Fuel Silos - the most useless game feature?

[Premu]

For almost everything you can build in the game I can think of some situation in which it is a good choice to do so - be it equipment or buildings.

The exeception is the fuel silo - I never ever bothered with those. You get a decent fuel reserve by industry alone. And just to be able to store more will not help you in the long run without enough fuel production capabilities.

Do I oversee something here? Is there a nation or a specific playstyle in which fuel silos are useful or even essential?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

One might try to store it in advance of using it to invade someone who produces it.

 

[noobermenschen]

One might try to store it in advance of using it to invade someone who produces it.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

It's more likely to be useful in game than making rocket silos at least.

 

[panda234]

Maybe it's just one of those things that you rarely need but when you do need them you really really need them?

 

[Harin]

When Germany invades Russia, it needs to determine how much fuel it will need for the campaign, before it reaches the Baku oil fields. If it needs silos to store that much, then build some. If not, then don't. It is good that option is there, just in case.

In my SP games, I rarely have to, but sometimes, circumstances change and I cannot get enough oil from my friends. Then I have to build silos or know I will have to park a lot of my oil consuming units and go infantry attack in the middle of my campaign.

 

[DicRoNero]

The exeception is the fuel silo - I never ever bothered with those. You get a decent fuel reserve by industry alone. And just to be able to store more will not help you in the long run without enough fuel production capabilities.

Do I oversee something here? Is there a nation or a specific playstyle in which fuel silos are useful or even essential?

What you call a Decent Reserve is in fact some 100k fuel for medium minors.

Imagine what happens to in once items in research slots #4 and #5 will get set-up and running? At the beginning of 1943 my SHBBs are also coming from the refittings with top engines aboard, and those too act like fuel 'refineries' of their own.

It's not like I can import fuel either. I.e. over here I've recently finished off my SHBB construction program by importing metals at the expense of 2'000 convoys I stockpiled in the early days (when it's inefficient to produce ships anyway due to lacking modern designs). Either way, this option is now apparently gone (capturing Norway could grant some 200-300 convoys, those would last for 4 months tops).

When you sit there all alone, and mighty Amerika is on the other side of the globe, your only option is to run a series of pulsed offensives (which includes fighters on Air Sup), and you do this by having some amount of fuel *stockpiled*, since no realistic amount of Synth Refineries alone could sustain a modern fully mechanized, jet'ized and STR bomber-equipped army, which is planned to get ready once the last ramnants of wannabe-exiles join the club (allowing their host to finally go fascist and save the world).

[Should have got Synth Oil Experiments far earlier, but I blame spies who kept going back with stuff like Basic Fire Control - when I already had Advanced one researched and put into service]

P.S. The game is so much more interesting when Britain, Germany and the Soviets co-operate against third parties rather than exhaust each other in a triangle of wastage. Hopefully, this sentence addresses your inquiry for 'specific playstyles' in its utmost clearness.

 

[Simon_9732495]

Here an example from an Germany run at war with the Soviet Union: (20k Medium Tanks, 9k Fighter)

I need 34k Fuel per day. (Maximum Consumption 73k Fuel per day, LOL)
Normally I build Fuel Tanks up to ~3 Mio Fuel, but this time I had so much else to do and didnt produce as many Tanks and thought I will not need that much fuel.
Now I import every bit of Oil I can get and it still lasts only 33days.
With a full 3 Mio fuel stockpile as buffer it would be easier.

So, no, fuel tanks are not useless.

 

[Secret Master]

triangle of wastage

That's the new name of my Sabaton cover band.

 

[Bronterre]

With the exception of the USA and USSR I think fuel silos are a must for every major power, if the axis powers are using their airpower in any significant way prior to taking Russia, the Middle East or the East Indies they will run out if they haven’t stockpiled, doubly so if they are mechanised to any great extent or are doing much in the naval game. I personally also build some for uk/commonwealth as if the axis know what they are about at all they will blockade me to hell as soon as I start offensive action or if they are going for an invasion, you just can’t rely on having uninterrupted supply of oil and if your fleet, airforce and army can’t move you are screwed.

 

[noobermenschen]

With the exception of the USA and USSR I think fuel silos are a must for every major power, if the axis powers are using their airpower in any significant way prior to taking Russia, the Middle East or the East Indies they will run out if they haven’t stockpiled, doubly so if they are mechanised to any great extent or are doing much in the naval game. I personally also build some for uk/commonwealth as if the axis know what they are about at all they will blockade me to hell as soon as I start offensive action or if they are going for an invasion, you just can’t rely on having uninterrupted supply of oil and if your fleet, airforce and army can’t move you are screwed.

For multiplayer this makes sense but AI Germany sticks Doenitz in a basement office somewhere and doesn't go hard after UK or French convoys, except just off the coast where I can pound them with Navs. IIRC I just blocked the Channel to shipping and completely ignored the U-boats as France. You should be able to defend Christian Europe just balancing your oil purchases with USA, rather than using precious construction time and build slots.

 

[Cavalry]

just playing France, higher difficulty to learn the benefit of silos! It needs only 1-3 silos so not much loss of IC to be safe.

 

[seattle]

When Germany invades Russia, it needs to determine how much fuel it will need for the campaign, before it reaches the Baku oil fields. If it needs silos to store that much, then build some. If not, then don't. It is good that option is there, just in case.

In my SP games, I rarely have to, but sometimes, circumstances change and I cannot get enough oil from my friends. Then I have to build silos or know I will have to park a lot of my oil consuming units and go infantry attack in the middle of my campaign.

In vanilla Germany can just keep importing oil from Iraq/Iran without convoys. So yeah, silos are useless.

Which is why people should use mods like "Total War", "BICE" or "Hearts of Oak".
In those it's difficult to field more than 15 panzer divs and even 3 mio stockpiled fuel will be spent in the first year of Barbarossa.
Gives you a real urgency to capture the Caucasus and remind yourself that the infantry is the queen of all weapons of war.

 

[Harin]

In vanilla Germany can just keep importing oil from Iraq/Iran without convoys. So yeah, silos are useless.

Which is why people should use mods like "Total War", "BICE" or "Hearts of Oak".
In those it's difficult to field more than 15 panzer divs and even 3 mio stockpiled fuel will be spent in the first year of Barbarossa.
Gives you a real urgency to capture the Caucasus and remind yourself that the infantry is the queen of all weapons of war.

I have played Total War and Black Ice, but not Hearts of Oak, yet. I need to look that one up. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Voigt]

In multiplayer I rarely have over 20k daily Fuel Consumption, dunno why people use 20k Medium Tanks and stuff like that.
I never build Silos myself with good Romanian Oil and good Fuel Refining you normally get that much daily fuel, that you only lose fuel when your tanks are moving, but you gain fuel when they are stopping, reorging and planning. So the gain and usage is pretty much balanced.

But I like how Silos get spawned by some foci for Japan in IHMP, this smoothens out the fuel consumption of the japanese fleet and gives are nice buffer between action and inaction. Also with the embargo feature there, fuel capacity becomes much more critical for Japan.

 

[Simon_9732495]

In vanilla Germany can just keep importing oil from Iraq/Iran without convoys. So yeah, silos are useless.

You can't import enough. See my posting above.
If you use bigger Tank Armys and Air forces you cannot supply them only from trade, unless you can trade with the USA.
You don't have to build big Tank Armys and Air Forces. But why wouldn't you, if you can?

dunno why people use 20k Medium Tanks and stuff like that.

I use them because on the field the contribute more to winning wars, than in stockpile.
And I have them in stockpile, because I produce them.
What do you use your MILs on, if not on stuff that uses fuel? (Airplanes, Tanks)

 

[Meglok]

Japan, Germany, Italy, and any normal democracy going ahistorical that can be cut off from the USA can benefit from stockpiling oil. It just depends upon your strategic and production plans.

 

[Secret Master]

In multiplayer I rarely have over 20k daily Fuel Consumption, dunno why people use 20k Medium Tanks and stuff like that.

In fairness to MP, if you are able to get 20,000 medium tanks on the map at one time without massive sacrifices to some other part of the military, that probably means something has gone horribly wrong for your enemies, and you can either afford that many tanks, or your losses are incredibly small, or both.

 

[dasaard200]

As Soviets, I don't give a damn about conventional wisdom, I build silos and refineries to match my oil & fuel production; as I motor down the refinery trees .
BIG tanks, BIG air, EAT foes; drink much fuel !, run dry, you die . We got many states for refineries and silos .