Turning off supply rules in OOB

[RobertCL]

Hello,

I bought OOB a long time ago and understand why I never played it: I do not understand how supply is managed (despite the game manual).
I lose all my standalone scenarios at the easiest difficulty setting, no problem when I play Panzer Corps...
Is there a way like in other games to turn off use of supply in game (I know that this rule is what makes OOB different from other games) ?
I did not see it in the options.

BTW: the Battle of Britain campaign does not appear (I am using Steam version) but this is another subject.

Thx for any help.

[Mojko]

I moved from Panzer Korps to OOB as well and I can tell you that you definitely should not play OOB as Panzer Korps. OOB is very different game and much better I can confidently say.

I experienced the same situation. I started playing OOB and I couldn't even complete the tutorial. I dropped the game for a month and gave it a second try. Guess what? It wasn't the game's fault, but my own as I was trying to play OOB the same way as I played Panzer Korps and you definitely need to avoid that.

The trick here is that lot of things that were good ideas to do in Panzer Korps are a very bad ideas in OOB, so ideally forget all you know about Panzer Korps and start OOB with a clear mind. Most notable differences are:

- units are much more likely to survive
- command points (you can have more weak units or fewer strong units)
- supply

You can't turn off the supply as this is a core mechanic which the game is balanced around. The basic idea is that each unit has efficiency (battery symbol on a unit). This is a number between 0 and 10. Unit with 10 efficiency fights normally and 0 means that the unit can't fight at all. Doing no actions with a unit for a turn and if enemy did not attack the unit will result in gaining efficiency.

Unit efficiency is also represented by colour of the unit strength number. In Panzer corps there were suppression and supply, in here it's all mixed in one mechanic - efficiency.

Unit efficiency can be lowered by attacking the unit (especially artillery, strat bomber and engineers), but also by cutting the unit off supply. Each unit consumes the amount of supply equal to its command points. You have to keep you units well supplied (pressing space will show supply requirements and gains). If you don't have enough supply, your units will lose efficiency every turn until they can't fight.

There is a ton of resources on this forum including game replays which you can use to get better at this game.

Onwards to victory!

[PoorOldSpike]

I bought OOB a long time ago and understand why I never played it: I do not understand how supply is managed (despite the game manual).
I lose all my standalone scenarios at the easiest difficulty setting...

WHOA! I'm an ex-Pz Corps player and abandoned it because I didn't like the unrealistic supply rules, I switched to OOB because the supply rules here are fabulous..
As far as I know, there's no way to turn off the OOB supply rules, because nobody wants to anyway..
Supply in OOB varies from scenario to scenario depending on what units are on the map and what amount of supply the supply bases are producing, so if you've got any scenario or scenarios in mind tell me which they are and I'll explain the supply rules with just a few simple screenshots..

Meanwhile here are a couple of screenshots I set up in the editor to illustrate the simple basics of OOB supply-
In this first pic my tank is advancing towards the jap town at bottom left and is drawing supply from the US ship at top right.
Notice how the tank has made a squiggly "supply line corridor" as it advanced through enemy territory from the ship, what could possibly go wrong?
Oops a jap infantry unit (red arrow) is moving towards the corridor, I'm getting a bad feeling about this...





And in this second pic this jap infantry unit walks across the supply line and cuts it, what cheek!
Notice a red dot (white arrow) has now appeared on the tank stats, indicating it's now out of supply and will be seriously weakened in combat.
And of course, YOU can do the same to the enemy in games and cut HIS supply corridors, it's FUN..

[GabeKnight]

Is there a way like in other games to turn off use of supply in game [...]?

You can't turn off the supply as this is a core mechanic which the game is balanced around.

[PoorOldSpike]

Here are a couple of pics from one of the Japan vs China scens to illustrate supply in OOB.
My Japs are advancing from right to left but the two jap units on the left have stuck their necks out a bit too far and become pocketed out of supply by the two Chinese AI units that moved along the blue arrows to cut them off from the main force.
Note how the two japs have got the red dot indicating they're out of supply-




But in this second pic two Jap tanks have broken through down the red arrows to re-establish supply to the two pocketed units (red circled); note how the red dot has now vanished from them to indicate they're now back in supply-
(Note that pressing SPACE will display how much supply a base is providing, for example in this case the town on the right is providing '10' supply points. The smaller green number '+11' under it means it could still help provide supply for more units, so everything is fine and dandy, supply is by no means critical in this example. In fact most of the time in all the scenarios the number is a healthy green, but if it ever turns red that's the time to start worrying about your supply lines)

[uran21]

I have spent some time playing cooperative multiplayer, two human players against the AI. This involved playing with quite some number of new players to the game. Problem is not always in supply. Units are losing efficiency with every combat they are engaged in. There is a need to rest your troops occasionally to maintain punch. If they are kept in combat until efficiency drops to zero AI will destroy them much easier. Compared to Panzer Corps this game has a slower pace and cool down periods should be part of playing tactics.

[PoorOldSpike]

I lose all my standalone scenarios at the easiest difficulty setting,..

Amazing! A trained chimp could beat the AI at the easy setting every time, so you must be doing something very very wrong!
If you ever decide to come back to this thread tell us which scenario you'd like to win and we'll talk you through how to do it..

[cutydt02]

hey dont give up bro, i moved from panzer corps too and needed no less than 5 hours just to pass the first mission of blitzkrieg at nearly easiest difficult. The problem is, well, dont think as you did in panzer corps. And supply line is superior mechanic that even panzer corps 2 wants to follow.