VBAM Games Forums

One idea I've been playing with for a few days is supply route length. As I'm not entirely sure of the rules I've come up with, here they are:

A powers supply route length relies on its NPE tech level. Simply divide the NPE tech level by two to get the length of a supply route. An INT-1 and INT-2 power has a supply route length of 1, for example, and an INT-5 or -6 power has a supply route length of 3. Supply Master and Supply Novice alter this accordingly.

However, there are times, either during exploration or during wars fought at long distances from an empires borders, that the supply network needs to be enhanced. For this reason, some militaries might elect to build military supply ships. Others might choose, however, to take ships from civilian owners and use them, or have civilian ships of their own in private shipyards from which they might activate them.

A power may purchase a supply convoy that costs 5EP to construct and 1/2 EP to maintain. A supply convoy extends the length of one supply route by one. These are cumulative, but cannot extend more than one supply route.

Example: An INT-4 power has a supply route length of 2. It is currently prosecuting a war against an INT-3 power from its main naval base at Siruntai. Siruntai is, however, three jumps from the nearest enemy system, as there is no supply point one system further out. The INT-4 power decides to purchase two supply convoys and assigns them to the Siruntai system. The main fleet at Siruntai can now move up to four systems away from the base.

The idea needs a lot of work, and I'm not sure if it is at all good, but I decided to post it to see what you think.

On first brush, it sounds pretty good. As long as the convoys are vulnerable to attack it should work ok.

However, you might also consider that instead of assigning convoys to Base or Planet X, you could have them stockpiled at those bases and assigned to specific fleets. I say this because convoys are supplying specific task forces or fleets, even though they be under the umbrella of a specific base. If that makes any kind of sense.

That sounds like a good wrinkle. Would simulate the dedicated supply train of a fleet on the move...

murtalianconfederacy wrote:That sounds like a good wrinkle. Would simulate the dedicated supply train of a fleet on the move...

Yeah, but I like that it emphasizes the tech progression. I would like to see what you can do with the idea myself.

-Jay

Tech progression... hmmm

Level 0 = 2 Convoys allow 1 Jump distance Or +3 Endurance
Level 1 = 1 Convoy allow 1 Jump distance OR +3 Endurance
Level 2 = 1 C to 2 D... increase the endurance mod by +1...

Just had that thought so I threw it out there.

mwaschak wrote:

murtalianconfederacy wrote:That sounds like a good wrinkle. Would simulate the dedicated supply train of a fleet on the move...

Yeah, but I like that it emphasizes the tech progression. I would like to see what you can do with the idea myself.

-Jay

Might try and do a small campaign after the solo campaign has finished. Keep it to two empires so I can manage it.

murtalianconfederacy wrote:
Might try and do a small campaign after the solo campaign has finished. Keep it to two empires so I can manage it.

I am doing a lot of testing for the FA book, so I periodically try out the ideas that get posted here on the forum. So it is entirely likely I can try out some variants of the idea too.

-Jay