Indications of ammo bearer sharing ammunition

[Tempestzzzz]

I know CM has this feature and per the manual I put the ammo bearer unit with the extra ammo (mortar shell, mg ammo, etc) next to the unit that needs it. Yet in the User Interface I never see a drop from the amount of ammunition the bearer is carrying. Is this a bug? Or am I missing something in the placement of ammo bearer to consuming units locations.

[Baneman]

Unfortunately, bearer ammo is only used after the crew's ammo is gone. It's a pity as it prevents you from sending the empty bearers to fetch more while the crew use their own. So if your mortar fires all its own ammo, you should then see the bearer's load start to drop.

I guess it would have had to have its own special piece of code to do it bearers-first.

[GreenAsJade]

So if the bearer is not showing any ammo at all, then they are doing absolutely nothing useful?

[Erwin]

Time to send em for resupply, or use em as scouts.

[Baneman]

So if the bearer is not showing any ammo at all, then they are doing absolutely nothing useful?

Yep, off to buddy-aid that MG42 with you

[arpella72]

I have many doubts about ammo sharing.I got an antitank team out of ammo,I sent an ammo carrier member with many rouns( from another team which launcher was killed)to resuply it but nothing happened.What to do?

[womble]

I have many doubts about ammo sharing.I got an antitank team out of ammo,I sent an ammo carrier member with many rouns( from another team which launcher was killed)to resuply it but nothing happened.What to do?

Make sure the AT team and the bearer team are both subordinate to the same HQ. If the AT team with a tube and no bombs (assuming we're talking zook/shreck here) is in a different platoon to the team with a bombs but no tube, they will not share.

[Erwin]

Ammo sharing is more complex than it needs to be. It would make more sense if any unit could share with any other unit.

eg: A German 4th Platoon is "heavy weapons". In a game I have right now the 4th Platoon HQ is ico 2x81mm mortars each with its own ammo carriers, and 4xHMG's. However, each HMG team is in a "squad" of two and one of the HMG teams is the "HQ" of each squad. (IIRC the 4th platoon is also ico 2xStummels.)

So, does that mean ALL the HMG's could in theory share ammo since they are under the 4th Platoon HQ, or only the two teams of a single HMG squad since one of those HMG's is a "HQ"?

(Until an HMG runs out of ammo AND an HMG is KO'd but its team is alive and with ammo it will be hard to test.)

Also, if the Stummels are under the 4th platoon, could the Stummel crews share ammo with other members of the 4th platoon? It's weird that the Stummels have ACQUIRABLE ammo, but you have to dismount the crew and mount inf to get it. (This is a good argument for simply having units adjacent to a supply vehicle in order to ACQUIRE instead of having to mount and dismount since in WEGO it's a PITA when one really wants to focus on tactics. And I dislike loading everyone to the max in the set-up turn.)

I did experiment having the mortars deploy next to their truck (and kept the carriers in the truck, altho so long as they are nearby I don't think it matters). What I found is that the ammo in the truck (not ACQUIRED by any carrier) is being used first. I haven't exhausted the UNACQUIRED shells in the truck yet, so not sure what will happen next: Whether the ammo will be used first from the carriers or from the mortars' own stock.

And speaking of AT teams, I had one guy WIA while the ok guy (with the schreck) performed buddy aid. While the WIA guy was on the map, the ok schreck guy showed 5 or 6 rockets. When he'd completed buddy aid and the WIA guy disappeared, the ammo count went down to 2 or 3.

[Baneman]

And speaking of AT teams, I had one guy WIA while the ok guy (with the schreck) performed buddy aid. While the WIA guy was on the map, the ok schreck guy showed 5 or 6 rockets. When he'd completed buddy aid and the WIA guy disappeared, the ammo count went down to 2 or 3.

Yeah, this is a known ... er .. . "bug" ? It seems like a bug that the ammo isn't in fact picked up when he's Aided.

Workaround is to immediately move the AT guy to the adjacent AS, where he can "Share" the dead guys rockets without disintegrating them by Aiding the guy. 'Course if he was in the ideal location already, you're SOL one way or the other.

One of the things hopefully fixed in the next patch

[womble]

Ammo sharing is more complex than it needs to be. It would make more sense if any unit could share with any other unit.

Would they, though? Would a unit (potentially low on ammo themselves) share their precious bullets with just any numpty who came waltzing up to them? Given that a platoon MMG can share its (belted) ammo with the (en bloc clip) loading Garand, for example, or the magazine-fed BAR, it's arguable that sharing is already overly liberal.

To be clear, I'm not invested in defending the current system. I would be like a dog with two tails if they implemented a realistic and comprehensive (have to have both, or it'd be rubbish) inventory system, rather than the bolted-on rush-job afterthought that we're currently saddled with (which is still better than no inventory at all). Sharing and resupply were key selling points to get me to try this game in the first place.

[Erwin]

I can appreciate the disadvantages that Womble mentions. But, the advantages of a simpler "universal" ammo sharing system (and the ability to ACQUIRE while adjacent to a vehicle) would be the lesser evil.

Obviously, the micromanage approach has many fans here. I'm in the camp that considers anything that gets in the way of spending one's precious gaming time on tactical decision-making to be irritating (after the novelty of the micromanage opportunities has worn off).

[Erwin]

I tried your (embarrassingly obvious once you mentioned it) suggestion and restarted a scenario so I could easily mix and match units in the set-up turn to see who can share ammo.

For a German company with a 4th (Heavy Weapons) Platoon:

ONLY the HMG squad (composed of two HMG teams) can share. Neither of the 2nd HMG squad teams can share ammo with the 1st HMG squad teams even though they are all under the 4th Platoon HQ. (The 2 Stummels in the 4th Platoon can't share anything even when dismounted.) So, only the HMG squad HQ and its team can share.

The Shreck teams under the Battalion HQ can share. However, something weird happens. If you have 3 shrecks each with 6 rockets, the total comes to only 16, not 18. If you have two, the total is 11, not 12.

[akd]

I tried your (embarrassingly obvious once you mentioned it) suggestion and restarted a scenario so I could easily mix and match units in the set-up turn to see who can share ammo.

For a German company with a 4th (Heavy Weapons) Platoon:

ONLY the HMG squad (composed of two HMG teams) can share. Neither of the 2nd HMG squad teams can share ammo with the 1st HMG squad teams even though they are all under the 4th Platoon HQ.

Yes, as explained already, if there is a Section HQ, then ammo is shared within the Section, not the Platoon.

Not sure what you are calling "Stummel" here...

The Shreck teams under the Battalion HQ can share. However, something weird happens. If you have 3 shrecks each with 6 rockets, the total comes to only 16, not 18. If you have two, the total is 11, not 12.

Loaded ammo is not shared.

[Erwin]

Thanks for the clarification, akd. It wasn't only me who was confused re this, since there are actual "Section HQ's" that have no crewed weapon, as well as HMG's etc that also function as an HQ. Wish this sort of stuff was in the manual tho'.