Re: Ammo resupply
In my view, ammo resupply is a bit of a luxury, and in many cases probably not accurately modelling reality. What I mean is, that for the US then yes, you would expect very capable logistics (for every fighting man at the front there were another 10 or so backing him up). Yet for the Russians, the ratio of combat soldiers to support was almost the opposite, meaning that they basically carried into battle what they had and just got on with it, with little hope of resupply whist fighting. The duration of a "push" was constrained by what we call a "logistical brake" and it occurred all along the Eastern Front. Even the Western Allies despite all their sophisticated supply options ground to a halt from time to time.
So what does all this mean in the context of a small to medium action simulation in SPWW2? Each scenario is modelling at most a few hours of battle in real time, and it is difficult to imagine that all units would have had access to unlimited ammo resupply. Some self propelled artillery would have had access to ammunition carriers, but even these carriers had their limitations and would have to return to rear areas to load up and then return to the battle and the SPG they were serving. An example is the ISU 152 with a typical ammo loadout of 13 HE rounds and 7 AP rounds. In the game it is 10 of each. The vehicles were deployed with ammo carriers for obvious reasons, even though it was hazardous and logistically clumsy.
So what to do about ammo resupply? Taking the following into consideration:
1) Off map artillery is limited and cannot be resupplied,
2) Air strikes cannot be resupplied,
3) On map units may be infinitely resupplied,
4) The simple solution is to remove ammo resupply entirely and perhaps compensate units like the ISU 152 with a higher ammo loadout to simulate ammo carriers.
5) Limit resupply to some units only where historically appropriate,
6) Remove mobile ammo carriers entirely, but retain ammo dumps,
7) Introduce a new class of ammo carrier that is limited in how much ammo it can carry, and that can resupply itself at an ammo dump,
8) Do nothing and leave the game as it is, and let individual commanders decide how "historically accurate" they want their battles to be.
9) In any case, the tactical use of force multipliers is an issue for all commanders, especially ammo when limited, and a good commander will use what s/he has to hand, in the most effective (and economical) way.
Happy battles!
Gelainey
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