Strange Supply Drain

[incognitus]

For some reason I lose about 1,000 supplies every month, even though I produce more than enough. I have read somewhere that this can have to do with stationing troops in allied territories, because you somehow have to refund your allies for the supplies your troops use.

But I don't think that's it, because I have barely any troops in allied lands. I play as Japan, it's late 1941, I have defeated both the Allies and Axis and now I am at war against Comintern (and just at the right time for Barbarossa, too ^^). I have conquered all the Russian lands to the east of Finland, including Leningrad and also Latvia, Lithuania, all of (former) Poland, the Ukraine and Belarus, including Crimea. In the east I have taken half of Mongolia, about two provinces out from Manchuko and everything east of the western border of Manchuko with Mongolia. I have only three units, one Army group HQ and two Army HQs in Manchuko, each with a few CAV as Garde du Corps. What causes this drain?

 

[Count Blue]

What causes this drain?

The supply system is pretty mysterious occasionaly and we all can only guess.
There are definetly multiple reasons possible. Sometimes the supply system seem to encounter hiccups for no apparent reasons at all.
But I guess we are not always seeing the whole picture.

Strat move of bigger armies can of course do that, convoying them to a different landmass at once too.
But I am sure you knew that already.

I know thats no help I just wanted to assure you that such has been observed before by others too.
So its somehow regular.

 

[incognitus]

Okay, I wouldn't be as alarmed, if it wasn't so consistent. I am down to about 72k in Supplies and obviously, having conquered about 2/3 of the world, all my resources are usually parked at 99,999. I will try to pump 300 IC into Supplies to see if that fixes it. I am strat moving, but only the odd Corps. In the last month or so of the war, I have strat moved maybe 8 Corps by about 10 provinces. Is that enough to cause such drain?

 

[Count Blue]

Okay, I wouldn't be as alarmed, if it wasn't so consistent. I am down to about 72k in Supplies and obviously, having conquered about 2/3 of the world, all my resources are usually parked at 99,999. I will try to pump 300 IC into Supplies to see if that fixes it. I am strat moving, but only the odd Corps. In the last month or so of the war, I have strat moved maybe 8 Corps by about 10 provinces. Is that enough to cause such drain?

Well yes, 8 full corps would be 40 divs?
Some mobile or armoured maybe?
That could easily do that I think.

 

[incognitus]

Well yes, 8 full corps would be 40 divs?
Some mobile or armoured maybe?
That could easily do that I think.

No, I think they were all Line Corps (3xINF,ART,AT with HQ+2INF,ART,AT), maybe one armoured, but I don't think so. But yes, that's 6 full divisions per Corps, ~48 divisions.

 

[Kovax]

If you have any puppets on the far side of the continent (or in Europe), that could easily cause it. The supply system will need to supply those units from your own capital, so until the supplies crawl across the entire width of the Soviet Union to reach them, they'll draw double their usual allocation, and the supply pipeline will need to fill up along that entire length. Once the supplies arrive, it will quickly exceed what's needed, and the excess with begin the slow journey back to your supply depot in China. Then you'll be flooded with all those excess supplies in the pipeline for the next few months.

Playing GER, I annexed Western and West Central Russia, while puppeting the Soviet remnant to the East. To my horror, my supply stockpile crashed from 99K to just above zero in a matter of weeks, despite me pumping every spare IC I could muster (everything except Consumer Demand needs) into Supply production. It turns out that I had to supply all of the remaining Soviet divisions on the Japanese border, all the way across the Eurasian landmass. After a few months, the excess supplies all suddenly started returning, flooding in and overflowing my supply stockpile even after I cut supply production to zero. Filling that pipeline, and then having half of it return, can be a nasty experience, particularly if you're not expecting it.