Supplies

One of the great things about civ II was the food caravans. Yes they were a pain in terms of micro-management, but the principle behind them was great. I'd like to see them returned in Civ 4.

And I'd like to see the concept extended to units in the field requiring supply lines to add another tactical element to the game -> if you're moving to conquer the opponents lands, you need to protect your supply routes.

These (related) concepts could really improve scenarios to add realism: How can you really emulate the siege of Britain in WWII, or the German invasion of Russia without considering supply lines?

I think military supply lines are a bad idea because of the level of complexity they would require, although their absence is at the expense of realism. I think that inter-city supply lines is a far better idea though. Being able to transport surplus food among cities would be a priceless asset for cities in poor locations for food production, as well as maximizing shield production while still maintaining maximum population. What if the only city you had capable of producing an Iron works was limited to only 6 or 7 pop. because of poor location? It would hardly be worth it to build the ironworks.

ainwood said:

One of the great things about civ II was the food caravans. Yes they were a pain in terms of micro-management, but the principle behind them was great. I'd like to see them returned in Civ 4.

And I'd like to see the concept extended to units in the field requiring supply lines to add another tactical element to the game -> if you're moving to conquer the opponents lands, you need to protect your supply routes.

These (related) concepts could really improve scenarios to add realism: How can you really emulate the siege of Britain in WWII, or the German invasion of Russia without considering supply lines?

Click to expand...

I started a thread this morning on this forum called caravans. Maybe they could merge these two threads.

I guess we were on the same wavelength.

A famous quote in military circles: "Amateurs discuss tactics, professionals discuss logistics"

Adding army supply considerations is essential for Civ 4. Civilization is a high level strategic game and that means logistics as opposed to battlefield tactics. This lack of logistic consideration the bigest limitation in the current Civ games.

During the U.S. civil war the armies followed the rail lines. The key to ending WWI was the pincer movement of the U.S. and British armies that cut the rail lines suppliyng the German front lines. Rommel failed in North Africa because he could not get enough supplies.

So each road, river, canal, railroad, flight corridor, and navel route should have some supply value going back to the nation's cites that produce the needed supplies. This supply value can change with certain technological improvements and it decreases with distance. Each armed force unit must be assigned a supply unit that will travel back and forth subject to being intercepted by the enemy with a probability depending on the number and quality of the enemy units nearby.

With today's fast computers I don't think adding this additional overhead would be much of a problem.

Armies already follow roads and rail lines to the front. Once a city is captured more troops can be brought in through captured rail lines. Its possible to take alternate routes but these units will move slower at some point. For instance you might use a mountain to attack from even though it didn't have roads. The penalty for this is once the city falls the units that have not attacked can only be moved into the city, no fortified or moved to a new position, like if they had been on a road or rail square.

supply in the later game is a great idea because it will encourage positional combat to cut off enemy units, rather than the megalo stack vs. megalo stack that combats tend to be

supply could also be simple if properly implemented, eg. units could change colour when OOS, have reduced movement and fire

Yes the idea is great.. i was thinking about giving each unit 5 attack turns before he needs to refuel and rearm but what would be better and less micromanagemential (Is that a word ) is if your units are 4 squares or greater into enemy territory they turn "yellow" (you see a yellow dot besides them or something) and they suffer a 30% loss of attack/deffence/movement points. If they go on further they will recieve a 60% loss of attack/deffence/movement

This will make it more challenging to invade enemies rather than the above mentioned "mega stack versus mega stack"
You now have to do a pre-phase of attack, making sure your supply lines are adequate enough and the enemy infrastructure is damaged.

good idea. I thought of the same thing for a long time. It should also be possible to trade shields. When building great wonders many citys often work together to complete the wonder farset. i.e. The pyramids is made of stones from far down the Nile.

Tributing shields by roads should be done. It used to be by the Caravan unit, but that was tedious back in the day. It should be brought back and made automatic, like 'Wealth'

ood idea. I thought of the same thing for a long time. It should also be possible to trade shields. When building great wonders many citys often work together to complete the wonder farset. i.e. The pyramids is made of stones from far down the Nile.

Click to expand...