One of the most neglected areas of game design must be supply and its considerations. There are, I think, two reasons for this. Firstly, it is an area of military operations difficult to simulate. Secondly, even superficial or minimal rules dealing with supply turn out to be boring or time consuming. Yet it is an area that must merit close attention if our hobby is to produce simulations. If a game is designed with playability as one of the more important considerations in mind then supply may justifiably be abstracted or minimised. Yet any product that claims to be a simulation of a military event is a fraud if supply is not realistically portrayed.

In a tactical simulation, the question of supply is presented as follows: in this simulation, do the military units (tanks, infantry, artillery, etc.) possess sufficient fuel, ammunition, food, etc. to retain full effectiveness throughout the game? In short, a tactical simulation is unrealistic if panzers are moving and firing for ten hours straight without regards to limitations of ammunition and fuel. When recreating tactical battles, it is important to remember that tanks, other vehicles, and cannon possess only limited quantities of petrol, shells, and so on.

I consider supply at the operational and strategic levels to involve the greatest potential for innovations. At this level in military operations, supply plays a commanding role. For example, in a simulation covering the Allied advance across France in 1944, there would have to be important rules concerning the increasing Allied difficulty in supplying their armies from only a few small ports. Any offensive operation requires massive accumulations of essential supplies. In fact, supply always plays a crucial role in the planning of an offensive. Armies on the defensive have fewer difficulties with supplies but their procurement and efficient use still requires extensive planning and labor.

How may supply be handled in an operational- level simulation? Traditional mechanics usually involve tracing a line of supply to a friendly map-edge, city, railway line, etc. Weather may shorten supply lines. A unit out of supply suffers reductions in its movement allowance and/or combat strength.

These mechanics assume the supplies have arrived or are actually present; the unit in need of supplies need only be within range of the transport carrying the supplies from the depot to the unit.

Let's consider a more realistic and admittedly more complex method. Supply is represented as Supply Points. Each Supply Point may "activate" one combat factor or one movement factor of a certain unit. For example, consider a 5-8 infantry unit, with a combat strength of 5 and a movement allowance of 8. This unit receives 11 supply points from a supply depot. The unit could use its supply points in different combinations. It could "spend" 8 points to move its entire movement allowance and then engage in combat with a combat strength of only 3. Or, it could simply remain in its position and hold its supply in reserve. If an enemy unit attacked it during the enemy's combat phase, the unit could defend with a combat strength of 5, and still have 6 supply points remaining. These could be carried over and used next turn. A supply point would activate one combat factor of a unit for one complete turn, for both attack and defense.

Supply points would be accumulated at and distributed from Supply Depots. Supply depots could be established at railheads, towns, or any points ;~asily accessible to railroads, roads, airfields, etc. Each depot would have a Supply Range within which its transport could deliver supplies. For example, in an operational game where 1 turn is equal to 2 days, and the setting is a war where supplies are moved by wagons, the Supply Range would be how far a loaded wagon could travel in 2 days.

Supply points would be delivered to the depot by railroad, road, air, etc. The most efficient supply medium is railroad, but each rail-line would be allowed a maximum supply transport capacity which could be reduced by weather, sabotage, etc. Similarly, ports and airfields would be able to handle only a limited amount of Supply Points each turn. In this way, supply becomes a major consideration as would-be conquerors must pay attention to capturing airfields, ports, railheads, etc., from which offensives may be supported.

The mechanics I sketched above are not meant to be definitive or complete ways of handling supply. They would need a great deal of development to be truly effective, but they would have to be especially modelled for each specific game. I only want to suggest some new ways of looking at supply. These mechanics result in some interesting situations. Consider the event where units are encircled. Instead of merely being eliminated or half-reduced these units have the results of their encirclement appear in a truly quantitative fashion. Scenario: nine infantry and six motorised divisions are surrounded on the Eastern Front. They are isolated with one Supply Depot stocked with 210 Supply Points. The single airfield has a maximum capacity of only 40 Supply Points per turn. General Paulus would undoubtedly understand!