Controlling the Forces: Attack Options

[Makeyourownmind]

1) I want to have an option where I don't specify the time my force attacks; I instead want to say: attack the next dawn (or sunset) where the weather is good (enough).

2) Like ships I want to tell aircraft: send some scouts, and only if you encounter enemy aircraft call for help.

 

[Makeyourownmind]

I want to define on the map: build a supply or fuel depot for 1.000 or 10.000 units here and fill it.

 

[potski]

I want to define on the map: build a supply or fuel depot for 1.000 or 10.000 units here and fill it.

This is covered in Dev Diary #9, in which Johan said:

sticking with our design philosophy, the actual nuts and bolts of delivering supplies to your units is automated. From the player perspective, logistics is something you work with not something you have to constantly manage.

It doesn't appear that you can build supply depots.

 

[Alsadius]

It doesn't appear that you can build supply depots.

It's possible that he meant that as "We think that the AI is good enough that you won't need to", and not "It is not possible". After all, even on the HoI 1/2 logistics system you could build a depot if you wanted - start a big convoy there, and make sure the computer isn't stupid enough to ship it all back for you. It'd be utterly silly if you couldn't prepare for an offensive by stockpiling supplies *somewhere*.

 

[unmerged(131342)]

We'll have to see how it works in practise. Since supply flows from the capitol and through provinces I am very curious to see how a russia will supply it's 300 divisions from Moscow. It either means you can transport a lot of supplies through a good-infra province thus the logistic flow is not a problem for minors and only majors, or it means there is a real law of diminishing returns where a lot of divisions starts to exponantially cost you in keeping them supplied.

 

[unmerged(52507)]

I think the latter option is part of the devs' aim

 

[unmerged(135152)]

Building supply depots would be a nightmare for me. It is one of the things I'd like to see automated. I always hated all the "type Matrix games" where you end up spending two hours per turn clicking around just to make sure that Bill from second company had remembered to put a fresh pair of socks on for tomorrow's attack.

 

[oribiasi]

Also, if you had to manage every aspect of everything -- then what kind of "real" war game would that be? You have people under you in this game to handle at least some of the issues that would arise, like supply management.

 

[Devout]

I agree with the original poster that I would like to see "dawn" time options and such.

If PI develops 2 sets of user interface, then the attack options should be easily done. The "simplified interface" would give options to attack based on overall circumstances (good, medium, bad) but the "complex interface" would allow for the user to select the exact time/date.

 

[Makeyourownmind]

This is covered in Dev Diary #9, in which Johan said:
It doesn't appear that you can build supply depots.

It's possible that he meant that as "We think that the AI is good enough that you won't need to", and not "It is not possible". After all, even on the HoI 1/2 logistics system you could build a depot if you wanted - start a big convoy there, and make sure the computer isn't stupid enough to ship it all back for you. It'd be utterly silly if you couldn't prepare for an offensive by stockpiling supplies *somewhere*.

In HoI II Armageddon playing a world wide empire is a nightmare. If I play japan and I have less than - lets say - 2000 convoys and military engagements around the world, I am about to cry. I don't know if the number 2000 is correct, but I build 990 convoy transports and I had some at the start of the '36 scenario. Its not that I couldn't supply my units with this much convoys; its that its so much work to manage it per hand, but the computer is to STUPID to do it himself.

(The shipping of supplys is maneged by need - if a unit is nearly out of supplys they are shipped. But... I got unneccesary iron from southamerika with over 200(!) convoys working at that while Infantry divisions on an island near china starved to death. And so on.)

So, if I can say: make a depot with 1000 fuel and 10.000 supplys HERE, I could manage my forces better. Ship supplys before you ship the troops, and you have reserves without stressing your supply system. And on land its the same: make a depot near the front before the attack and the infrastructure is less stressed during the crucial part - and he can bomb your supplylines so long he wants, as long as you have your supplys in depots near the front, you can fight.

Of course it needs time to get the supplys to the depot, and of course you loose a percentage of the supplys to get them there - but its worth it. On the strategic level.

And yes, if you have the supplys near the front they can bomb them. And you must have the option to get rid of the depot if it gets useless in the future. I don't want to manage the hole supplysystem: I want to have a tool to say the AI WHERE I want my supplys instead of cursing the AI or trying to make everything per hand. THAT would be the - stupid - alternative of not having the tool to say what the AI has to do.