Rail capacity: how to check

[Volcano Man]

Well I just learnt something new again. Having the rail capacity in the PDT vs in the scenario has just caused me an issue with a current project.

I have a large campaign game that is essentially two operations. I have 3 different scenarios - the two individual operations and the combined campaign. If I set the rail capacity sufficient for the combined campaign then the rail is overstated for the two seperate operations or understated for the campaign if I base it on the individual operations.

I would just average the value between the two operations and use that single value. I have found that units can move so quickly by rail, that you can hop and skip to where you need to be and get out, then move more units.

To me you always want LESS rail capacity than you think the side needs to force the commander to use it more intelligently and with greater haste. What I mean is, if you give too much capacity then the user will likely leave units sitting around in rail mode as a rapid deployment force, when he should be moving it to a location, disembarking them immediately then waiting to see where the capacity should be used again. This creates a realistic strain on rail movement IMO. A good rule of thumb, to me at least, is to determine how much rail capacity you think I side needs, then divide that by two. It probably wouldn't hurt to then average that again to an standard value that will work in both your campaign's stages in the "combined" campaign.

One thing to remember too: reinforcements that arrive by rail will always be able to use rail movement regardless of the rail capacity, but their arrival may indeed push the rail capacity over the limit, thereby preventing any currently on map units from being able to enter rail mode until the capacity is freed up.