ACW Supply

[Gary McClellan]

I've never designed a scenario that would go that long... but to give you a bit of an idea.

The first thing I do when I'm assigning artillery ammunition is doing a nose count of batteries. That gives me a baseline, but from there, it gets more complicated.

Can the army get resupply? What is their overall supply situation? If they're in good supply, I'll try to give them enough supply that they can use their guns reasonably freely, but not every shot for every gun every turn (accounting for both offensive and defensive fire).

In a longer scenario, I would take a harder look at that strategic supply situation. For instance, at Pea Ridge, the CSA ran out of artillery ammo on day two, because Van Dorn had marched in a way that placed Union troops between him and his supply trains (while the Union soldiers were encamped around a depot...) That would guide how I would set levels. So, the CSA would be ammo poor, and the Union would be ammo rich there.

I haven't done any ACW design, but honestly, this is a spot where I would start nagging the programmers for the ability to add artillery ammo every day, without just sending more guns. (This would represent resupply trains, and the designer would have the ability to set a level.)