How do convoys affect supply for overseas divisions?

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StrategieWissenschaft

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Question: Will troops be supplied in an overseas port (a port that is not connected via land to their capital) if they are out of convoys?

The wiki says, "Convoys are automatically drawn from this pool as needed for trade, supply, lend-lease, and transportation of ground troops (including invasions)." This leads me to think they get supply from convoys headed to that port, which raises the question of whether that port can be blockaded by the enemy to starve those divisions out. (and if so, what command does that enemy navy use - e.g. hold, convoy raiding, etc)
 

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In theory yes, in reality no, short of sinking their entire merchant marine.

That's simply not true even as of the previous version of the game before WtT came out.

Convoy routes have an efficiency. If the route is hit by convoy raiders, and it loses ships, there is some lag time where it operates at less than 100% efficiency. Assuming it doesn't get hit again in the near future, that efficiency climbs back up.

For trade, this can be abused by players, because you can reset the efficiency of a convoy route by cancelling and restarting a trade.

Supply cannot be abused in this manner; most of the time, players don't notice this, though, because it's easy to keep the routes open. When they close, or are raided badly enough, things get bad.

The sending and receiving ports must also have enough capacity to send the supplies.

Two examples that illustrate these mechanics in action:

In an MP game a few months ago, the Italians made a play for Turkey. The British army countered that move and took defensive positions across the straits before the Axis could get across. But Italian forces in Rhodes pushed into Anatolia to try and flank the Brits. The British army was stretched thin, but the RAF helped them by obliterating the port in Rhodes. Bomber Command bombed it and kept bombing it (to prevent repairs from resting it to functional status) until the Italians were beaten. Out of supply MTN divisions are no match for in supply Kiwis.

In another game, the Axis made a play for Portugal. They flipped Portugal before the war, and upon the war starting, Portugal joined the Axis. In order to secure the tungsten, Germany placed a substantial garrison force there. The good news was that there wasn't a lot Britain could do about it. The bad news was that even after France fell, Franco wouldn't join the Axis. Neutral powers will let trade go through their territory, so Germany could buy Portuguese tungsten without her convoys getting attacked. But neutral powers won't let supply through. So, there was a German convoy route going from southern France to Portugal. More than once, the Allies had that route down to 6% efficiency, and the German divisions in Portugal were starting to die on the vine. Attrition was becoming a real problem. Luckily, Franco finally joined the Axis, and the problem was solved. But for awhile, Germany was very worried that the forces in Portugal were going to get starved out and the Allies would walk right in.
 

Alliegorical

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If you dominate a sea zone, it doesn't take much effort to reduce convoy efficiency to 5% or less. That means the overseas divisions are getting 5% of the supplies they otherwise would. Since VPs produce a bit of supply on their own, a small garrison on a big VP doesn't need convoys at all, but you absolutely can starve out a garrison at, say, Malta or Gibraltar.
 

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So, for the sake of supplying troops, they still require convoy ships to deliver the goods, and those ships can be lost to the enemy navy.

So, tl;dr for this post is - yes, you can starve out divisions with "naval blockades" if those divisions aren't getting supply from land
 

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Do you specifically have to be raiding convoys for the route efficiency to go down? And does it actually sink convoys, as they're not seen moving on the map as a unit- like naval invasions?
 

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That's simply not true even as of the previous version of the game before WtT came out.

Convoy routes have an efficiency. If the route is hit by convoy raiders, and it loses ships, there is some lag time where it operates at less than 100% efficiency. Assuming it doesn't get hit again in the near future, that efficiency climbs back up.

For trade, this can be abused by players, because you can reset the efficiency of a convoy route by cancelling and restarting a trade.

Supply cannot be abused in this manner; most of the time, players don't notice this, though, because it's easy to keep the routes open. When they close, or are raided badly enough, things get bad.

I am genuinely astounded by this. I've trapped fairly sizable armies around Benghasi and or Tripoli with complete naval supremacy in the Med and a decent chunk of the RN at the mouth to the harbour for the shore bombardmend bonus never had any indication they're low on supply. Which is frustrating given the convoy battles are claiming I've sunk 80+ convoys and that should have a pretty catastrophic effect on the supply routes.
 

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I am genuinely astounded by this. I've trapped fairly sizable armies around Benghasi and or Tripoli with complete naval supremacy in the Med and a decent chunk of the RN at the mouth to the harbour for the shore bombardmend bonus never had any indication they're low on supply. Which is frustrating given the convoy battles are claiming I've sunk 80+ convoys and that should have a pretty catastrophic effect on the supply routes.

The effect is not instantaneous, and local supply affects it. Keep in mind that divisions have a supply grace. In some versions of the game, it is substantial. It might be a week or more before you see the penalties hit the units on the ground. And it might fluctuate depending on how badly you are hitting those convoys.

It also pays to look at generals. Germany starts with Student, who has the Commando trait: -50% to out of supply penalties.

There is also the issue of what convoys are being hit, exactly. The examples I used in this thread were picked specifically because at the time, I knew there were no other convoys muddying up the numbers. The German units in Portugal were the only things causing convoys to move between Portugal and German-occupied France. In other situations, you might be hitting convoys in an area, but it contains supply, resource, or even trade convoys. You might end up killing convoys that are doing something else besides supply troops.

This is one reason I prefer to bomb ports to rubble when the option is in play. The effect is more immediate and certain, assuming you can keep it dead.
 

Uniform764

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The effect is not instantaneous, and local supply affects it. Keep in mind that divisions have a supply grace. In some versions of the game, it is substantial. It might be a week or more before you see the penalties hit the units on the ground. And it might fluctuate depending on how badly you are hitting those convoys..

Oh yeah I'm thinking like 3-4 weeks with intermittent holding attacks from my troops. It's probably down to local supply and the odd convoy sneaking through.

This is one reason I prefer to bomb ports to rubble when the option is in play. The effect is more immediate and certain, assuming you can keep it dead.
Port strike?