Russian artillery and related questions

[seathom]

I'm playing my first campaign (historical) as EE. First of all, I'd like to congratulate Athena for moving more units to the Russian front in response to my attacks to help the WE! This has enabled the WE to push the Germans back to Sedan (they were in Soissons, mon dieu!) and their position in Amiens is weaker (especially their supply route). I have a few questions because I'm finding it hard to supply my artillery pieces (even my field artillery in Infantry Divisions) even though my ammo supply is slowly increasing each turn (it is now early Feb 1915) . . .

1. Should I take supply trains out of my stacks and create a stronger chain of depots from Petrograd and Moscow to push ammo out faster westward? If so, would a string of level 2 depots work well?

2. Can I use depleted and/or damaged supply trains to level up a depot?

3. Should I concentrate on buying munitions, then railing them back eastwards to get resupplied?

4. Even my artillery located in Petrograd and Moscow don't seem to be resupplying (on G/G) even though there is generally over 40 ammo units in the regions while it does push supply out (slowly, of course). Am I doing something wrong here?

5. I'm not noticing any German or Austrian cities that produce ammo on the Russian Front, does anyone have any suggestions as to which cities on this front are worth taking that may have intrinsic ammo production? I've taken Lemberg, threatening Premysyl, Krakau, Konigsberg and maybe Posen soon.

The game is going better than expected; it's not as difficult as I'd thought and I am enjoying the constant shortage of WS and rail; it really helps to understand the difficulties the Russians had to deal with. Trying to scramble attacking forces with ammo is the biggest challenge I'm facing right now. The WE has finally surpassed the CP in NM (92 WE - 90 CP) and 104 EE.

[vicberg]

You need to turn on supply filter and figure out where the bottleneck is. The filter isn't great, but ti doesn't show ammo/supplies sent and ammo/supplies received. Trace down the supply chain and that should help show you the problem area.

In the base game, munitions is shown as the Ammo icon. For any unit when you look at their supply to the right, the 100%supply/100% ammo means 100% supply/100% munitions. Same holds true on supply filter.

The purpose of a depot is to push out supplies anywhere from 3-5 regions without need of rail or anything else. If you don't have a "chain" of depots, then I believe the engine attempts to use available rail to push supplies. A chain of depots will push supply down the chain. Level 1 depots do not store and therefore push much. Yes, damaged supply trains may be used to build a depot.

If you are running short of munitions, then placing a munition factory close to the front will help. AH doesn't produce many munitions as compared to GE. I've never actually figure out where AH munitions are coming from. Any sizeable city produces some munitions. For GE it's cities about or around 10+

[seathom]

Thanks, vicberg, I was feeling a bit lonely out there with this thread! I did build a munitions factory very early in the game, expecting this problem. Not my brightest move, but I placed it in Brest-Litovsk; fortunately, so far, I've been pushing the CP back so hopefully it will not be endangered. I did find an artillery factory in Breslau and that's being encircled now. I may just need to be patient and let the ammo flow westward. It has made it to some of the border cities in small amounts but not sure why artillery in Petrograd and Moscow aren't being replenished immediately but pushing out westward instead. Once those artillery batteries are filled, I think I'll just keep my artillery replacements in two cities on the German and AH fronts so the artillery will all flow there (hopefully).

Thanks for the info on damaged supply trains.

[vicberg]

Artillery Factor or Munitions Factory or Artillery Replacements? There are Artillery Factories in the Ultimate Mod which generate artillery replacements, but I'm not familiar with Artillery Factories or Artillery Replacements in the base game, which I'm assuming you are playing. So I'll assume you are talking about munitions.

You are seeing what with your Artillery on Petrograd and Moscow? 100% Supply/ ?% Ammo and it's not increasing at all?

Again, bring up your supply filter and look at the overall supply chain. Any level 1 depot can clog up the entire chain. If you get more than 1 region away from a large city or depot, that too will start seeing diminished resupply. Have munition and supply trains and run them back to your large cities, especially cities that are producing munitions. If you need to replenish multiple trains send them to different cities.

In the base game, this is a major pain because of the small size of the munition and supply trains as compared to the size of the armies.

[seathom]

Yes, I am playing the base game.

As for Breslau, it states Deutsche Waffen & Mun Fab (Artillery Factory) with Land Constr. Cap: 25 (darn it, no ammo production). In Brest-Litovsk, where I am building a Munitions Factory it states Munitions Factory (Munitions Factory) with Ammo: 30 and Land Constr. Cap: 25.

Moscow did replenish the Munitions located there (just needed to be patient, I guess). As for Petrograd, yes, it states 100% Supply/ 0% Ammo and not increasing at all for the two field artillery units located there on G/G. When I double check the unit panel screen, both are depleted of ammo. Petrograd continues to have more ammo there than in any other region I possess (around 50-55 out of a total ammo of around 380 as of last turn). Since my munitions factory is almost built in Brest-Litovsk, I am moving both artillery units back west in separate cities and see if they get replenished there. Slowly but surely the ammo is trickling down to the fighting front as Petrograd pushes ammo out of its region every turn. Unfortunately for Russia, none of the western cities produce ammo (and if they do, no more than 2 or 3 per turn which seems to get used or pushed out immediately; hopefully my factory will help solve the problem).

Didn't run into this problem as the CP, but this has been a real challenge as EE (as it should be, as it was IRL). Needless to say, I'm not buying any artillery units until this problem is solved and will have to suffice with the field artillery in my infantry divisions which currently are running at maybe 50% of the units supplied on any given turn! Yet I am definitely seeing more of my infantry divisions being supplied with ammo in the last turn I just finished. I am near capturing some bigger German cities and this should help the ammo situation relatively soon (in early March 1915).