Campaign Supply System

Spanish Campaign Map with depots and garrisons 

I have always considered lines of supply to be an important part of the campaign.   In a historical campaign is would be all important.   However my campaign is designed to provide interesting battles to wargame, so it has always been abstract.   I have used it to restrict movement and weaken field armies by detaching brigades to guard the lines of supply.

Each army has nine corps, and each town provides sufficient supplies for one corps each day.   At the start of the campaign each army controls six towns, and the balance of three days supplies is delivered to the main supply depot, which is also the regional capitol, in this case Toledo for the French.

Each corps starts the campaign with four days supplies.   To resupply it must be within one days march (three squares) of a friendly town, and of course that town must have sufficient supplies.

So far so good and pretty simple.   But it requires a lot of administration to ensure that there is sufficient supplies at the right town at the right time.    As the attacking army advances it becomes increasingly difficult.   This is fine in an historical campaign, where the supply system should be a major concern for each army commander.  But I want to keep administration to a minimum, and to concentrate on the actual battles

Current Campaign Map    

Most Napoleonic campaigns, apart from Russia and Spain, did not have significant supply problems.   The aim was to overpower and defeat the enemy field army and thus end the campaign.   This was normally achieved within a short period, and the winning army would then live off the conquered territory.   Lines of supply would have to be secured, but this was done by second line troops and did not usually cause problems for the main field army.

For many years I have struggled to create a simple, but effective, supply system for the campaign.  This has involved moving supplies on the campaign map.   It takes a lot of work, and has very little effect on the campaign itself.   I used to detach brigades from each corps, but this proved too much of a burden on the attacking army.   Eventually I allowed them an extra reserve corps with sufficient brigades to man all the depots.

I have now decided to abandon this cumbersome, and time consuming system.   In future providing that a corps meets the requirement to be stationary during the whole day, not in contact with the enemy and within one day’s march of a friendly town they will be able to resupply.

In Spain I will have a different system.   Depots and lines of supply will still be open to attack by the guerrilla bands.   As now I will roll a dice to determine the outcome of these attacks.   If supplies are lost the corps concerned will not be able to resupply until new supplies arrive.  This will result in attrition casualties if the corps runs out of supply as a result.  

This will greatly reduce the amount of administration, and I hope will not have too great an effect on the campaign itself.