Supply Lines

Supply lines connect cities, ressource nodes ("buildings") and camps.

Using Supply Lines

 * Supply lines connect every asset you have throughout your empire. For example, when you capture a Farm you need to connect it to a city and put some workers/slaves in the farm. Then it can start producing food.


 * Selecting an asset (left mouse click) and then right clicking on a city, it allows you to connect the 2 of them. This applies for every other resource asset as well.

Supply Zones and Territories
Not all cities, camps and buildings need to be manualy connected by supply lines, though. Once they are sufficiently near each other, they will automatically form larger economic entities. Territory Range can be extended by reaearching Supply Logistics.

Supply Zone
Every structure has a "zone of influence" or supply zone. On the map this shows as a coloured sphere. If for two structures these zones overlap, a separate supply line between these structures is not necessary.

Territories
Territories are an expansion of supply zones and designate the terrain that your faction controls around your cities and buildings. Unlike supply zones, territories automatically merge together when they overlap creating continuous zones of control that act as resource hubs sharing all of their wood and food automatically. This clustering effect eliminates the need for extra supply lines between nearby buildings and dramatically simplifies the flow of resources so that it's much easier to identify shortfalls, surpluses and bottlenecks within your empire.


 * The terrain surrounding your cities, camps and buildings is called your Territory. You can see your territory by selecting a unit or building, or by zooming out to the strategy map. When the territories from two or more buildings overlap, they will automatically merge into a single larger territory. Territories are named after the largest camp or city inside them.


 * All buildings inside the same territory can share resources directly without the need for supply lines. You can see how resources are being consumed, produced and moved in territories by left-clicking on them on the strategy map or by using the 'View Territory Details' button in the command panel when you have a building selected.


 * Units stationed inside their own territories can pull recruits from anything the territory is connected to and will automatically draw supply from any of the territories buildings. Combat units inside the territory also contribute to the territory force which provides morale and prevents rebellion in all of the territory's cities.


 * Similar to blocking supply lines, territories can be interrupted, split, and blockaded by enemy units in order to prevent the movement of resources. Hostile enemy units will automatically initiate a blockade once they stop moving inside your territories. If the blockade is successfully established, the territory will no longer be able to extend through the unit's position and will try to wrap around it there is space on the terrain. The blockade will be interrupted if the unit moves or comes under attack. Multiple units can be used to set up a larger blockade.


 * The size of a territory can be increased by expanding the population of the cities inside and also through building upgrades and faction skills.


 * By default your territory is coloured according to the controlling faction, but using the buttons above the mini-map you can change the colours to indicate the level of resources in the territory.

Water Territories
Territories extend into the water from all camps and cities with the 'Deep Water Port' attribute. Water territories work identically to their land varients and can be used to supply ships, and to connected nearby cities and resources.

Unneccessary supply line
If for two structures their supply zones overlap, a separate supply line is not necessary. The line can be deleted by clicking on it and the hitting the corresponding button in the supply line window.

Nowhere to send resources
If all the storage capacity in cities and camps is filled or a ressource node in not connected, then this alert will show up. Depending on the underlying cause, the player either needs to construct more camps or uprade camps and cities with warehouses. If a ressource node is not connected, then it needs to be connected to the next camp/city by a supply line.

Strategy

 * The longer a supply line is, the more loss it will have. For example, a 5% loss of food, will give you 19 food instead of 20. A 20% loss on a very long supply line, will give you 16 food and so on. To lessen waste build camps (if possible without walls because walls cost money). The camps will act as a intermediate supply depot in your growing supply chain.


 * With respect to losses, it is sometimes more efficient to ship goods by river, vs. by high loss land routes. Some long land connections may cause 25% wood loss, while by river, it's only 0-5%. However, remember that water supply lines will be cut off in winter.


 * Generally speaking, redundant supply lines should be limited. Redundant lines will naturally form in the process of the game, so don’t be alarmed. However, sometime redundancy is desirable: In a growing empire, enemy raiders will harass your logistic chains. Cutting the path will divide your empire in two logistic-wise. Having redundancy prevent this.