CAMPAIGN REFERENCE PAGE

LOGISTICS

THE RULE OF THREE
  • Couriers and units can find any city within 3 legs of them and will choose the most direct route available
  • Couriers can move into and through contested towns but will not enter enemy controlled ones
  • Units will enter enemy controlled locations and will plan routes that require them to move through them.
  • If you want a unit or courier to take a specific route, plan to order that specific route. Otherwise they will select routes that seem efficient to them.
  • If a city cannot be found within 3 legs and there are no specific alternate ways to find a destination, units and couriers will not move.

In the picture below, the rule of three would allow a unit at E to find paths to C,D,F,I,J,G, and H. Note that usually you will be able to specify an intermediate destination which brings the range for orders up to 6 (eg "I Corps will move from E to M via J").

DEPOT
  • All new units (including Corps headquarters) are created at your active depot
  • Replacements are generated at Depots. Each depot may have a target city designated that new replacements will automatically begin marching toward. Replacements can be teleported back to one's depot.
  • Lost units can be magically teleported back to one's depot.
  • May be in any city or fortress in your home nation (including provinces) or in a port with a neutral sea.
  • Depots cost 10 points each
  • Each player may have one active depot at any time but may switch freely
  • Depots are destroyed if they come under enemy control
  • Depots require 7 days to construct after they are ordered.

We will put our depot at the city of F with the notion that our enemy is somewhere to the east. Since it requires 7 days to construct one, it might be prudent to keep your active depot always 7 days away from any direct threats. Prudent but not always possible. To have no depots would mean no new units and no replacements.

LINES OF COMMUNICATIONS
  • Often begin at depots but are not required to.
  • Allows couriers and replacements to cross long distances. Couriers within 3 of a LoC can see every other town within 3 of any node on that LoC.
  • There may be 10 nodes on a Line of Communication and each must be within 3 of a previous node. A line of communication could stretch from Paris,France to Linz, Austria, for example.
  • Couriers can see from a point on one LoC to a point on one LoC that shares a common node.
  • If a Line of Communication is broken anywhere along its route by enemy forces then couriers cannot see past that point to plan routes.
  • Each node on a LoC costs 2 points
  • The points selected as nodes may be important because you want them to cross other LoCs on nodes where possible.
  • When couriers travel along a LoC, they move from node to node so if nodes are closer together, they travel less distance each day.
  • Changing LoCs while units are trying to follow them as previously arranged may confuse units.

In the picture below, we construct two Lines of Communication. The Yellow line will look like F => K => N => P=> S and the pink route will be F => B=> AA (somewhere north of A). We put the node at P when it could have gone as far as Q because we intend to push a Corps up the road toward X and Y and this will enable couriers to start their search for units within 3 from P.

Currently, a message sent from A could now be trusted to find a division at W. Also, I can now set my replacements to march to P when they are created and 8 days later, any units that I have at P can get some strength back.

 

CENTER OF COMMUNICATIONS
  • Each Corps, Wing or Army may have a Center of Communication set where couriers will go that are looking for the HQ or a Division belonging to that HQ  when they cannot find their target
  • Couriers will wait at Centers of Communication until their recipient can be found.
  • If a unit must retreat, they will retreat toward their Center of Communications where possible.
  • A Center of Communication must be a node on a Line of Communications.  
  • All the allied players can see the Centers of Communications for the various HQs on their side. So although Wellington wouldn't know where Blucher's II Corps is, he would know that its administrative center of communications was last assigned to be Liege, for example.
  • As units advance and retreat, it is very easy to not adjust their Center of Communications to keep up with events.

I Corps will set its Center of Communications at P. It is a conceptual anchor and safety net. The Corps can now roam about north of there knowing that if it does happen to stray too far form the Line of Communications, any correspondence for the Corps will be waiting at P until it returned to within 3 legs of it.

In this diagram, if the GHQ wished to send an order to I Corps, couriers would be unable to make sense of the shorter distance between BB and W via CC. Instead it must use the Line of Communications that are established and instead of taking but two days, the couriers will be travelling for 6 days. If the army intends to operate in this manner for long, they would be well advised, if able, to throw up a new Line of Communication that looked something like B => BB => CC => Y. Note that even if the GHQ moved itself to CC, it still wouldn't be able to find I Corps (though it could see the division). Lines of Communication are a vital tool.

 

Keep in mind that none of this information is neatly displayed on the maps for you as it is in most games. The information is available in reports and summaries but you will be required to either keep your communication system pictured in your head or make and update your own maps.

NATIONAL ASSETS
  • Depots, Replacements, and Lines of Communications are national assets. All players of the same nation can use ones made by other players from their nation. They cannot modify them though.
  • It is perhaps reasonable to have a nation's overall commander be responsible for managing all of the national assets which can consume a fair number of points, thereby freeing up the others to concentrate their points into fighting forces.
  • Minor allied nations have distinct semi-depots which are always their national capital. If a player has a line of communication running through an Allied Minor Nation's Capital then Units and Replacements can be purchased that will form up in the capital. Allied Minor Nations can have their replacement march destination set.
  • Each nation is responsible for its own Lines of Communications and Depots.
  • If you wish to communicate with an Allied Major Nation through use of a Line of Communication, you will need to set one up even if that ally already has one set up running to you.