August 1755 – The murder of Sangarecha – and a LOT of information on supply
My attack on Fort Duquesne was a outstanding success, as the outnumbered enemy retreated in front of my forces after a short battle :
He is now locked inside Fort Duquesne, which I am now sieging ! If Fort Duquesne falls, a tremendous blow to the French interests will have been dealt !
Very, very sad news in August. The 9th of August, 1755, a party of French soldiers enters the Indian village of Geneseo, South of the Ontario. Then, then, they seized the Indian Leader Sangarecha, and they killed him !
Yes, I know, they said it was a “battle”. Yeah, right. A battle, only one Indian died, and it was the leader. And they want us to believe that the 30 dead French are not the murderers, killed as a just retribution, but soldiers who died “in combat”. Right !
[Note : In game term, Sangarecha was killed during the retreat, where the Indians received 3 hits (60 dead) – I know it, because if he had been killed in battle Loki100 would have seen it on his own battle record]
I am now short of one of the best leaders of my side, and I only have Sir Willian Johnson left for now to lead Indians...
In memory of the murdered peaceful Indian leader, I want to make a graveyard of the leaders killed by the French :
This will get larger quite soon, unfortunately.
The Indians vowed to avenge their fallen leader. They are now at my command. I ask them to join me in my victorious campaign on the Champlain :
“Victorious campaign”, because as you can see, Shirley’s column progressed unopposed. I want to pursue the retreating French and destroy them, while taking the strategic location of Crown Point. The French raiders I left behind me will be destroyed in due time… later.
The Indians are not the only victims of the murderous French. New England is especially raided – and there is little I can do for now, except taking the cities where the French come from :
That’s quite is occurring right now in Nova Scotia, with the siege of Grandpré… only the siege of Grandpré is not succeeding for now :
I have a problem of supply, as my sieging army is now short on it. I am going to do a swap of supply wagons, sending an empty supply wagon unit to Halifax, and receiving a new one I have in stock there (the one I paid EP for).
Beginner’s corner : supply
A soldier marches on his stomach said Napoléon. In Birth of America, supply is in my opinion one of the three most important concept (with posture and leadership) - and also the most complex by far.
Disclaimer
I will
not cover ammo supplies, only “regular” supplies, AND I might make a few mistakes doing so.
Supply works significantly differently in WiA compared to other AGEOD games (RoP, AACW, PoN, RUS) – so if you want to use this guide for another game, be cautious.
What is supply ? How do I have information on my level of supply ?
Each
element (except leaders) in your army consumes supplies. Even your supply wagons consume supplies each turn. Supply can be counted in two ways – in “supply units” and in "turns" (months) – beware, I will have to use both way of counting.
The maximum supply a unit can carry depends on the unit :
- Most “regular” units (incl. cavalry, guns but not siege guns for some reason) can carry 2 months (turns) of supply.
- Irregulars can usually carry 4 months of supply
- Indians can carry no less than 6 months of supply. If you count the fact that they are usually in small groups, and thus able to “feed” on the land, it means you don’t need to follow supply for your Indians in most of the cases.
Note that this does NOT mean that two regular units can carry the same amount of supply, or even that Indians carry more supply units : but for a given "type" a unit consuming more supplies carries more supplies). For instance, let me show you some supply consumption, and show you where to see the current level of supply by the same occasion:
Now the supply wagons.
A supply wagon
element can carry 16 “bonus” supply units, for a total of 64 supply units for a complete supply wagon unit (4 elements - I hope it is clear). This means that the impact of a unit of supply wagon in a large army will be minimal (1 month ?) but it will adds up with more supply wagons.
Units in
province with allied supply wagons will first “eat” the supply units of the wagons, then their own, even if the wagons are not in their stack. Let me show you this :
With the wagons, the stack has only about 50% of its maximum supply
Without the wagons – the stack has more or less the same quantity of supply , but now it has 100% of its maximum supplies. All the supplies eaten so far were the supplies provided by the wagons.
Supply wagons and transports work the same way in this regard. Not bateaux, though.
What happens if you are short on supply ?
Short on supply but still something to eat : nothing.
Not enough supply : Your army loses its combat efficiency very quickly, and receive hits. The first turn, as only you probably only have a small deficit of supply in your stack, not much. The following turns – much more.
How to produce supply ?
Supplies is produced in (almost) every province. The supply produced every turn corresponds to the "supply level" of a province, with the rule 1 supply level = 5 supply units produced per turn. You can see the supply level of a province by hovering the mouse over it. Here is the production per structure ; note that both the manual AND the wiki are wrong :
- The countryside of a region generates 0-6 supply levels (0-30 supply units), depending on civilization level, weather and looted status. It can go up to 12 in rare circumstances (Manhattan for instance). When enemy armies co-exist in the same region, the region’s supply is distributed proportionally to the percentage of military control.
- Cities generate 3 supply levels (15 supply units) per level,
- Indian villages generate 2 supply levels (10 supply units),
- Ports generate 2 supply levels (10 supply) units per level, except if blockaded,
- Stockades generate 2 supply levels (10 supply),
- Forts generate 3 supply levels (15 supply) per level,
- Depots generate either 10 or 20 supply levels (50 or 100 supply units) per level. I don’t know when it is 10, and when it is 20 (I think that depots existing since the beginning of the campaign can be set to 20 instead to 10 if the dev feels like it). Remember you can create depots anywhere by sacrificing 8 elements of supply wagons or transport ships (including bateaux). Basically, large armies WILL need depots to operate.
Examples :
Albany produces 3*3 (city) + 1*2 (harbor) + 1*20 (depot) + 1*3 (fort)+3 (countryside) = 37 supply levels = 185 supply units.
Nova Scotia produces 3*3 (city) + 4*2 (harbor) + 1*20 (depot) + 2*3 (fort) + 6 (countryside) = 49 supply levels = 245 supply units.
Duquesne, here In February 1756, brings 1*2 (harbor) + 1*3 (fort) + 1*10 (depot) + 3 (countryside) = 18 supply levels = 90 supply units.
In addition to this :
- Loyalty of a region has an impact. Supply production is multiplied according to the Loyalty percentage of the region plus 50%. For example, if a region is completely loyal (i.e. 100% loyalty) the base supply production in the region would be multiplied by 1.5. Only the independence war scenarios have a loyalty status for provinces.
- National Morale. For every two NM above 100, the amount of supplies produced by a supply source is increased by 1%. For every two NM below 100, the amount of supplies produced by a supply source is reduced by 1%. Impact is minimal.
How are supplies consumed ?
Units consume supply at the beginning of the turn.
All units will consume units the following ways :
- First, all the supplies in the stack are pooled
- Then, the stack will use the supply units generated by the STRUCTURES controlled in the province they are in.
- Then, if it is not enough to replenish the supply level, the stack will use the supply units generated by the STRUCTURES controlled in the (immediately) neighbouring provinces (provided you control the neighbouring provinces as well – if a city is sieged, it won’t help, of course).
In both cases, supply units received above those needed for the turn will be used to replenish the supply level.
- If there are still not enough supplies, the unit will make the “countryside” contribute. Each unit (starting with the one with the highest "patrol" value) needing to find supply will do a “foraging” test (high chance to succeed in a rich province, little chance to succeed in a frozen mountain). If it succeeds, it is fed for the turn. If it fails, the region is “looted” (red circle with fire, which may disappear each spring). No more foraging test is possible on a looted province, which produces no more supply. There are some difference in the looting rules whether you are "looting" your own territory or not, but let's forget that.
On looting, please note that Indians and I believe Raiders always loot the enemy provinces they enter into, except if said province is protected by an army not in a structure. Also note that, according to the Manual “In addition, in the French And Indian War scenarios, the French gain VPs through looting.”
Do I need to remember all this ?
No…. Just go in supply mode :
- Each crate represents
three supply levels. As a supply level = 5 supply units are produced each turn, 1 crate = 15 supply units. Note that in most case, if there is a structure, the first crate is hidden by it.
Remember that in WiA, supplies not carried by troops / wagons do not stock up in cities. It is lost.
- The color shows whether the province produces more supplies than is consumed (in green – in this case you will also see crates), produces more or less the same quantity (in yellow), or produces less supplies than is consumed (in red). Note that obviously if the color is red but your army carries lots of supplies, it is no problem… for now. If you have the full Continental Army waiting in Albany, chances are that you see both a lots of crates and a red color (all those crates are not enough).
Try to think this way :
With these tools, just have a good idea of what province produces how much, and who is lacking supply in your forces – and then forgot everything I said before.
A few extra considerations on supply :
- Boats work the same way as land forces (for instance, they can draw supply from neighboring land province), but water provides no supply at all (obviously).
- A sieged fort / depot / city produces no supply, a blocked port (by winter or by an enemy force) produces no supply. You can have a sieged fort with an unblocked port (thus lowering the impact of the siege) or the opposite. Units in landlocked / blockaded structures will eat through their supply every month, then surrender. I hope you have some supply wagons, or a relieving force !
- When a stack with a supply wagons is hit by bad weather (in winter most of the time), the stack will trade supply units from the wagons (and only the wagons) to receive less (down to none) damages.
- Having much more supply than needed can be very important, as it allows your element to recover their strength (“number of men”). If you want to compensate for the inevitable attrition due to time (i.e. : illness, desertion, …) you will need at least a small excess in supply.
End of the massive but important Beginner’s Corner