Supply Rules
WWIIE models the flow of supply along railroads and roads during the European part of WWII. This has been modeled to reduce player involvement in the process (the game is about strategy and tactics, not railroad building and maintenance). Based on this, the railroad conversion on the East Front is not specifically modeled, but abstracted through the use of other rules such as Move to Exploit, maximum number of combats per turn, and unit fatigue rules.
A. Air and naval units are always in supply.
B. All other units (called ground combat units) must trace a line of hexes to a friendly supply source. The trace is done by the game at the end of each turn, and modeled by a truck performing a Ground Move to Attack with an MF of 9 from the unit location to the friendly supply source. Move cost for each hex is based on clear weather. No linking is allowed.
C. Friendly supply sources are established in one of six ways:
a. Permanent supply sources that are part of the battle at the start.
b. A successful naval supply operation to a hex.
c. A successful naval landing operation to a hex.
d. A successful air supply operation to a hex. Note that this supply source does not flow supply along railroads. It is a single hex supply source only.
e. A railroad hex that can trace a line of railroad hexes back to one of the supply source hexes. Note the railroad hexes must not be in an enemy zone of control unless a friendly unit negates the ZOC.
f. A road hex that is allowed to carry supply. These are primarily in wilderness areas of North Africa and Russia.
g. A friendly Motorized Supply unit.
D. Supply source hexes can be displayed by selecting “View/Display Attributes/Display Supply Path”, “Out of Supply”, or the oil can on the toolbar. Note that the units are still displayed in the Command Panel based on mouse movement.
E. Permanent Supply source hexes are shown as hexes with a gray (Axis) or red (Allies) border. All other supply source hexes are temporary for that turn, and have a diagonal line across them in addition to the gray or red hex border.
F Units that are not in supply receive one supply loss for each turn they are out of supply, and give up one supply loss (down to zero) for each turn they are in supply. Out of supply units have constraints:
a. They attack at AF minus combat losses minus supply losses.
b. They defend at DF minus combat losses minus supply losses.
c. They move using Move to Attack at MF minus supply losses. Alternatively, they can move using One Hex operation.
d. They can Dig-in.
e. They incur double losses.
f. They have no ZOC.
G. Units in supply can perform a full turn’s worth of operations. This includes:
a. One Ground Move to Attack plus Dig-in
b. Two Ground Move Not Attacks plus Dig-in
c. Three Ground Move to Exploit (no Dig-in)
d. One Move One hex operation (no Dig-in)
e. As many Strategic Railroad moves as allowed per player per turn for that scenario (no Dig-in or other operations)
H. Note that Move to Attack allows players to attack and one Combat Phase Move operation in the Combat Phase. All other operations shown above prevent the unit from attacking or performing Combat Phase Moves. Armor and motorized units for Combat Phase Moves use their full DF, while all other units for Combat Phase Moves are at ½ MF.
I. Note that performing multiple naval and air supply operations per turn is a good idea, since some of those supply operations may be aborted due to enemy operations.
J. For East Front scenarios, if the Russians control Tikhvin, the game puts a supply source at Osinovets. Also, if the Russians control Leningrad, then the game puts a supply source at Oranienbaum. This models the historical flow of supply across the Lake Ladoga ice road (by small boats were used when not iced over), and the small boat supply from Leningrad to Oranienbaum.