Supply over puppets & convoy frustrations

[Dr. Shades]

Hello all:

I have three questions:

1. If I am playing Germany and take control of Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, and Iraq, I suppose I have to annex each of those countries in order to trace the Middle East oil to my industries without using transports (as opposed to merely making them into puppets). Is that right?

2. I conquered Britain and had lots of steel stockpiled there, but my industries in Germany were suffering from a lack of steel. I had created convoys, but for some reason the steel would never ship. How should I proceed:

• Instead of putting a single convoy with Steel, Rubber, Coal, and Oil checked (the default), make four separate convoys, each shipping ONLY Steel, Rubber, Coal, and Oil respectively?
• Leave the single convoy alone, but dramatically increase the number of transports in it to WAY above the minimum?
• Make four separate convoys, like in option #1, but dramatically increase the Steel convoy alone to WAY over the minimum?
• Just sit there and accept the fact that I can't do anything about this problem?

3. Since there are still industries in German-occupied Britain, should I run Oil and Rubber convoys to Britain to keep the industries there running well so I can benefit?

Thanks in advance!

 

[unmerged(36342)]

Leave the single convoy alone, but dramatically increase the number of transports in it to WAY above the minimum

I thin k 1 transport can ship 2 resource away regardless of how many types you assign it to carry. Annex nation give like 50% resource? So if it produce 100 steel u need to have 25 transport

 

[Pro_Consul]

1. If I am playing Germany and take control of Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, and Iraq, I suppose I have to annex each of those countries in order to trace the Middle East oil to my industries without using transports (as opposed to merely making them into puppets). Is that right?

Yes, that is correct. You cannot trace a ground connection for resource transportation or unit supply through the territory of puppets. You could, however, trace the resources to an annexed Turkey and then via convoy across the Black Sea from Zonguldak to Odessa (assuming you have taken it from the Sovs) or Constanta (assuming you annexed Romania). With Turkey in your hands the Bosporus strait would be closed to enemy surface ships, so only the anemic Soviet navy or the odd Allied sub would have any chance to interrupt such a convoy and a couple of naval bombers in Zonguldak could easily deal with those threats. But I would still advise grabbing Yugoslavia and Greece anyway, so that would be academic.

2. I conquered Britain and had lots of steel stockpiled there, but my industries in Germany were suffering from a lack of steel. I had created convoys, but for some reason the steel would never ship. How should I proceed:

• Instead of putting a single convoy with Steel, Rubber, Coal, and Oil checked (the default), make four separate convoys, each shipping ONLY Steel, Rubber, Coal, and Oil respectively?
• Leave the single convoy alone, but dramatically increase the number of transports in it to WAY above the minimum?
• Make four separate convoys, like in option #1, but dramatically increase the Steel convoy alone to WAY over the minimum?
• Just sit there and accept the fact that I can't do anything about this problem?

I agree with Elty. Go with option 2, leaving a single multi-resource convoy but increasing it drastically above the minimum transports.

3. Since there are still industries in German-occupied Britain, should I run Oil and Rubber convoys to Britain to keep the industries there running well so I can benefit?

Industries on islands only use resources which are accessible via ground to the capital of the controlling country, in this case Berlin. So having the resources sit in Britain will not enable the industries in Britain to function. You could have 9999 of every resource type on Britain, but if the amount accessible to Berlin via ground is zero, ALL of your industry will stop. And as long as Berlin has access to resources, all the industry on the British isles will continue to function. Not exactly logical, but there you are.


Hope that helps.

 

[unmerged(8319)]

Well, IMO option 1 is the most efficient because you can finetune the amount of transports needed. If you go with an all-cargo convoy, you will be sailing with empty capacity in 99% of the cases (empty space not used by one good is not used by another, strangely).

But ofc. it is much more MM.

 

[Pro_Consul]

Well, IMO option 1 is the most efficient because you can finetune the amount of transports needed. If you go with an all-cargo convoy, you will be sailing with empty capacity in 99% of the cases (empty space not used by one good is not used by another, strangely).

But ofc. it is much more MM.

It doesn't make any difference. A convoy that can carry 200 units of steel can also carry 200 units of oil and 200 units of coal at the same time without adding any transports to it. IMO, fine tuning the convoy is a waste of time. If you have the transports available, there is no reason not to use them. Of course once the initial stockpile in Britain has been ferried over you would want to reexamine the convoy and trim to only what was needed to keep with ongoing resource production.

 

[unmerged(3221)]

If you are having problems getting resources out of an island back to your mainland:

1) Cancel all existing convoys from that area. The ledger pg 4 can be used if you have a lot of convoys to look up.
2) Look below your capital and determine in what province resources are piling up.
3) Make up one massive convoy from that supply depot province with steel coal and rubber checked off. Oil can be left there for troop use.

As Pro_Consul noted, resources for industrial use have to be in the capital. Otherwise it would be a shipping nightmare for countries like England to have to send 2 coal, 1 steel, and 0.5 rubber to each island for it's one IC. Just imagine how much micro management and AI overhead that would require!