G40 - Supply Hubs and Line of Supply

V1.0.1:

I just came up with an idea. According to many historians, Germany lost in Barbarossa due to overextended logistics, harsh weather, and of course the waves of Russian troops and equipment that kept coming and coming. Why not simulate that in the game by adding “Supply Tokens”? It will be an abstract of logistics and set up for a German advance to Moscow to halt, possibly balancing the game.

Let’s say each nation has a supply hub as long as there are friendly/neutral (neutral: no enemy units inside area, completely empty) sea/land areas connected to the troops then they will be in supply. Japan will be in Japan (Tokyo), Italy will be in Southern Italy, Germany will be in Western Germany (that is where the bulk of their industry is located), France will be in France (Paris), EUK will be in both United Kingdom (London) and Union of South Africa, PUK will be in India (Calcutta), ANZAC is in New South Wales, America will be in Central USA. Soviet Union will be in Novosibirsk and Archangel. China is an exception, they will have no supply center.

If your units are in a friendly home country’s territory (the ones colored on the map at the 1940 start date) then they are automatically in supply as long as the supply hub is not controlled by the enemy. Once armies start branching out, the countries’ control marker on enemy territory means they now control the supply in that province, reverting back to the friendly supply hub. If you capture an unfriendly country’s supply hub, it does not apply to you. So technically, the Axis and the Allies have their own separate supply system.

If there are foreign friendly units (eg. a UK tank in France aka Paris) then they will be supplied by the French supply hub. If there is a UK artillery in Normandy Bordeaux on round 2 while the Germans have captured France aka Paris then the supply line automatically goes to the UK supply hub(s) as long as there are a line of supply.

The control markers and the supply hub can now be strategically bombed. If you bomb a control marker, you roll for 1 AA. They can take 3 points of damage until it’s incapacitated. You cannot go any further than 3 points of damage. If you bomb a supply hub, you roll for 3 AA and they can take 8 points of damage until it’s incapacitated. You can continue taking off damage until a maximum of 16 damage is reached. This will make strategic bombing much more worth it for the Allies. A damaged supply hub will disrupt the entire supply system belonging to the country that controls that supply hub: After one turn if it is not brought back to working capacity, all control markers belonging to the country will be considered unsupplied. The homeland areas will be considered still in supply.
(This also means Germany cannot use Italy’s supply hub if their own is damaged (but if they are both undamaged then they can use both as they belong in the Axis))

ADDITIONAL RULES AND CLARIFICATIONS:

• If Southern Italy is captured by the Allies, all other Italian territories still under Axis control will be under the German supply hub.
• Japan cannot connect supply hubs with Germany + Italy
• 1 German tank will automatically be added in Libya on Germany’s turn on round 2 and 3 as long as Libya is controlled by Italy.

So what happens when a group of LAND units are unsupplied? For each turn the supply is cut off, the units will receive attrition meaning they will have to roll 1 d6. If the player rolls 1,2, or 3 then that many units will be removed (player’s choice). If the player rolls 4,5, or 6 then all tanks, aircraft (NOT on a aircraft carrier), and mech infantry will go down -1 movement until they are able to go back in friendly supply. This will continue until the units have 0 movement.
Nothing happens to naval units if they are unsupplied, even in loaded transports until they are landed on shore. Naval units still support a supply line for land (and air) units.

Checking supply will be done at the start of each country’s turn. If the country has units unsupplied, they have to roll the attrition die.

OPTIONAL:

• The Soviet Union, after 2 rounds of combat on the defensive side can retreat.

EVERYTHING HERE IS UNTESTED. PLEASE LEAVE YOUR FEEDBACK IN THE COMMENTS. See how this affects the balance of the game.

@superbattleshipyamato I can’t think of a better way to do the supply lines without it being scripted. I could make getting oil a higher priority but then it only allows that one strategy

You can use monopoly pieces as supply hubs lol
Or HBG stuff.

@superbattleshipyamato The control markers (AKA roundels because at the time of writing I forgot) are now also the extended supply lines out of your homeland territories. I will have to clean up the text because I used supply lines and the control markers sorta interchangeably.

@superbattleshipyamato said in G40 - Supply Hubs and Line of Supply:

@all-encompassing-goose

Another idea would be to simply have units be supplied if they have a connection to the supply hub.

At the beginning of each turn (let’s call it the Resupply Phase), check which units can trace a path to the supply hub. If they are, they’re resupplied and can attack normally. For units on islands or overseas a second option, to be able to trace a line through friendly sea zones, is also possible. A combination of tracing through friendly sea zones and territories is allowed.

I think this would make the Baltic and Black seas more useful, being able to resupply even when cut off.

Once you know which units can’t be resupplied after the phase, those units will get attrition like you outlined.

We can add a Russian Winter effect where on round 3 all Axis units in original Soviet territory get attrition.

Sounds like a much more refined, simpler way of implementing the supply system which I like. I think that there should be a limit with the supply hubs for example having 3 land territories maximum the supply hub could trace (infinite in sea zones but if coming from land to sea to land then the counting will resume.) They can still be bombed and stuff. Added supply hubs will be maybe Novgorod, Romania, Moscow, and Volgorad.

Soviets will get “strategic movement” meaning they are always in supply as long as they are in their home territory.

Supply hubs can be built costing maybe 15 IPC’s for the Allies and 30 IPC’s for the Axis after round 3.
Maybe there should be a fortress unit giving some dice rolling at 4 that the Soviets can build in important places

@superbattleshipyamato
I should have said Fortifications lol. The Axis are much stronger than the Allies in this game. Most players will retreat to Moscow and then by around round 6 the Germans take it unless they royally screw up. If the Allies can threaten the German logistics and the Russians can actually hold a line of defense, this game would be much cooler.

@superbattleshipyamato I don’t know… I suppose a “fortification” would cost 5 infantry in that territory or something… (technically converting those 15 ipcs into an engineer unit of sorts and then dying off after creating reinforcement that turn)

Yeah instead of infantry rolling defense on @2 it is at @3

if enemy goes into a fortification the fortification is removed and will have to be rebuilt.

Fortifications can be bombed like this:
for every tactical bomber (1 point) it will take 8 points to destroy fortification (separate than combat, also does not count as strategic bombing raid) So you need 8 tactical bombers to destroy a fortification.

I’m just guessing here.

@superbattleshipyamato Strategic bombers were good for bombing cities and large-scale infrastructure. Tactical bombers make more sense. Fortifications would be very OP with AAA capabilities so I did not include that.