Welcome to Destiny of the World (DOTW) Community Update #2. As game testing and tuning continues, I'll be providing some additional information about the game while you wait for release. In this update, we will be discussing how supply works in the game. I hope you find it interesting.
Supply Design Notes
Destiny of the World (DOTW) handles supply in a very detailed manner. In many traditional wargames, a unit is considered in supply if it can trace a path to the country’s capital. In DOTW, you must produce supply and fuel for your units, and you must also physically move it to your Land and Air units. If the supply moves across an ocean, it also needs available convoy transport ships as well. Naval units use a different, simpler process described in a later section.
This document refers to both supplies and fuel for units, but for conciseness, we’ll just refer to it as supply in this document. Just remember that the same rules apply for fuel.
Land and Air Unit Supply
Because supply was such a critical factory during World War II, DOTW models supply for land and air units in quite a bit of detail. Much of this is automated for you, but it is still important to understand the process, because supply can be intercepted and captured in transit.
DOTW divides the world into the following theaters: Europe, Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, America, and Oceana. Units receive supply from a depot in their theater. As units use supply, replacements will be automatically requisitioned into a convoy from the theater depot and will be sent to the unit.
To issue a requisition, a unit must be able to trace a path back to the theater depot. Each unit also has a local depot attached to it that contains up to 4 weeks of supply. The unit draws supplies from this local depot. Thus, a unit can be out of supply for a couple of turns without ill effect, as long as its local depot has some available.
The requisitioned supplies move from the theater depot to the unit’s attached depot. Depending on how far the unit is from its depot, this can take several turns. Enemy units can intercept supply during this travel, if they move into the region it is traversing. (Note: Sea convoys must be detected by enemy ships in the convoy region, which can be affected by weather, and technology such as radar).
When supply is requisitioned from a theater depot, the theater depot will request resupply from the global depot which is located in the country’s capital. A convoy will then be created and sent from the capital to the theater depot, which can take several turns, and can also be intercepted.
Note: DOTW keeps track of where the supply is produced. When a depot is looking for supply, it will utilize supply produced in that theater first, before requesting supply from the global supply depot. To minimize travel time, and convoy usage, you should try to produce supply in the same theater the unit is operating in, whenever possible. If insufficient supply was produced locally in the theater, the theater depot will requisition a convoy to meet the shortfall from the global depot at the country’s capital.
The following diagram illustrates this process:
Naval Supply
Naval units have a much simpler supply process. Ships can carry up to 12 weeks of supply. However, they do not get resupplied while at sea. To resupply, a ship must return to a friendly port. As long as the global supply depot for the country has sufficient supplies available, this ship will be resupplied once in port.
Supply Impact
Units that lack supply have reduced combat effectiveness and will suffer attrition, and eventually destruction, if the out of supply condition persists long enough. Air units cannot operate without fuel. Armor units cannot move without fuel. Ships without fuel are limited to move one sea region per turn.
As your panzers move deep into Russia, or your D-Day forces advance through France, or your Troops try to operate on remote islands, I think you will find that you face the same issues as actual World War II commanders, in protecting your supply lines and considering supply needs in your offensive operations.