zgrssd
Posts: 1821
Joined: 6/9/2020
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Logistics are kinda a important part of the game. But also a damn complicated one.
Where do I need how much?
How often do I have to place Truck stops?
Should I upgrade the truck stop?
I am still not certain I got it all, but at least I am a pretty long way towards it.
Hard and fast rules:
0. Turn on Map Layers -> "Show Op. Log." (Show Operational Logistics). Hotkey is 6.
This will tell you exactly how far the last selected unit can go, without getting (too severe) supply issues from range. It is not perfect (as it does not account for other units wanting stuff too), but still prett dang good!
1. One Public owned, T1 Truck stop per city!
They cost pittance of fuel, workers and IP.
No city should ever have to rely on logistics comming in from another city or a outside hex. That is just asking for trouble.
And private ones will not cut it once there are any troops around or any decent spread of Buildings.
2. You should upgrade the truck stations if they are either:
a) Under a SHQ. Those are after all the main consumers!
b) share their hex with a Train Station (wich makes them a local collection Hub or Strategic base)
Keep in mind that this will primarily upgrade the Capacity, not the range.
3. Do not add SHQ's. It is really only causing more issues.
4. Roads are a blessing and a curse. Use them sparringly and avoid crossings.
On the one hand, roads expand the range of your Logistics networks from your cities.
On the other hand, crossings fracture and thus drain your supply capacity like nothing else.
5. With traffic signs, never use more then a "95% blocked" one.
You do not loose relevant capacity.
They are way easier to spot then 100% ones.
And once you forgot you put a 100% block there 1-2 times, you really wish you would have allowed those 5% through!
The Roman Way:
If you want to know how a supply System works, just look at the roman one. They pioneered the Systems we are still using to day. The systems that are in use in Shadow Empire. They knew 3 things: Operational base, Strategic bases, Supply Base/Army Depot.
The Operational base is where your supplies are produced. Or more precisely, where the SHQ collects them.
The Strategic Base is the truck station closest to the troops. The one that will actually get the resource to the Troops. This starts off at being the SHQ city (as you got only 1 Zone). But as you conquer stuff, the new Cities will propably become the new Strategic Bases.
The Supply Base/Army depot is not simulated or abstracted away. Do not be confused by a building of that name, it works very differently!
With this view, you only got a few possible Problems:
Problem X: Having enough production/collection or reserves to support the troops at the Operational Base
Problem Y: Getting enough supplies from the Operational to the Strategic Base. (for the Logistics System, you do not need to worry about storage along the way).
Problem Z: Getting enough supplies from the Strategic Base to the troops.
Note that there is no implied order between those Problems! At any time X, Y or Z can be the cause of your supplies issues. Figuring out wich one (or ones) it is, is the first step to fixing it.
Very hard and slow rules:
Hex Assets:
Hex assets (buildings), only need supply points passing through their hex on a road. They do not actually consume any Logistics capacity, they just need the proof that they could be supplied and then asume they are supplied.
Hex Assets will do all Interaction with the Zone Inventory directly. Their consumption is directly drained from the zone inventory. Their production is diretly delivered to it. Again, no supply capacity is used for this step.
The Zone Inventory Limits
Resources in a Zone help nobody but that zone. They can be used to directly "feed" the local consumers: The workers, the running buildings and the constructions. And in many cases it is highly advantageous to have the production of goods distributed across all zones and as close to their consumption as possible. Food particulary should never need to be shipped.
But the Zone inventory will not help other zones, help you raise troops or even feed your soldiers!
SHQ - the prime logistics consumer
The planet is full of zones where there is too much of one good and to little of another good. And none of the Zones would bother feeding the soldiers that are standing literally in the city center.
This is where the SHQ comes in. Every start of turn, the SHQ will do these 4 things:
- Deliver stuff to Zone Inventories, that those Zones requested*
- Deliver stuff to Units that they have requested. Yes, that means you need to have the resource for your units in the SHQ Inventory before you hit end turn.
- Collecting stuff from zones. This will be the stuff it has avalible for next end turn and the rare instant projets (like raising formations)*
- sending out reinforcements troops.
(For the full sequence, see 5.11.5.11)
Note tha the SHQ seems to need 0 Logistics capaciy do do stuff with the Inventory of the Zone it is placed in. Also 0 Logistics to do stuff with the Hex it is placed in.
*These two should be kept as small as possible. Logistics is primarily there for your soldiers. Moved goods between the Zones and the SHQ should be only things that can not (yet) be prouced locally.
Free Shipping included
According to the handbook, several things travel for free on the Logistics network. These include:
Water & Fuel (via Pipes)
Energy (via cables)
Industrial Points (as it is a abstract concept)
Emergency Food (but not regular food)
Leftover Logistics Points
After the SHQ does it's automatic stuff, there will be some points left. Hopefully that is a lot.
And hopefully that is not just a lot because you could not bring enough stuff to your troops because of range.
Those leftover points you can use to raise formations in places other then your SHQ. Or use for Strategic Movement. Or to upgrade/replace troops for units in the field
Truck AP and Distance
Considering that each hex is ~200km on the short diagonal, it should not come as surprise that trucks can not move infinitely far!
A Public T1 Truck Station has 1000 Truck Points (Logistics Capacity) and 100 TruckAP. Those AP define how far you get to use the the full capacity - and how far the capacity will dwindle off.
Each Terrain has a AP cost for the "Truck Logistics". 25 is not uncommon for flat terrain. Hard terrain can go up to 75. With Roads it is 10 (Dirt Road) or 5 (Paved Road) AP per hex.
In the traffic Signs menu you can see how many of those AP are used already , how many there are in total (note that leaving the transport assets/city hex counts as well). It does not show this data for hexes without roads, but the same math happens there!
As long as the Trucks have not yet used more then 100 AP to get to a hex (and no road split the capacity), you still got fully supply capacity of 1000. Once they start using more then 100 AP, the supply capacity will drop of sharply. Think of them having to carry extra food and fuel for the journey on the back of the vehicle.
Let's meet halfway there
You propably have more then 1 Truck Station that will be using the same road. When they meet, they add together for the total amount of supplies that can go across that road/through that wilderness.
Bottlenecks
Picture a distance of 21 hexes bewtween two points (it will most lilkely be zones, but it could be any points really).
Picture both points having a Public Truck station 1, that send all their stuff towards the other point
Picture the 1000 truck Points reaching exactly 10 hexes, then drop off to 100 Truck points at the 11th Hex and 0 after wards (it is not quite that extreme in teh game).
So the hex in the middle will only have 200 Logitics. Guess what? You only get 200 Units across that road. That 1 Hex is the bottleneck.
Bottlenecks happen when two supply producers "meet" just after they started trailing off.
They also happen if there is 3 truck stops: 2 T1 at the endpoints, 1 T1 in the middle. Likely the T1 in the middle will dictate how much can flow over this road.
Organic Supply - let us make a food run!
Units are not entirely passive receivers of supply either. Their supply is a lot more forgiving then the one for Assets. It turns out that people are willing to go the extra 1000 miles towards a good supply line!
Terrain also has a Cost for the Movetype "Organic Supply". Asume each unit has 100 "freeOrganicSupplyAP" and a "OrganicSupplyPoints" that just matches the maximum they can request per turn
They work similar to truck points, in that they spread out, dwindling off after they ran out of AP.
Usually movement cost for the Organic supply is a fraction of the one for trucks:
On flat terrain it is 12 organic/25 Truck.
In Mountain 20 Organic/75 Trucks.
So asume that Organic Supply makes up about half of your total supply range!
(Not) off the rails
Rails are really good at moving a lot of supplies over very long distances. But really useless at distributing those supplies anywhere along the lines. They need a endpoint - Railhead or other station - to drop any relevant quantities off (without, only 10% can reach any given hex).
And asuming they did not just deliver to a Zone or SHQ inventory, then they also need a truck Station in the same hex or organic supply to actually distribute the stuff to troops!
They are good at getting stuff to the Strategic Base. And can even help at collecting the stuff at the Operational base in the first place. But it is still the local trucks that make it a Strategic base!
< Message edited by zgrssd -- 6/17/2020 10:55:16 PM >
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