Transport Asset Sharing

[Franco]

Does anyone know how it works?

The manual states, "Units that do not move and are not assigned a local or tactical reserve mobility status will temporarily lend a portion of their transport assets (equipment with a transport capability, such as trucks, horse teams, etc.) to their parent formation, (and possibly to others depending upon the formation support level) to aid in distributing supply to other units."

Does this mean that, the beneficial effects are limited to units in the same formation? The transport asset sharing number in the situation briefing seems to be more reflective of unused rail, air and sea capacity and I have noticed that if you use rail to move troops around it can have a big impact on supply. I have never noticed an increase in the transport asset sharing number by halting the army for a turn, nor, have I really noticed any formation benefits for formations that are stopped and refitting behind the lines other than not losing the 33% for moving. I would be interested in the observations of others.

[General Staff]

Originally posted by Franco
Does this mean that, the beneficial effects are limited to units in the same formation?
I believe no. The # is visible in the Situation Briefing and reflects in the supply value per hex used by ALL units.

I have never noticed an increase in the transport asset sharing number by halting the army for a turn, nor, have I really noticed any formation benefits for formations that are stopped and refitting behind the lines other than not losing the 33% for moving.
I think a simple test will show it does make a difference. On Allied turn 1 (i.e. At Start) of Tobruk 41 (v3.7) as an example, notice the Supply Stockpile of 25 and Transport Asset Sharing of 6 for a Effective Supply Capability of 31. Move the 8th Army Supply unit (with 100 trucks) its full movement allowance. You should notice the Transport Asset Sharing # reduce to 5 and the Effective Supply Capability reduce to 30. Cycle forward a turn and before moving anything you'll notice the figures are back up to what they were for a total again of 31.

Someone might be able to point out an even more glaring example of this effect. And the effect doesn't work for formations but rather for your whole force. When the manual speaks of this effect as "depending upon the formation support level", I'd assume that units with Internal Support won't lend to anyone else and therefore not moving (or moving) these assets won't have any effect.

Hope this helps.

[cbc72]

This is a trasnport question, so I guess it kind of fits here. I was playing a created scenario, Operation Iraqi Freedom, which has a lot of airborne and airmobile units. In order to get more ground coverage and surround the opponent I decided to divid the units. However, after the first hilo lift of the divided units I was no longer able to move them in this manner.

Why is this? Did it have to do with the dividing or was it just coincidence? It seems about 15 turns later some units were able to board hilos again.

Thanks.

Chris

[Franco]

I am not familiar with the scenario, however, the helo transport may have had something to do with the distance of the units from the transport helicopters. In order to load into a helicopter the units must be within 200 km of a transport helicopter. It can then be moved 200 km from the loading point, even if the destination of the transported unit is more than 200 km from the transport helicopter unit. This might have been what happened, that is the unit was transported more than 200 km from the transport helicopters.

[cbc72]

How might I know if they were to far from the helos? And are there certain helos to be looking for?

I thought that might have been the problem so I flew some transport helo units to them in hexes right on them and next to the units. They still would not board. Might they have been incompatable with the transports for some reason?

I also tried moving them to airfields to board aircraft and they were unable to do that.

[Franco]

There are two types of helicopter units, attack helicopters, which can be placed on comat support, interdiction or rest modes, and transports, which can be set on mobile, tactical or local reserve etc. The distance from the transports I think is set at 200 km so the number of hexes will vary depending upon the map scale. The manual does not seem to require that the transports be cooperative. However, it does indicate that sufficient transport capacity must be in range to move the whole unit.

[cbc72]

Hmm... Thanks.

By what yo are telling me, it weems to confirm that it should have worked. Unless maybe the transoprt capability of the helo units was reduced by that point in the game for some reason. I should check that and see if I can figure out if that was the case.