support level at OKH is locked so they don't get sent down the train back to other HQs.

If you LOCK OKH won't all of the subordinate Armies and Korps also be Locked?
No, if you Lock OKH, NO SU can go down the chain of command automatically, Ex: if you have 5 arty SU in a LOCK OKH, they will NEVER go to the Army Groups and by extension can NOT reach Army HQ or even Corps HQ, in other words, those 5 SU will never partake in any battle, Not even the war! (for all effects and purposes anyway).
Unless of course, you manualy move then.

as with the above, NO SU can "enter" OKH from Army groups or Army HQs.

with all that said, Locking a Army Group is a more serious situation, because now for Ex: the 16Th Army can't transfer Excess SU to the lacking 18th Army.

however, do keep in mind, that when receiving SU as reinforcements (Axis mostly) I think 99% go to OKH, (if another nationality they go to their respective High Command
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Champagne
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Champagne »

Thanks, M. This part of the game is tough to optimize. People have different methods that seem to work.
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Nix77
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Nix77 »

ORIGINAL: Mamluke

Thank you for the detailed reply!

you help me confirm Army HQ RR capabilities, I also went to the manual to check the "range" of Army HQ Const. Bat. it says it's command range, and the manual say command range for Army HQ is 25 hexes, thanks to you I know that is not the case.

if Army Group HQ range is 25 hexes, that would be very good as well, I'm thinking of putting 20 Contruction Battalions for each Army Group and the rest for OKH, with maybe 30 for Army group Center since that is the road to Moscow, and Army group South already have the help of the Romanians (they provide 12 Const. bat.! they sure do their part for Barbarossa).
what do you think of this?

Do you think OKH HQ "range" for their Construction is actually 45? that is a lot of range already.

I think the repair range for Army Group (45hex) and OKH (90hex) might actually be the same as their command range. But for some reason for Army HQs it's different, command range being 15 hexes and repair range only 5 hexes.

Problem with loading Army Groups with rail repair battalions is their extensive range (I tested it out and it's at least more than 25 hexes, I'd expect it's the same as command range, 45 hexes), you have very little control where the repair battalions go. With Army HQ 5 hex range you can deal with a very specific area, which should be quite useful. I would keep a bunch in Armygroups, and give the RHG HQs 4 battalions each for accurate repair.

With a recent change, the SEC units under RHG Command get their supply independently, so it really doesn't matter where the RHG HQs are, so they might as well be repairing the rail.
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Mamluke »

ORIGINAL: Champagne

Thanks, M. This part of the game is tough to optimize. People have different methods that seem to work.

No problem bro.

In my opinion, I only care for SU for 2 things:

1 - Make sure I give Pioneers/Engineers ; Stug ; Panzer/tank ; Flak (sometimes) Battalions to my best Divisions, such as Panzer Divisions, Motorize Divisions, and STRONG Infantry Divisions, (a 14 to 16 CV Infantry Division can be a game changer).
the same logics also applies to the Soviets, in fact its even more fun because you can create Tank, Heavy tanks and Engineers at will :).

when deciding which Divisions get's what, always give priority to the highst Morale = higher CV.


2 - at least try to make sure the Corps HQ that will do most of the fighting get high amount of SU.
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RE: Troops ahead without fuel - what to do?

Post by Denniss »

Locking the support level is just for the local HQ unless you do it via Commanders report for the active/listed HQ
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