Aurora 4x
C# Aurora => C# Mechanics => Topic started by: nakorkren on December 17, 2021, 09:43:54 PM
-
For what ever reason, I can never seem to get my logistics to work correctly for ground combat. I suspect there's a gap in my understanding somewhere. Can someone please look at the attached screenshot and explain why my units are not drawing supply from my LVH, and hence are operating at 0% supply?
-
If I recall correctly, units cannot draw supply from another unit at the same level, it has to flow top-down. I always directly make the supply trucks part of the HQ unit. I then feed in new supply trucks as "replacements" to that unit, rather than making them a unit of their own. I may be wrong, but that is how I have gotten it to work before. I still have my challenges with ground combat, but lack of supply (at least, at first) has not been one of them.
-
You are correct, CowboyRonin.
Formation can draw supply from 2 sources:
1) itself
2) formation above it in the hierarchy
You should always put your supply trucks together with your HQ units in a single formation so that the supply can flow down the entire chain of command.
However, with the replacement formation function currently available, it has become easier to use infantry supply units in all of your formations as you don't need to manually replace them by hand once they are consumed - you just need to make a bunch of INF-LOG/S formations and keep them on the same body with your combat formations, which will automatically "refill" their own supply units.
Also note that formations never go back to 100% supply, they will just consume the supply units available to them during combat.
-
You just need to make a bunch of INF-LOG/S formations and keep them on the same body with your combat formations, which will automatically "refill" their own supply units.
This would be true also with LVH though.
-
It is also important to note that, unless you mod the DB to correct this, the method Garfunkel describes using INF+LOG-S is almost strictly superior to any method using LVH+LOG.
The reason is that INF+LOG-S costs 0.2 BP for a 10-ton unit providing 100 GSP, so you get 500 GSP per build point. LVH+LOG costs 2.48 BP for a 62-ton unit providing 500 GSP, so you get just under 200 GSP per build point. Thus, infantry logistics are 250% more efficient per build point, and just under 25% more tonnage-efficient as well. Prior to 1.12 this was 'balanced' by the fact that only LVH logistics could resupply other formations automatically (the micro for infantry logistics was not feasible at scale), but now with the unit replacement mechanic the LVH logistics are utterly outclassed and obsolete.
The only reason infantry logistics are not strictly superior is that you are required to put some amount of supply units in your frontline formations, perhaps 5-10% of the tonnage to ensure that your units remain supplied between two construction ticks (which is when the unit replacement step occurs). This is assuming 5-day construction increments, so if you use a lower increment as many do then the requirement is absolutely minimal. Otherwise, LVH logistics do benefit from being resistant to enemy fire but this is not worth 250% greater build cost given the cost of necessary supplies to actually mount an invasion.
Given this, I mod my DB so that the 50-ton LOG component gives 1000 GSP instead of 500 and make it LVH-only, which gives both infantry and LVH logistics different pros and cons thus restoring an interesting decision. Infantry logistics remain BP-efficient by about 25%, but LVH are more tonnage-efficient by about 40%. In this case a mix of frontline LOG-S elements, HQ LVH+LOG, and LOG-S supply dumps which can be transported during or after an invasion are all useful components of a complete logistics pipeline.
-
Getting the supply right is a bit of a hassle sometime, but I do think that a unit should have more negative effects of low or no supply... I presume there is some effects of this, less shots and son on, but a unit with less than 25% in supply should get a defensive stance... And a unit with 0% supply should not make breakthroughs...
-
Also note that formations never go back to 100% supply, they will just consume the supply units available to them during combat.
I just want this one to be fixed/changed for my own peace of mind that I didn’t miss some of my own units and for all the poor new players confused by supply always showing 0% after combats thinking they did something wrong.