I can't understand a supply problem . Any help ?

[Valda]

I am playing Germany and after having beaten Russia and got the Bitter Peace I decided to crush the Brits from behind by coming through the Caucasus to India and to Middle East / Egypt .
So I liberated Azerbaidjan and attacked Iraq .

At first all was good and dandy , all my troops were well supplied even if it seemed a bit strange that they were supplied by Baku and not Berlin .
I broke through everything , kicked the Brits out of Kuwait , Karachi and Amman .
Then first anomaly - everything S of Baku went out of supply (troops in Baku itself were still supplied) and a bit later everything was supplied again (from Baku) .
Then second anomaly - a depot appeared in Bandar Abbas (I have asked for nothing !) and all troops went out of supply again , their supply point being swapped from Baku to Bandar Abbas .
Then third anomaly - while Bandar Abbas is full of oil , all my Panzers are going at 1 km/h because ... they are out of oil !

Can somebody explain me what's happening ?
Why can't the whole lot be simply supplied from Berlin when there is a broad and nice line of grey territories all the way from Iraq to Berlin ?
Why do moronic supply depots appear in places where I don't want them ?

P.S
OK I am producing some convoys in a hurry but I have never anticipated that I'd need them to supply troops that were not supposed to leave the continent and were connected to Berlin .

[CulturalCarnage]

I'd really have to see the game, but in an effort to help...

Go to your production folder and look at your supply depots listed. Anything strange? Anything oversupplied that shouldn't be?

Even if everything's OK, save the game and then switch to manual convoys - except keep computer control of allocating the number of transports/escorts (the middle one). Take away 'useless' oil & supplies from 'useless' depots.

Or, create a new supply depot - although, if you were on automatic already, theoretically, it should have done this.

If, for some reason, you're on manual already, switch to automatic & see what happens.

All I can think of off the top of my head - good luck.

[AOW]

would be to send supplies and oil to your puppet Azerbaijan. Just a hunch, but it would seem that your divisions are being supplied from your puppet and of course there's no way Azer. has enough supplies to do that.
Good luck.

Cheers,
Mike

[Valda]

Thanks for the replies .
I already did all of that .

1) I gave to Azerbaidjan 5 000 supplies . It simply sits there . As for oil , there is enough both in Azerbaidjan and Bandar Abbas (Iran) .

2) I have only 2 supply depots (both of them created automatically) . Lorient and Bandar Abbas . On top of course Berlin . There is a convoy road
Lorient -> Bandar Abbas and Bandar Abbas -> Lorient . As I had never produced convoys because I thought not to need them at that stage , obviously the amount of supplies delivered to Bandar is nowhere sufficient .

3) I have nothing on manual and never looked at the depots/convoys screen up to now . Everything is on automatic and working as expected - the convoys are correctly running from Lorient to Bandar it's only that it doesn't make much sense to send supplies from Berlin to Iran via France and all around Africa when Baku is oversupplied and only a couple of hudred km from the front .

In a nutshell :

The AI correctly decided to supply the initial offensive through Baku .
As I forgot to check the supplies , it is normal that when the supplies ran out in Baku , the AI tried to find an alternative supply source .
The most logical would be obviously Berlin but it would to have to transit through the Azerbaidjan territory because Tabriz (Azerbaidjan) is between Batumi (German) and the rest of Irak/Iran (German) - perhaps is it forbidden to transit a puppet's territory ?
If yes then I will have somebody shot - they don't want to mess with a Master of the World to be .
The second best would be through Baku once I correct the the unforgivable mistake of my government who forgot to give enough of supplies to Azerbaidjan and I did that .
The stupid would be to maintain a convoy supply to Bandar Abbas when it is obvious that I have not enough convoys to supply 75% of the Wehrmacht through this way .

So why don't those damn bureaucrats switch again to Baku once there is enough of everything or even directly to Berlin ?

[drmo]

Hi Valda,

I think the system has trouble supplying your forces across an ally or puppet's territory. By creating azerbaijan, you have broken your supply lines from berlin. You need to ferry supplies just south of azeri territory.

The same happened to me once as germany. I had declared war on turkey in an attempt to flank the soviets early on and take the russian oil fields as well as catch the brits in egypt in the rear! It was all working perfectly when bulgaria demanded yugoslav territory (skopje/stip) and i foolishly agreed. Presto, everyone ended up out of supply, and since i hadnt saved, i had no choice but to invade bulgaria

[Valda]

Thanks Drmo - so as I expected there seems indeed to be a problem to supply through a puppet's territory .

However that doesn't explain the other bit and that is that when I began the attack of northern Iraq and Iran , ALL units were supplied with the supply origin being listed as Baku (Azerbaidjan capital) .
So for several months the supply didn't come THROUGH the puppet's territory but FROM the puppet's territory .
It was only at a certain point , I believe (not sure) when I captured Bandar Abbas on S Iran coast where was probably a Brit supply depot that suddenly everybody went out of supply with supply origin being displayed Bandar Abbas .
And it stayed like that ever since with 1 strange exception where I noticed that 2 units deep in India got supplied from Baku for a couple of days before switching again to Bandar Abbas .
As I have already mentioned , Baku has enough of supplies and oil to supply the whole army but doesn't use it .

[CulturalCarnage]

Well, from the above:

* I forgot about the ally/puppet thing. Best to post s/shots sometimes. In a nutshell, lessay you create a puppet that's blocking the path. Initially, any supplies or oil will be drawn from whatever the puppet can do, if any. Giving the puppet/ally/whatever Resources through Negotiations is A Good Thing and should, theoretically, work. Keep in mind you have to give all of this stuff time to work. A common oversight, even by experienced players, is to not give things enough time to work - this can take weeks, sometimes.

* Don't just give Oil & Supplies - if nothing else, give Energy, too. Why? 'Cuz of Energy-Oil conversion. Remember, the ally/puppet/whatever needs to fulfill its own economic requirements, also - even if all it has is one lvl I Militia.

* Use manual control to your advantage. Create a depot using 'Create Supply Convoy,' if needed. It'll either be available to create, or it wont - i. e., listed as available, or not.

* Create Resource convoys to eliminate useless depots that automatically get replenished for some overlooked lone Inf div or similar laggard. These can also get replenished to gas up your allies' forces that may be present - don't overlook non-MC allies whose AF units and possibly naval units are hanging around, partying at your expense.

All this culled from a LOT of playing and investigation. To expand the subject greatly:

*** I have yet to see a true OOPS glitch/bug/whatever that was 'inexplicable' - eventually, I have always been able to determine the cause of AI behavio/problems/etc. ***

## 'Cept for why, when you're close to 100% production (yet over it), you'll get yellow and red conditions on your build that are restored within a week or so - to my mind, you're either satisfying requirements, or you're not - oh, well ###

Cheers,
CC

[Valda]

Giving the puppet/ally/whatever Resources through Negotiations is A Good Thing and should, theoretically, work. Keep in mind you have to give all of this stuff time to work. A common oversight, even by experienced players, is to not give things enough time to work - this can take weeks, sometimes.

I have been giving them only supplies because Azerbaidjan has always enough oil and keeps giving me some for free all the time .
However I didn't give any metals or energy because it is not needed for army supplies - I will try that .
Btw how can I check how much of each they have ?
Right now I only look at their ressources on the negociation screen - if some are available for trade , I assume that they have enough .
On a particular note , Azerbaidjan has 2 infantery divisions that are also out of supply because they are supplied from this obnoxious Bandar Abbas depot .
But that is probably "normal" because they are stationed on German territory in Iran and not Azerbaidjan territory .

As for the duration of this anomaly , it has been now for 4 months with this already mentionned strange exception when 2 Divisions in India got supplied by Baku for a couple of days .

Creating/suppressing depots is not a solution because my problem is NOT depots - the iranian Bandar Abbas depot (the only one depot I have) would be OK if I had enough convoys .
My problem is how to switch the supply from a useless depot empty of supplies because I have not enough convoys to a puppet's capital full of supplies and oil (admittedly probably empty of metals and energy) .

[CulturalCarnage]

Well, in general, the only really effective way to check 'em out is re-load as the nation in question. If allied, you can check out their capital's "home' depot by mousing over it, but that still doesn't really give you the whole story.

Don't consider it a cheat. Save & reload as the ally. Find out stuff.

I don't reload much, but I have done investigations when warranted. Heck, I want to play a game, not play Junior UI Designer. Still, this is a complicated game, everything's interrelated, and sometimes it's worth it in order to find stuff out.

As much as I've played now (still no DD - and I never may), I'm still learning things.

Have a great war

[Ericus1]

Originally Posted by Valda

Creating/suppressing depots is not a solution because my problem is NOT depots - the iranian Bandar Abbas depot (the only one depot I have) would be OK if I had enough convoys .
My problem is how to switch the supply from a useless depot empty of supplies because I have not enough convoys to a puppet's capital full of supplies and oil (admittedly probably empty of metals and energy) .

Your best bet will probably be to cancel all supply and resource convoys and turn off the automatic creation of them. As long as you allow the AI to create a supply dump in your territory, the game will force your units to draw from it. If you can prevent the supply dump from forming you may be able to force the engine to begin pulling from your puppet's stockpiles.

[CulturalCarnage]

Your best bet will probably be to cancel all supply and resource convoys and turn off the automatic creation of them. As long as you allow the AI to create a supply dump in your territory, the game will force your units to draw from it. If you can prevent the supply dump from forming you may be able to force the engine to begin pulling from your puppet's stockpiles.

In which case, force feeding the puppet Resources is probably required on a regular basis to prevent OoS/OoO problems, I would hazard to guess.

But yes, Ericus1 is absolutely correct. I played on Auto Convoys for a long time until I started running into problems as...guess who? The US, UK & JPN, natch. The esteemed colonel is restating my suggestion (more effectively, I may add)

In general, mess around with things. Find stuff out. Read the Wiki. Mess around some more. If you don't have 50 savegames, you're not trying hard

Have a great war