Supply effects the amount of resources that production facilities and military units receive. Upgrades and units must have a secure supply route to supply sources such as a military base, Supply Depot, or a settlement. The larger the base or settlement, the greater the supply it can provide to its surrounding territory. For peak production an industry must be fully supplied (i.e., 100%).
Supply is distributed by your Infrastructure, especially by your roads and railroads. By looking at the supply model (Hotkey S), you will notice that highways and railroads are more deeply colored than the surrounding territory. This is because they function like arteries in distributing supply. Highways and railroads are equally effective in supply distribution. Roads are more expensive but offer larger movement bonuses to your units.
Supplies can also be transported to units isolated from your supply chain via air transport planes, supply trucks and transport ships. These transport units must be loaded from well- supplied hexes within your supply chain. Large transport ships can take a very long time to fully load.
The effectiveness of your roads and railroads at distributing supply depends upon your regions's level of Infrastructure funding, which can be adjusted from the "Financial/Social Spending" sub-panel.
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*The SR2020 DEFAULT.UNITS data file contains two different entries for both "City" and "Town". Unit numbers 21001 and 21002 (Town and City) are assumed to be obsolete.
To build an upgrade (base, plant, fab or complex) in an empty hex, the hex must be "in supply". Hexes with zero supply cannot be build upon.
The only exception is that Engineering units are able to build Air Strips, Sea Piers, Supply Depots and Emplacements in out-of-supply areas. Having multiple engineering units acting together will increase construction speed somewhat. The Engineering unit must first construct a Military Complex or Military Fortress before proceeding with the construction of the base structure itself.
The speed at which new upgrades are completed - their build time, is proportional to the level of supply at the construction site. For example, in an area at 45% supply, a new Industrial Complex and an accompanying Industrial Goods plant might take 83 days, while in an area at a 90% supply level it might pnly take 63 days. Building on a hex with very little or no supply may be close to impossible. This is especially true of roads, which can be completed much faster near supply sources than in remote regions.
The amount of goods or resources that an upgrade can produce is directly perportional to the level of supply available to the plant's hex. Plants, mines and oil facilities can only produce at 100% if their hexes are 100% supplied, and this is difficult to accomplish. Military Fortresses and supplemental Supply Depots are commonly constructed to boost the supply level of critical production facilities such as uranium mines and oil/gas fields, or other plants located in remote areas.
When a unit captures a hex, the hex doesn't provide supply right away; the supply level needs time to build up. At least a day is needed to build any level of supply. Units consume fuel when they move and supplies when they fire on enemy units. While they are in un-supplied territory, units utilize the internal fuel and supplies that they carry with them. If they are not resupplied they will eventually run out and become stranded and helpless.
The speed at which your units re-stock their supplies is directly proportional to the supply level of the hex that they are located in. To assure that your units are resupplied as quickly as possible when near the battleline, keep them near a highway or railroad. Assure that your Finance Minister has its Infrastructure Social Spending fully funded.
Capturing enemy supply sources such as cities and military bases using air-borne assaults (parachute-drops) or sea-borne invasions will quickly create stable, self-sustaiing sources of supply.
When a unit runs out of supplies, it becomes unable to fire and its morale may lower (unconfirmed). If it is out of "Fuel" (petroleum), it will be unable to move as well. Units that run out of "Supplies" (ammunition) are obviously very vulnerable, since they are unable to defend themselves. A common tactic employed by both human players and AIs is to move behind units to cut off their supply. When a unit is out of supply or nearly out, its normally green "health" bar will begin to turn red.
Units vary in their rate of fuel and supply consumption. The player can judge these characteristics by checking the unit's "Fuel", Supplies", "Move Range" and "Combat Time" statistics on the Unit's Technical Readout window. "Supplies" are actually ammunition supplies. "Combat Time" represents the number of game hours in which the unit will consume its ammunition "Supplies" if in continuous combat.
Some of the heavier units, such as artillery and tanks, can quickly run out of supply or fuel in enemy territory. Tanks in particular use a great deal of fuel, expecially in rough terrain.
This can be exasperating to the player. Some technologies increase ammunition consumption, such as Metal-Storm and the very popular increased-range ERFB-BB Ammunition technology. Lighter units such as Light Infantry and LAVs/VABs use less supplies and can usually operate longer without supply, but this depends also on the amount of supplies and fuel they actually carry. An armored unit such as the VAB can actually move further over un-supplied territory than a light infantry unit because it carries almost twice as much fuel but with very similar consumption rates.
Supply trucks, transport aircraft and supply/transport ships that have spare cargo capacity can be used to resupply other units. When you move such unit into the hex nearby another unit that needs to be resupplied the supplies will automatically transfer from the transport to the depleated unit. To restock the truck or cargo aircraft, move it back to a supplied hex.
Supplies cannot be transferred from one transport unit to another. Transport units that are themselves transported will lose their supplies. For instance if you air-drop an airborne supply truck, when the truck lands in enemy territory it will not contain any supplies.