Baffled by massive British Army in the middle of nowhere

[MJAnderson]

So I'm playing as Italy. I've secured the Med and helped Germany force peace on Russia. I took most of France (it's the HPP mod and vichy never fired). It's the end of 1941 and winter set in and I missed my opportunity to invade Britian so I figured I would clean up in the Middle East. Enforced puppet on Saudi Arabia. Moved down to that small strip of british provinces on the south of the peninsula only to find 47 British brigades sitting in Aden. OK that's not good but they have to be in low supply as I own the suez and have been convoy raiding along the african coast. But they aren't. So I switch to GB and find that they units have a daily need of 58 supplies and 12 fuel. The port can handle 19.8 units per day and somehow they have stockpiled 108-91 supplies-fuel. If you can't supply troops through a puppet and this is the only british port to supply them how have they been keeping them supplied?

I looked at the british home island and I've sunk much of their convoy fleet --- by my estimation Italy alone is sinking between 15-20 convoys a month. They have 0 money, 0 steel, 0 crude and 0 fuel. When I look at the tooltip they are -1.52 steel per day yet their IC is still at full capacity. Is it impossible to strangle them dry?

 

[MJAnderson]

I guess i didn't realize the AI cheats at supplies. It's only delivering 20 supplies per day and yet it can persist with stockpiles every day when using 58 per day. Their forces continue to attack. I started doing supply bombing runs of the province and I can see they have 6 units of supplies and yet the next day they somehow supply 58 to their units. I switched to GB and ran out of fuel within 3 days. When I play as Italy they still have stockpiles after a week. Guess you can't weaken them by cutting off supplies. They magically make it appear out of the desert.

 

[misterbean]

sounds like something the folks at HPP should know about, because that sounds like buggy to me;

 

[Pugmak]

Maybe it's holiday season and they're all doing the tourist thing?

 

[Charles Reeps]

This isn't the AI cheating - this is the "invisible" supply network at play. Both player and AI benefit from it as it is WAD for the supply system.

 

[MJAnderson]

So you can't starve someone out? I bombed the port to 0 and they are still not running out of supplies. Oddly my armies are with a larger port and 1/4 the number of brigades. If I read correctly every brigade carries 15 days of supplies. Is it possible to steal from some to feed others?

 

[Charles Reeps]

Unfortunately the invisible supply network runs from capital to capital without a convoy. It is set up between allies to compensate for your units supply and fuel usage. There is no way to shut it down.

Is it possible to steal from some to feed others?

In a manner of speaking, yes. When a division(s) leaves a province it will take what is necessary to fill the 15-day requirement, even if it means leaving other units starving. This is even worse when Strategic Redeployment is used as the supply requirements are double (30-days) and can cause entire supply lines to be disrupted.

 

[MJAnderson]

Unfortunately the invisible supply network runs from capital to capital without a convoy. It is set up between allies to compensate for your units supply and fuel usage. There is no way to shut it down.



In a manner of speaking, yes. When a division(s) leaves a province it will take what is necessary to fill the 15-day requirement, even if it means leaving other units starving. This is even worse when Strategic Redeployment is used as the supply requirements are double (30-days) and can cause entire supply lines to be disrupted.

Oh it's not that then since they are on British soil. you can't supply through allies though right? The Brits have 5 provinces at the southern tip of the arabian peninsula and one port. But SA, Yemen and Oman are allies and have ports.

does the 15 days show up in the tool tip as being in that province? I'm wondering if they are canabalizing the 15 day supply of some units to feed others. After a month with no port when I attack I run into units with supplies.

 

[unmerged(185688)]

Supply mapmode - San'a, Aden, Musqat - Supplied from Musqat.

You can be supplied from puppets. They will produce both supply and a small amount of fuel. All masters/puppets share a single unified supply network. Normally however, a puppets supply depot should be at one of their masters connected ports, as is the case with Britians other puppets. Oddly, even with a large naval base I've yet to see the depot change to Aden where it should be. It really doesn't matter though as both puppets would still be producing supply and feeding it into the shared network.


Edit: But SA, Yemen and Oman are allies and have ports.

If they are your allies/puppets then yeah, something is borked. You did say you puppeted SA, so I assume thats what you meant there.

 

[BattleMoose]

If the supply is coming through a land connection, then bomb the land connection that should put them OOS.

 

[MJAnderson]

So this is the wiki entry for puppets. So it's wrong? I was going by this.

Negative[edit]

Can not transport resources through territory
Can not transfer supplies through territory
No Change in Ministers

 

[BattleMoose]

So this is the wiki entry for puppets. So it's wrong? I was going by this.

I believe so, not sure when it changed. It was right once. I think.

 

[misterbean]

supplies can flow through puppets. I think that changed in FTM.