Food consumption question

[L0ckAndL0ad]

I'm playing on a small moon/regular difficulty. Started with release version, now patched to beta.

Situation:
I have 252 food in SHQ reserve. Two food Assets produce 110 and 54 food. I have no regular army units, only militia (and their food is handled separately, right?). Zone consumption says my workers consume 64 food.

That's: 252+110+58-64 = 356. But next turn I have 305 food in reserve.

Okay, I have 1300 recruits in reserve. If I understand correctly, they consume additional 13 food. Where else does the food go? I have no ground units but militia.

PS. Note to Vic.
Currently there's no way to disable production of free recruits by Mercenary Camp (+300). That results in you having to pay for their food. Or am I missing something?

[Jdane]

You have to supply militia units with food from your regime's stockpiles.

I see your point regarding the recruits from the Mercenary Camp. Worst case scenario, you can always turn them back into population if you'd rather have the private sector carry the burden of feeding them. [:D]

[L0ckAndL0ad]

Yes, alright, if I pay for militia food, then it checks out. But the manual says:

5.10.1. Non-Regular Units
These are usually not under your complete control. If they are, you can
move them around, but their Replacement Troops and Supply Items will be
autonomously delivered to your SHQs.

Also the "Zone items bottom tab" displays food "delivered by Zone Militia" in Production section.

This is super confusing.

[Jdane]

I concur. This bit on the Items tab had me confused too, although I was not familiar with that part of the manual.

Looking at the numbers, I'm now very tempted to conclude that this Zone Militia entity is the very same that generates troops for the militia units and that it somehow sources food from the private sector that adds up to the Agricultural Dome's and Farming Dome's production to make up the total of public food available that turn.

That would explain at least part of the Supply Items autonomously delivered to the SHQ (via the zone).

Hopefully somebody could clarify this for us.