Supply questions

[Rabelesius]

The manual is a bit cryptic with respect to supply calculation. The supply value of towns and such is determined to be between 1 and 10 according to the strength of the town. It seems to me the only way to reduce the strength of towns is to strategically bomb the place with bombers, airships or rail artillery. Is this also accomplished by heavy artillery?

I also see that supply values do not diminish from being cut off. Is this correct? There is no link needed for a town to be forever in supply...this feels awkward as supply was a huge consideration in the East and might have be the big factor for the Great Retreat of the Russian army, isn't it?

I gather from the rules that HQs draw from a supply source. Is the distance also an issue or does the distance not matter?

The game accurately punished the players for attacking to far and going out on a limb. However, given the above there seems to be not enough punishment for allowing yourself to be encircled, if that happens in a town/city etc. What do you think?

[Bill101]

It seems to me the only way to reduce the strength of towns is to strategically bomb the place with bombers, airships or rail artillery. Is this also accomplished by heavy artillery?

Hi Rabelesius

You're right, bombers, Airships and RailGuns are the weapons to use here.

I also see that supply values do not diminish from being cut off. Is this correct? There is no link needed for a town to be forever in supply...this feels awkward as supply was a huge consideration in the East and might have be the big factor for the Great Retreat of the Russian army, isn't it?

The supply value of Towns in the main WWI campaigns is set to 5 and you're right in that it won't diminish by being cut off.

However, this means that the maximum supply value of any troops lacking a HQ will be 5, and if their is a HQ present, 7.

While the HQ will enable units to reinforce to full strength if their supply value is 6 or more, if the town wasn't cut off then it is quite likely that the HQ would have had a higher supply value, and as a result the units under their command would have supply values of 8-9.

This makes some difference in the fighting ability of the troops, as although the maximum reinforceable paper strength of units at supply 6-7 might be identical to those at higher supply values, they won't actually fight as well.

If you can destroy the HQ then the remainder of the cut off troops will become much, much easier to destroy. Even though HQs cannot attack, they really are the most important pieces in the game.

I gather from the rules that HQs draw from a supply source. Is the distance also an issue or does the distance not matter?

Distance is an issue so if you go too far away then the HQs won't draw any supply at all. In this situation they will have a supply value of 5, consequently any units under their command will have a supply value of 4 or worse.