Supply System Thoughts

[Prairie_Doggin]

What do people think about the new supply system in this game? To me it seems a little too oversimplified and pretty uninteresting. Just a static "supply" number that each army carries and that slowly ticks down when you are over supply limit in a barony.

I think a much better way to do it would be to have a "supply line" system, where as long as you can maintain a unobstructed line of supply, at a reasonable distance, to either your capital or maybe special supply buildings you construct in other holdings, you should be able to keep a much larger army in the field and well fed, regardless of the supply limit of the barony it is sitting in.

Of course, there would be a lot of nuance to this as well. If your line of supply gets overstretched, it becomes less effective. If your line of supply runs through enemy territory, it is also less effective and could be disrupted by the enemy population. If an enemy army cuts your line of supply off completely, you'll be forced to live off of the supply limit of the county you are in and will start taking attrition if you are over it. Maybe certain commander traits can give some characters the ability to carry a reserve of supplies like we have right now in case they get cut off.

There's plenty more you could change, but I think a little bit of work in this aspect of the game would make warfare a lot more strategic and interesting.

 

[luxfelix]

Maybe also allow ability to negotiate with 3rd parties for safe passage (supply lines); in peacetime, supply lines double as communication lines, such that more distant parts of the realm are harder to control (popular/vassal opinion modifier).

 

[The Founder]

I personally like this System. It is a good combination of the supply System from Rome, without it buffering away all attrition.

I just hope for better management of army sizes and supply consumption/refilling:

Better army supply management

Supplies are usually a pretty annoying part of the army management. Making sure the units are small enough to "fit" supply capacity is micromanagement. And if they are already to big, I can not "refill" them with supplies. Reinforcements will...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

 

[PK_AZ]

How big provinces in CK3 are?
Land transport is very expensive - because you have to actually fed animals you are using to transport all that food - and it might be that "reasonable distance" is not that much bigger than single province. Even if it is two, three counties, I doubt if it make mechanics worth making.
River and sea transport, on the other hand, might be worth analyzing.

 

[The Founder]

This age is very different from Roman or Europa Universalis times.
Most supply for armies was done via Forraging, not by actually having a supply infrastructure and shipments.
Not that you would need one, with Tribal Emperors barely getting to the 10k amount of Levies.

There is the "bronze age collapse", when civilisation and warfare largely reset.
There was something similar in the wake of the Roman Collapse.

In Imperator I have armies that are bigger then a whole Emperors military. And I got several of those armies. And those are all professional soldiers as well, not 90% Levies.
The 1st Punic war involved up to 1 Million Soldiers. It had a solid contender for the largest naval battle in history, both by manpower and ships.

After rome fell, for centuries there was nothing on the scale. Those are the centuries the game is playing in.
Stuff like the battle of hastings was 12-25k on both sides together. That is at tops 5 Roman Legions worth of Manpower. On both sides together.

Edit: Here is that "largest Naval battle contender". They list some large battles. Notice the distinct gap between 256 BC and 1517 AD: