Supply lines

[Saber Cherry]

Each province has a "Supply" rating, and supply usage. Generally, 1 human-sized unit uses 1 supply, and if the supply usage is greater than the province supply there is starvation. In the F1 screen you can see the supply usage for each province (SU).

To avoid starvation: Don't move a big army into a province with low supply. The scales (heat and life) affect supply in provinces, and proximity to a fort increases supply. Forts themselves generally have lots of supply. As a Last resort, you can pillage a province to temporarily increase supply (and kill population).

To supply your army: Choose a growth scale, or keep nature mages with the army (they generate 5 supply per nature level) or forge supply items (in the nature path: Bag of Wine, Cauldron of Broth, and Summer Sword).

Cutting off supply lines: Difficult. To do that, you have to control the province of an enemy fortress, choose a death or heat/cold scale and push your dominion into their provinces, kill their nature mages or other supply-providing units (like Vanheim's sacred boars), or isolate their army in a surrounded province, cut off from any castles.

So far, the game is only available Online at Shrapnel, and probably will always be. I bought Space Empires IV and SEIV: Gold from Shrapnel and never had a problem... and I've bought lots of stuff from Amazon... so I'd say you'll have to overcome your aVersion, or forego Dominions II

-Cherry

[Saber Cherry]

...and you might want to read this: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=000172

and download the Dominions I manual (link is embedded in the above guide).

[SurvivalistMerc]

Thank you, Saber Cherry. I'm going to hold out a week or so for a phone number then maybe buy it Online. It's too good to forego.

[Taqwus]

A note on the castles:

Pay attention to the Admin rating; that affects how much it supplies nearby provinces. The more obvious Supply rating governs how much supplies it stockpiles in case the castle itself is sieged.

There are also magical sites which affect supply; mostly, if not entirely, nature. Nature's a great "support" path if you have living troops because of the supply items, regeneration, elemental resistances et al that it offers.

Starvation can take place pretty rapidly. If you just cut off an enemy force from its main supply source and you attack the very next turn, the enemy may already be facing starvation (-4 morale penalty). And keep in mind that mere ownership of a province cuts off supply lines; if a few Call of the Winds sufficed took the province, the line's cut even if the CotW force could be destroyed trivially the next turn.

Survivalist,

You may want to look here:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/service.htm

I wasn't able to find a phone number but you may be able to weasel one out of Annette if you ask them about other processes of payment. I know they do accept money order and check as well as Online orders.

[PDF]

To get more supply the easiest options are :
- Take Nature magic and Growth scales, it gives additional supplies
- Choose a good Castle/Fortress, that has a high Supply value (Fort.Cities are best, but very expensive..)
- Build supply-creating items - most are Nature-based - and give them to your commanders
- Use rather a few good troops that many crap ones, they eat less (playing Ulm for example I rarely have supply problems, but much more with Machaka ..)

[Taqwus]

Another option: a few units produce rather than consume supply. There aren't many, 'tho; the Vanheim Fay Boar comes to mind, and those, if memory serves, are Vanheim-only in addition to being costly.