Ports as supply sources.

[Didz]

I was watching Alex Lifesons Soviet lets play again last night and noticed something that made me question my understanding of how supply works in HOI3.

Alex has allowed the Germans to breach his front line and push towards Moscow, and is basically letting them run riot in central Russia, whilst he pushes westerward an tries to cut the supply lines back to Berlin. The theory being that if he cuts their supply then the entire German army will just wither on the vine and he can kill them off at his leisure.

This sounds plausible given the supply system routes all supply from a single source. But I'm a bit dubious about whether this strategy will by ruined by the fact that the German advance has captured several Soviet ports including Sevastapol, and I think it's Riga on the Baltic coast.

Doesn't the AI simple route supplies through captured ports?

I thought it did. In which case those Germans marching on Moscow are still going to get supplied even if not as effectively as they might have done by land.

Have I got this wrong?

 

[marxianTJ]

Nope they'll be supplied by sea - so long as Germany has convoys to ship the supplies, which can be an issue if the Brits and USSR are hitting their convoys hard.

 

[Pugmak]

Also, logistics via ports tends to be very constrained. It's not enough to just get some supplies. An offensive needs *enough* supplies.

No way can the German offensive be sustained if limited to ports, especially with the infrastructure levels in that part of the world.

If that situation ever occurs for you, a way you can assist in furthering the starvation of your enemy is to bomb the crap out of the infra around the ports, or port strike the ports to rubble. That would do you more good, often enough, than bombing divisions since it hurts the enemy all across the front.

 

[Less2]

Level 10 ports can import around 100 supplies per day. Non-motorized divisions are going to draw at least 3 supplies a day, armored divisions around 8-9. A player could reduce the draw substantially (up to around -50%) through a good order of battle, but the AI is most likely getting very little from their OOB. If the Soviets can hold the line for a few weeks until the German divisions have exhausted the supplies they carry with them its game over.

The only confounding factor is air supply. Theoretically any nation can run an unlimited number of air supply missions but for the AI air supply is unlikely to make a sizable difference.

 

[fredgiblet]

That's actually a very interesting strategy. Makes me want to try it by playing the Soviets and straight up abandoning a big chunk of the border.

 

[Didz]

Do AI units in TFH indicate when they are out of supply?

The human controlled units get little red triangles on the bottom left corner of the counter, but I can't recall seeing them on the AI units.