Elsewhere in these pages I have addressed the problems of supply for 'modern' forces, with varying degrees of lucidity. Here I want to review the problems of 'native' supply and propose a solution.

From what little we know of the records of native forces, It is reasonable to conclude that by and large, native armies foraged as they went, without any real supply trains. There are exceptions, of course. For those exceptions, some sort of modifications to supply rules used for European troops would probably be in order. What needs to be examined are the dynamics of the foraging field army.

What characterizes a force that has to forage for its needs? In no particular order, the following points are presented: It must be disbursed. This is based on the provenance of the terrain moved through. It usually is limited to the growing season for its campaigns. Its size tends to fluctuate as soldiers come and go (e.g. Boers). Though individuals may move quite fast, the overall force is slow because men need time to hunt and forage everyday. It doesn't respond well to changing tactical situations because of its dispersal. There are other characteristics of a foraging field force, but this will do for now. It can be seen that part of Napoleon's genius was minimizing the drawbacks of relying on forage while maximizing the benefits.

Native Armies

In the case of native armies, where tactics and strategy were pretty limited, how can this be simulated? An idea I have been kicking around is that of the 'moving blob'. I first heard this phrase used to describe Karensky's plan for winning the trench war, as in 'Karensky's Moving Blob Theory'. It sounds so good I had to have one of my own. So now here is 'Sigsworth's Moving Blob Theory'.

Imagine each native force as a giant blob. It is centered on the leader, with troops fanning out in all directions. If it moves at all, it moves slowly and haphazardly towards its enemy. When it is contacted it reaches out tentacles of troops to give battle. The closer the enemy is to the center of the blob, the more troops it can concentrate. Sometimes it subdivides, sending sub-blobs off on important missions. (Where else but here could you read the word 'sub-blob'). The speed of the blob and the distance its 'tentacles' can extend depends on the size of the blob.

Mechanically this works quite simply. Say you have a blob of 30,000 natives. Your stalwart column of Regulars is marching towards it. When the column reaches some distance from the center of the blob, say 100 miles, the blob is able to react. At a distance of 100 miles the blob can concentrate 10% of itself against you. As you move closer, the blob is able to concentrate more of itself against you, however, it will never reach 100% as some troops are always out foraging or just don't get the word. this works the same whether you are moving towards it or it is moving towards you. Based on some really basic calculations, I have come up with the following table for a large native blob (small blobs would be different):

range	10-8	7-6	5-4	3-2	1-0
percentage	10	15	20	30	65

Blob movement depends on how fertile the landscape is and how good the leader is. The more fertile the terrain, the faster the movement. In the best of situations I would not expect a blob to move faster than 10 miles a day. In most circumstances I would expect a movement rate of 10 mile in 2-3 days. In poor circumstances ten miles in five days would not be out of the question. The chance of a blob moving the wrong way is always a possibility, too.

Some other notes: The number of tentacles any one blob can reach out should be limited to two or three. A good leader might be able to do four. A cavalry heavy force might have its range extended a little, but not much. In the short term cavalry is much faster than infantry but over the long haul they are the same or slower. Horses require more time to eat and tend to die when forced to march without food or water. Men on the other hand are much more resilient.

This model was developed with forces like Ansar, Zulu or Maharattan Indian armies in mind. It doesn't translate well to Pathans or Afghans, although with some modifications it might. I would welcome ideas for improvement or alternate methods of simulating native supply.

Related:

Native Recruitment on Campaign

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