Heavy weapons not ready

[Tanker]

I noticed on a qb when I've moved a MG team or a mortar team I'll get a "heavy weapon not ready" notification when examining them.  Do the teams ready the weapons after a certain time in a new position or is there something that I need to command for that?

[Dane49]

Yes,I think the weapons when ordered to move to a new location are unloaded and broken down to facilitate easier movement,and once reaching their new location, would need more time to reassemble and load the weapons  before they are able to fire again.Exactly how much time it takes to actually do this and what the game has programed as to the amount of time this actually takes to simulate is not a question that I can answer.I don't recall in any of my games that I had to give any additional commands to my heavy weapons or mortar crews to get them to aquire or search for new enemy targets to shoot at.If they are in spotting range my crews usually would engage them without my direct intervention,assuming of course they still had ammo.Once you move your heavy weapons away from your ammo supply crates,your available ammo for those weapons decreases dramatically.

[Tanker]

Ah, thank you very much.  That brings up another question.  I did notice that my MG42 ran out of ammo very quickly.  I moved them to the rear to save them and then I noticed that they replenished their ammo.  I must have moved them closer to the supply troops.  It seems obvious now, but is it the supply troops that provide ammo etc during a battle? 
It was a short 15 minute qb and I didn't think there would be enough time for that kind of resupply.

[Dane49]

Your supply boxes or ammo crates are the ammunition that your guns replenish from.You'll notice at set up there are like 1 or 2 of them within range of your guns.If you move away from them,then the only ammo your guns have is what the crew and ammo bearers can personally carry.The crates can't be moved and are stationary and I  think that the ammo bearers can go back and grab more ammo and tote them back to the guns.I've never seen the ammo bearers actually go back to the crates and bring the ammo forward to the guns,so I'm assuming it must be abstracted in the game.
"2.4.11 Moving guns and machine-guns. When you move guns, machine-guns, and mortars, their ammo load
decreases. The speed it is replenishes depends on the distance from the ammo crates. If a unit uses up its ammo load, it can
replenish it from the ammo crates of the guns of the same type next door.
NOTE! Moving guns and machine-guns, the crew gets exhausted and will fire slower"
 Quote from the manual in docs folder.

[Tanker]

Thanks again.  I'd best re-read the manual

[Tanker]

The supply boxes you refer to; are they the supply troops in the supply depot?  On the tactical map (F10) I see 3 rectangular icons that are labeled supply troops.

[Dane49]

No,the boxes I refer to are the ammo crates(usually 2 of them) that are present and visable with each mortar,HMG or gun(arty,at etc...) during set up.From what I understand, supply troops do not supply or replenish ammo during battle and their only function is security for the ammo dump(they may also act as infantry).The supply dump that the supply troops are responsible for is a function of the campaign games-Operations Phase,to replenish your troops and resupply all freindly units that are within range of the supply dump "during" the Operations Phase for the next battle of that turn.So as I understand it,supply troops have no other function,other than that of infantry and security as the quick battles and campaign battles are being played.And the supply dump has no function at all for replenishing ammo during the actual playing of the battle.

[Lemonade]

(...)I  think that the ammo bearers can go back and grab more ammo and tote them back to the guns(...)

Unfortunately they can't. But I think when you're out of ammo, you could go back to the crates to replenish it, just to move away again. I haven't tested this though.

[Dane49]

"2.4.11 Moving guns and machine-guns. When you move guns, machine-guns, and mortars, their ammo load
decreases. The speed it is replenishes depends on the distance from the ammo crates. If a unit uses up its ammo load, it can
replenish it from the ammo crates of the guns of the same type next door."
This is from the manual.So I think that the game simulates,abstractly that the ammo bearers go back to the crates to grab more ammo(unless the crates are used up or captured)then they may draw from neighboring crates of same type also.So it seems depending on how far your gun is from the crates they draw ammo from,determines how long it takes for the crew to go back fetch the ammo and restock the ammo supply.I'm curious as to how many shells each ammo bearer actually fetches and just how many crew members are simulated in taking part in this resupply effort.

[Tanker]

That is interesting.  I recently moved an infantry gun several hundreds of meters, hunting a tank.  They weren't firing fast, but they never ran out either.  Tank got 'em in the end.

[Lemonade]

Dane. That's strange, because I've never experienced any virtual ammo bearers replenishing any of my mortars' or artillery ammunition supply. There's this infamous ammo error present (I remember it from Theatre of War series) that adds an ammunition unit right after the shot is being fired, but it subtracts it afterwards. Apart of this, I've never had any significant boost to the ammunition of my support/ATG/FG weapons.