Slitherine

First of all can I say a big thanks to all those involved in the GS mod, (and the original game). This is now a fantastic game.

I'm playing GS (latest version) as the Axis.

I'm having big problems railing from the East of Russia. There seems to be an invisible (vertical) line between Moscow and Gorky. West of this line , I can rail both east and west, but East of this line I cannot rail any units, anywhere. I can't even rail a unit from Gorky to Moscow. My Axis units don't have the 'Rail' symbol until they go past this invisible line.

The units that I'm trying this with are not adjacent to enemy units , and are in Cities or Clear terrain.

I think that this is a bug since there is no reason that I can see why the Axis should be able to Rail units INTO Gorky , Sverdlovsk , and Omsk, but cannot get on a train and go west.

This has kinda ruined my current game. I had just taken Omsk in Sept 42, virtually my whole Army is around Omsk, and it's taken them 12 turns to tramp through the Winter (and then Mud) to the nearest working train station. Meanwhile the French have demolished the Western Defences.

help !!

This is NOT a bug. In order to be able to rail you need to have supply level 4 or 5. Supply for Axis units are calculated from Berlin. Within 20 hexes of Berlin you have max supply level 5 (lower in non-clear terrain). Within 21-40 hexes of Berlin you have supply level 4. So more than 40 hexes of Berlin you have supply level 3 and can't rail. This is the invisible "line" you're seeing.

The logistics for the Axis became worse and worse the furthers east in Russia they had to operate. Rail movement was particularly tricky because the Russians used broad gauge tracks while the rest of Europe used standard gauge tracks. So every captured rail line (except in the Baltic states and east Poland) had to be converted from broad gauge to standard gauge. This took a lot of time and limited the number of supplies the Germans could send to their spearheads. They had to convert on trucks to transport supply from the rail heads to the front line. We all know how poor the road system was in Russia.

So what you're experiencing is a simulation of the logistical nightmare it was to fight so far from your home country. You can still push German units towards Omsk, but it's slow since you lose 1 MP with supply level 3 and you can't use rail movement to strategically move the units. Other GS players have complained about this too, but it's a feature from the vanilla game and we believe it works well for GS as well. Seeing the Axis player take Omsk is something that should only happen in a small percentage of all games. It means Russia will surrender and the real Germans were nowhere near making that happen. So the Allied player has to make several big mistakes for this to happen in GS. If we don't have supply limitations when the Germans fight so far east then I think you will see too often that the Germans take Baku, Stalingrad, Omsk and other important areas.

With Russia defeated you should have the production to build 4-5 corps units per turn. Do that to hold the French and march your units westwards until you can rail them to the western front line.

If I get the opportunity to take Omsk I don't send the entire German army towards Omsk. I send the units I need to do the job and let the others start the march westwards. The Luftwaffe can quickly fly to the west and bombard the French units into oblivion.

Why didn't you start building 4-5 corps units per turn in the turns before you realized you would take Omsk. Those units could be placed in the Siegfried wall hexes and it can hold the line for a long time.

thanks for your reply Stauffenberg, using the whole Army was the only way to guarantee the success of the attack before the winter. That attack just had to work. and I needed a lot of units to protect the air force and fight the uber teched Russians. (I think my Omsk attack group was 4 Armour, 3 Mech, and about 10 Corps). I only had about ten corps , plus Allies stationed elswewhere). I did get the Luftwaffe back quickly, but my five Focke-Wulfs couldn't escort the Stukas safely against the Allied Jets. I'm afraid it was the luftwaffe that saw their own oblivion. After I started contesting the Air War, most of my PP's went on repairing Air units. (so I'll delay that engagement next time).

The Allies (AI) have Max advantage, so French Armour (at 21/?) can often wipe out a german corps at 'normal' readiness, in it's first attack.

The Allies DOW'd on Belguim and Switzerland , soon after I took Omsk, I held them in the alps but not on the Rhine. However I did make the mistake of under-estimating their tech lead, so I built too many subs instead of land units.

I saved the Game after taking Omsk, so I'll reload , and try to build a few more 'speedbumps' for the Allies to worry about.

I realise that mine is an abnormal scenario, and my timing on Winter was not great, but I'm not sure that even from Siberia, it should take the soldiers six months to get back home !

Thanks for your help, and despite my gripes, I love playing this game.

Hi
As a designer note there has been requests and discussion amongst the Dev team to extend the supply range a couple of hexes (ie 22 and 44) to include Gorki
to allow rail movement. The issue come down to map compression. the Eastern side of the map is moved westward to include the cities in far East Russia.
The actual distance from Berlin to Gorki was 1800 miles which if the map was correct Gorki would be where Omsk is on the current map. So the supply line ends to show the problem in suppling armies that far from your home capital. Supply level 3 goes to infinity and beyond (Buzz Lightyear) . So that is game mechanics to deal with. Plan accordingly.

pk867

You’re both right of course, it was a case of the Fuhrers blind optimism and stubborn refusal to face reality, (the same problem that the ‘real’ guy had !). Another example where this game brings out the realism of the situation.