Slitherine

I modified the units file to add 3 fuel points to non-transports and 6 to Recon units and it works great. The rationale for this is to give units their standard "3 day" basic loads of ammo
and fuel. Otherwise, units effectiveness deteriorates immediately if they are cut off from their supply source as if they use up all their supplies on each turn.

Interesting. This is what the devs did with the paratroops and there was some discussion adding it to panzers as well to add to the blitzkrieg factor.

Maybe you should repost this in the Scenario design forum.
It gets kind of lost here under After Action Reports...

Just to be whiney maybe some scenarios each turn is more than a day but I think with paras the rationale should be they are crazies that jump out of perfectly fine airplanes behind enemy lines not knowing what the situation below is only being told by higher brass that oh it'll be fine so because they are "trained" to operate behind enemy lines and remain calm and cool and can use the enemies weapons because of their training and they can handle going with out food, water, doughnuts etc - they should "stay in supply" for a few turns.

As a former paratrooper who fought with the XVIII Airborne Corps in Dominican Republic (2Lt) and 101st Airborne Division (Cpt), I'm here to tell you that we DID drop with extra supplies: 1 day!

AceDuceTrey wrote:As a former paratrooper who fought with the XVIII Airborne Corps in Dominican Republic (2Lt) and 101st Airborne Division (Cpt), I'm here to tell you that we DID drop with extra supplies: 1 day!

Hi Ace!
Seriously just one day? And what was the plan if you hadn't caught up with your unit or would have been held up otherwise? Some kind of water filtration/reverse-osmosis/tablets? Thanks for sharing.

As we know, 1 turn =/= 1 day (or any fixed time period for that matter), so the amount of turns the stash of paratroopers should last is a discussion for the impact on gameplay, not about realism.

On the point of stashes as gameplay mechanic- in my view, giving more units stashes with supply will trivialise the current supply system. The out of supply effect was already reduced a lot in its disrupting effect where units lose ~1 efficiency when cut off from supply.

One shouldn't look at stash as rations per se, because then how does a regular units last for 7-8 turns before dropping to 0 supply? Stash should be viewed more as a mechanic to simulate the ability/training of unit to operate longer behind enemy lines compared to regular units.

The maps aren't that big to justify giving more units the ability to operate behind enemy lines in an unobstructed manner or outflank behind artilleries without worrying about consequences. If you give paratroopers 3 day stash, one will be able to drop them almost anywhere on the map without worry.

EVERY (conventional) para drop operation had a planned link up with ground forces! If the plan called for "extended" behind the lines operations, either additional supplies would be dropped with us- BUT NOT TOO MUCH, or we would expect additional, coordinated air drops of supplies. Once any unit began to run out of supplies ~50%?- we would naturally be more conservative in our usage rates, At 33%? self defense only.

I think you will find the deterioration of capability is greater than 1 per turn. Also, the loss continues significantly even if the unit is not involved in combat!

AceDuceTrey wrote: ↑Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:39 am EVERY (conventional) para drop operation had a planned link up with ground forces! If the plan called for "extended" behind the lines operations, either additional supplies would be dropped with us- BUT NOT TOO MUCH, or we would expect additional, coordinated air drops of supplies. Once any unit began to run out of supplies ~50%?- we would naturally be more conservative in our usage rates, At 33%? self defense only.

Thanks for answering my question, didn't see this for some reason.

But to stay on-topic, I've tested a mod that gave almost every unit a "fuel stash" for 3 turns, I think, and it did not work very well IMO. Almost all encirclement tactics made no sense anymore. The supply mechanic is an integral part of the game and shouldn't be circumvented too carelessly.