Ammunition stockpiles (was Re: Mughal Empire 1917 H2)

[Kaiser Kirk]

ooc : Considering the Mughals can only build 15,000t of ammo, yet the army consumes north of 60,000t in a worse case scenario, perhaps investing that 0.5BP remaining on a regular basis might be of merit?

[Guinness]

Probably. These are quick and dirty reports, so I'm not sweating it too much. Now that every single unit in the Mughal army is updated, I can pour a bit more into Ammo starting in 1/1918.

This may just bring on the old argument about whether or not stockpiling ammunition is worth it...

[Kaiser Kirk]

It makes one understand why governments post WWI were so unwilling to spring for new weapons that didn't happen to use the old calibers.

Bavaria will shortly be staring at the need to build up a "Cutting Edge" ready reserve, but I expect I'll leave/build some "Advanced" as reserves, so it won't go entirely to waste.

oh and not that it matters on this scale, but Bavaria was still basically giving $1/HY in 1917. I desisted for 1918.
The MTBs were finished on schedule.

[Guinness]

Rifle ammunition is one thing, standardization there certainly makes sense, but at least in a pinch rifle rounds can be reliably manufactured in small scale shops.

Now artillery ammunition is another story. That's what in my mind stockpiling is buying you.

I'm moving this conversation to army discussion after I post this, just because...

[Darman]

Sorry for re-opening this but I was browsing and didn't want to open a new thread to ask: Is stockpiling ammunition actually worth it?  As in, has anyone ever actually gotten into a shooting war with stockpiles of ammunition and found it worth the expense? 

[The Rock Doctor]

Honestly?  Probably not.  The general idea is that your army unit comes with six months of ammo when you create the unit.  The stockpile means you have ready ammo for months 7-12 of a war - however, our wars rarely go that long before they get wrapped up.  You can just replace the ammo in peacetime later.

One exception does apply - when modding wars, I'll allow players to expend a stockpile for an intensive bombardment that improves their odds in a battle or campaign.

[Darman]

Okay.  Makes sense.  I was just curious.  I've done some stockpiling myself, but i probably wont do any more.  I've got enough for my cavalry to spend several years fighting a low-intensity border war. 

[Logi]

Does when your army's ammunition demands is greater than your BP output, like with China.

[Darman]

Something you're running into?  I don't think Egypt needs to worry about that, at least not yet. 

[Logi]

No, I've had forever to consider the problem which is why I have alternatives planned.

[maddox]

Another tidbit.  Corps have a certain allotment of ammo that doesn't come out of the BP's. 
It isn't enough to have a continous barrage, nor heavely supported assaults, but enough for pure defence- short counter battery fire for example-.

This is included in wartime upkeep. Active upkeep just delivers enough ammmo for life fire excersizes....

Consider this as the representation of reality.   
In WW I, in the first year, nobody had enough ammo untill the factories got rolling in pure wartime production. After that, ammo was used in abundance...

[Darman]

Consider this as the representation of reality.   
In WW I, in the first year, nobody had enough ammo untill the factories got rolling in pure wartime production. After that, ammo was used in abundance...

In abundance only when it could actually be delivered.  Supply line capacity was the major limiting factor (for the English at least). 

And by October the French army didn't have enough 75QF ammunition, they were going through it a lot faster than they had predicted and were expending rounds about 3-4 times faster than producing them.  Excellent planning dont you think? 
The English and French did not have enough medium and heavy artillery pieces let alone ammunition.  And there was a major production bottleneck in England for munitions of all sorts, especially gun barrels.  Gauges for measuring precision instruments and for testing the dimensions of gun barrels, optics... you get the idea.  Ten sets of precision gauges were actually imported from Sweden to provide the basis for a gauge and precision tool industry in England.  An optics industry was also started from scratch. 

This is all off the top of my head, if I remember the name of the book I got all this from I'll try to remember and post it. 

[Kaiser Kirk]

The general idea is that your army unit comes with six months of ammo when you create the unit. 

It does?
The Army units page doesn't really get into that.

While the Ammunition section specifically refers to trench warfare, so I rather was under the impression that for common fluid battles you don't expend 'extra" but if you set down for sustained artillery fights is when you need to draw on the ammo stockpile.

I've been presuming that if you don't have a stockpile, or if you don't allocate production the HY of the intense fighting, you would be operating at a handicap.  

Admittedly, when I bought my ammo updating the country, Bavaria was letting BP's go to waste for lack of things to spend them on- so it makes little difference to me.

[Darman]

I had sort of figured that as well. 
And I too had excess BP to spend so I started stockpiling.