FWWC and artillery ammo consumption

[Amadeus]

Zuber says that the "Marne miracle" was more the result of the French stopping cold the Germans with an unprecedented deluge of artillery fire, than of having them outmanoeuvred at the strategic or operational level.
Ian Summer, in his "The first battle of the Marne 1914", writes that the French army had 530,000 rounds of 75mm ammunition available at mobilization, by 5 September stocks had fallen to 465,000 and only 33,000 remained by 10 September!

Now, even allowing for the unaccounted production of 75mm artillery ammunition during August (i.e. the fact that the stocks dropped by 65,000 units in one month does not mean that from the beginning of August 1914 to the beginning of September 1914, only 65,000 75mm round were expended) it's surely worth noting that in less than one week in September, the French army expended way more than 400,000 artillery rounds, an expenditure maybe an order of magnitude more than what was the norm in the preceding weeks.

I wonder whether this dramatically increased artillery ammo expenditure might be recreated in France '14 with the already available game features (a French Army that is more static and nearer to its supply sources should have fewer artillery units low on ammo and should have more occasions to fire at the enemy) or something new should be considered (e.g. variable stockpiling percentages for the Allies).

Comments?

[Compass Rose]

[Mr Grumpy]

Well I am not sure if there is a drop in the Allied supply levels to represent this, maybe Ed can comment on this.

Of course going into 1915 the was the "shell scandal" in Britain and eventually led to the fall of the Asquith government.

[Volcano Man]

Well, Zuber can write what he wants, and his books are very good, but let's just say that he tends to favor the Germans. Just lining up guns along the Marne without infantry wouldn't have done the job, the French infantry were involved and shed a lot of blood to make that happen as well.

That said, one could argue that the French 75mm, and their numbers, and how they are employed, directly does determine whether or not the French can be successful at slowing and/or stopping the Germans, at the Marne or anywhere else for that matter in the early campaign. So, yes, the guns did play a big part. :)

In any case, yes, supply drops are factored in to account for the drop in stockpiles. Just try playing Ypres or so to see that in effect. ;)

[Amadeus]

Well, Zuber can write what he wants, and his books are very good, but let's just say that he tends to favor the Germans. Just lining up guns along the Marne without infantry wouldn't have done the job, the French infantry were involved and shed a lot of blood to make that happen as well.

I completely agree on both counts. I know that Zuber is a germanophile (no disrespect intended: he simply is an admirer of the well oiled Imperial German war machine, though, sometimes, this admiration leads him to think that the aforementioned machine is dripping oil also where it's sorely needing more grease...) nonetheless, even if his statements are sometimes to be taken cum grano salis, I like his contribution in debunking some old clichés.

That said, one could argue that the French 75mm, and their numbers, and how they are employed, directly does determine whether or not the French can be successful at slowing and/or stopping the Germans, at the Marne or anywhere else for that matter in the early campaign. So, yes, the guns did play a big part. :)

Indeed! En passant, I, again, have to praise your excellent work in creating very detailed and nuanced OoBs/scenarios, that make FWWC the Great War game par excellence! I still wonder how it was possible to get (and feel) all this detail in a game of this scope.

In any case, yes, supply drops are factored in to account for the drop in stockpiles. Just try playing Ypres or so to see that in effect. ;)

I already noticed that the "late" scenarios have a stockpiling percentage of 0%. I was just wondering whether the early September scenarios should have an increased percentage for Allied ammunition stockpiling to simulate the "fire as many as you can as there's no tomorrow" attitude that led to the virtual depletion of the pre-war ammunition stockpile in a matter of a week or so.
(BTW, since I read that you are working on limiting the rail capacity in the early days of the campaign, I wonder if the game engine can be modified to allow time-depending values for most of the percentages displayed in the parameter data dialog).

[Amadeus]

[Volcano Man]

Actually, its not the stockpiling, its the supply level in general that makes the most difference here. The supply levels are high in the early campaign, meaning that the artillery will almost always be available (unless the commander is not managing his chain of command properly, or putting his units in places with a low local supply). In contrast, in the late campaign, artillery will simply not be able to fire half or most of the time and this represents the decline in overall stockpiles of ammunition.

In the early campaign there is a small chance of stockpiling of ammunition, and it is really intended to be something that plays a role when front settles to static positions. I didn't want it to be such a high level that guns were stockpiled very often as this was not the case AFAICT.

The short answer is that all this has been factored in already. ;)