The 2nd turn was quiet a shock I must say. Not only is it lonely on the Eastern Front, shit is miles from anywhere.

Firstly the Russikies took initiative and then had the nerve to want to take the turn.

Can you see the smirk?

Regardless I was not to be swayed. However the Soviet flood began right off the bat. The holes appear to be plugged and forces stream to the front. We shall need to make a new breach, but where is my supply!?

They wisely ease of the line in the North and retreat into the more Friendly woods near Brynask. But…. they do miss a few key locations.

All in all a bit deflating. The rush to Yelets  (I’m joking…kinda) is not going to be easy! Clearly a plan b is required. In the mean time they then DG an entire Division – the 9th Pzr.  REALLY. After having rushed to Dimitriev L’Govskiy (now know as DL’G) along with the 3rd and 10th I was bummed. Well at least the Soviets did not try and attack this turn. So what to do now?  With some hours invested and time sunk my personal learning curve is moving slowly.

Supply is moved in. Some shuffling occurs. Can we get enough supply to attack around Bryansk and @ the Schwerpunkt? Likely not.  I realize I have isolated a HQ by mistake, using the wrong Fueling mechanism. I adjust.

I focus attention on the 3rd/10th Motorized and the 18th. How do organic trucks really work I wonder. Time to go read.  This stalled me out. A week goes by. I glance at 5.2. It glares back at me. “Ha” It seems to say, “You are screwed after one turn aren’t you.!” My shoulder slump and I wander away from the board.  There has to be a way to get SP’s to the line and feed the fuel AND have enuff for at least one attack on turn 2.

Bing!

After ten days I roll over from a lazy Sunday afternoon nap. We had been shopping for some “Organic” foods, part of a drive for me to be more ‘gluten free’ and to limit chemical intake for the kids, I’m not health Nazi, so its a casual attempt…in any case, Organic Trucks….Organic. I bound down stairs.

Let me walk you thru the thinking my tiny mind went thru to get these dam tanks rolling!

You see Multi unit formations can be fueled from the Organic truck (trucks specifically attached to the Division). We knew that, still not enuff SP to fuel and provide combat supply. So what if we reload the Org. Truck after it fuels? It can make a run then and go get more SP and comeback!

Of course we need to check the rules to make sure there are no issues, OCS rules are very very clear, and clean, but detailed.

Organic trucks cannot deposit their load correct? 13.2g (A). Check.
FIRST ATTEMPT:
Therefore a Org. Truck could fuel a set of units, then go get more SP, then fuel others from the same formation or be present for the HQ to throw combat supply to a logical maximum of 2 loads. Sweet.

ugh.. nope 12.5c appears to tell me I cant do this in this manner as Fuel is paid at the instant it is incurred…..is that right?  Grr off the BGG for a query.

SECOND ATTEMPT:
So the correct process would be then? – Fuel and move elements using Organic Truck SP.

THEN move Organic truck, collect SP, return to a location where HQ can throw forward or units can draw for combat. Sounds fair enough. So when I play the full campaign, I am going to have to sequence several thousand counters and more particularly a lot of trucks and wagons. YIKES.

These are such interesting mechanisms that are not really clear as to HOW they work, and under what circumstances until you DON’T have enough supply! Or until you try and use them on the map.

Angela Sutton from BGG then chipped in with clarification for me, as did several other vet OCS players [Thanks one and all] : “The at the instant it is incurred” may be throwing you a little bit here. To fuel a division via 1SP to flip its marker to the “fueled” side (12.5c/A), flipping the marker is the action requiring the expenditure. So you do not have to move the division’s other units before moving the organic truck to reload it, though it is often a good idea (so you will know where the truck can be protected by the division’s units).

Also, although the rules don’t exactly state it flat out, the designer has stated that trucks can throw off fuel as they move, per 13.2a. This creates an exception to “at the instant it is incurred” – you could throw off an SP, or multiple single tokens, for fuel to units that come in draw range as the truck moves. The affected units can be marked with a fuel marker as a reminder. As long as no other unit moves before the truck is done, you are fine. This seems gamey to me – I keep picturing jerry cans getting chucked out the back of trucks tearing down the highway – but it is specifically allowed.? – My thought here is that this is happening over a period of days not all in a single moment. So I’m ok with it. The balance between historical accuracy and playability is a fine line indeed.

So this means that BOTH methods are valid, very cool.  Whilst reading the rules correctly is one thing, using them efficiently, or effectively is another deal entirely. Which reminds me that I’d like to write some sort of article about the difference between the two and see if there has been a thread on BGG about that topic.

The challenge here may appear to be nominal, but in the context of maintaining the operational momentum of the attack it is vital to understand ALL the means for getting supply to where it needs to be in a usable mode.

In my experience gaming there are few games that have these myriad of  ‘apparently’ non obvious applications of the rules. At first blush my thinking was, “ok we have loaded trucks with SPs as close to the front as possible whilst moving more up from the rear. Easy!” That is correct.

But the various different ways you can do that are subtle and varied. Given you never have all the supply to do all that you desire getting it “righter” 😉 matters.