I am aware that I wrote stuff on the screen shots and am repeating some of it in the text. I first created this in order to post the picture on Discord, but then decided others might also find this useful.
How to check overall logistics
In order to look at logistics, use these buttons on the right side of the screen:
"Initial Pts" are what points you started this turn with. They are produced by truck stations and train stations. Truck points move along roads. Rail points move along rails. They use up AP for each hex moved. Once they reach a certain distance the points will decrease and disappear. We'll be ignoring that for now.
Press "T" and double click on a hex to set traffic signs. You want to block everything except pull points to all assets that are on a dead end road. That way only the needed points go there and none are wasted. You can also use signs to direct the points on junctions. We will ignore that for now.
"Used Pts" shows what points were used during the beginning of the turn for moving resources and supplies. This is affected by strategic movement of units, so check this before doing any strategic movement.
Looking at the SHQ shows you what the points were used for. You CAN change the maximum allowed for each type. You probably shouldn't. Not fulfilling all requested items is usually caused by lacking the resources requested. Missing replacements are usually caused by militia. If you consistently use more than the max allowed, you should probably upgrade your production of logistical points (aka upgrade truck/train stations)
"Current Pts" show what points are available right now for strategic movement. Using them for strat move lessens these points.
"Bottlenecks" shows you the "Current Pts" as a percentage of "Initial Pts". Use this to quickly see if there are any problems. This is affected by strategic movement, so check it before doing that. Black lines mean all available points were used. You should probably do something about that. The most dangerous black lines originate from your SHQ. Then you should probably (definitely) upgrade the truck/rail stations there.
"Preview Pts" shows you what the "Initial Pts" will be next turn. This can be affected by evil enemies cutting off roads, but otherwise will be accurate. It should immediately reflect the changes done by changing traffic signs. If you build new roads (or demolish old ones), switch to "Current Pts" and then back to "Preview Pts" to update the values. Use this (along with traffic signs) to direct the points where needed. No amount of redirection and control can alleviate the problem of missing overall logistics.
Looking at supplying units
Ok, how do we look if units can be supplied? It is VERY EASY!
First, always have "Show Op.Log" active. If you can't see the map layers, then you are looking at "Preview Pts" and have to switch to "Current Pts" to set it:
Second, with the overlay just go and look at the colors:
Various terrain costs varying amounts of AP to move supplies across. We don't have to remember the exact costs, because the overlay shows it to us. The overlay will not reflect overburdening of supply lines. So if you need 1000 logistical points of supplies, and 5 are available, the overlay will still be green. The overlay will update when building new roads or changing supply flow through usage of traffic signs, but only when you move units in such a way that they add a previously not controlled hex to your control. So first build the road, change traffic signs, then move a unit a single hex into enemy/neutral territory.
Green and yellow areas are fine for heavy fighting. Blueish might see you get in trouble with heavy fighting, but is mostly fine. Red is at the limits. Fighting will see you run out of supplies. Fuel using units will start getting stuck. However, the units will still get 100% of the food required - the penalty does not apply to that.
No color means those units will not receive any supplies - including food. This is bad but not immediately deadly (if they aren't fighting). Units generally try to keep one additional turn of food in their stockpile.
SHQ Logistics in more detail
This will start to become more complicated. I'll try and break it down. It'll still be complicated.
But the simple version is this:
Surplus resources flow from all zones to the SHQ and then the NEXT TURN they can flow from the SHQ to all zones and units.
What this means is that the stockpile in the SHQ at the end of last turn is what can be sent to and used by zones and units next turn. If you use all your fuel and metal and industrial points in your SHQ stockpile (by building lots of super cool tanks and walkers and missiles and planes), then your units will not receive any fuel and your zones will not be able to build anything next turn (unless they are self-sufficient).
So, lets look at the situation here:
If you know what you are looking at, you can immediately see that I seem to be a having a bit of trouble with my logistics and resources. You can probably even tell what my problems are. So, what are we looking at here?
Well, what happens at the beginning of each turn is the following in this order (THIS ORDER IS IMPORTANT!).
1) All zones check what they need in order to fill all production and building orders. They take as much as possible from their stockpile.
2) If the zone is missing something, it requests those resources from the SHQ.
3) The SHQ tries to fulfill all orders from its stockpile and sends them to the zones. Nothing is produced yet. This is limited by the stockpile of the SHQ, the logistical points available on the roads/rails, and the max logistical points allowed for each "phase".
4) All units request supplies from the SHQ. The SHQ attempts to fulfill those requests from its stockpile and sends as much as possible to the units. This is again limited by stockpile, available points and max usage allowed.
5) The zones use their stockpile and all resources received from the SHQ to produce/build as much as possible. All production is added to the stockpile of each individual zone.
6) The zones look at how many resources it required this turn/will require next turn. If it has more than needed every zone tries to send the surplus resources from its stockpile to the SHQ. This is again limited by stockpile, available points and max usage allowed.
7) Units ask for reinforcements from the SHQ. The SHQ tries to send as many as possible to the units. This is again limited by stockpile, available points and max usage allowed.
8) If there are left over logistical points, zones can now send resources to the SHQ, even beyond the max logistical points allowed.
9) If there are still left over logistical points, the SHQ can send additional supplies to units, even beyond the max logistical points allowed. This can NOT use resources just received this turn from zones.
10) If there are still left over logistical points, the SHQ can send additional resources to zones, even beyond the max logistical points allowed. This again can NOT use resources just received from zones this turn.
Very simple, right?
So lets go through this again:
SHQ -> Zone
This is almost always constrained by the stockpile in the SHQ being too low in order to fulfill all requests.
939 items out of 2318 requested were sent. They used 124 of 2558 truck/rail points allowed for this.
So lets walk through this and where to check this stuff:
Clicking on a zone and then the Items tab shows us (through the yellow highlighting) that the zone was missing some items (and manpower) in order to fulfill all production requirements. It requested additional resources, but only got sent a bit. A little bit of math tells us that the zone stockpile was 655-534-10+889 = 1000 metal last turn.
Well, how come the SHQ sent so little?
Our stockpile at the beginning of this turn looks great, why didn't the zones get anything?! Well, unfortunately I recruited an armored brigade last turn and had almost no metal left at the end of the turn! So only 106 were available to be sent to all zones! Only what is left at the end of the turn can be sent to zones! Where did they go?
We can check this screen here (I never used it before writing this guide, but now use it relatively often):
SHQ->Units
This is constrained by the stockpile in the SHQ being too low (after supplying zones!), units being outside of the optimal logistical range, or no logistical points being available.
So lets look at the supplies sent to units:
Again less was sent to units than requested. In this case: the SHQ stockpile was too low.
Note again, that the stockpile at the end of LAST TURN is what counts!
You can check this for all units on this VERY HELPFUL SCREEN:
This tells me just how deep in the hole I am with regards to fuel (or energy, or food, or ammo!) needs for units in total across my entire empire! This can, for example, help me decide how much more fuel to buy.
Another reason for units not receiving all supplies: A unit was outside the green supply area.
Note that this unit is almost at peak AP despite being in the red zone! Red supply zone can be FINE. Especially because they are still guaranteed to get 100% of the food needed - the penalty is only applied to all other stuff.
Zone -> SHQ
This is almost always constrained by there not being enough logistical points available on roads and stuff. Note that this comes BEFORE sending reinforcements to units! You will notice that this very often ignores the supposed limit. Also, if you ever run short of logistical points to send stuff to the SHQ, then the zones will build up their own stockpiles and continuously send as much as possible to the SHQ until that stockpile is gone! This can take a while! This is the only time I even THINK about touching the SHQ LP usage limits.
The WHAT?
The SHQ logistics limitations/LP Usage limits. I mentioned them before. They set the theoretical max LP usage for each type of LP usage.
So, the hex the SHQ was sitting in had 6396 initial logistical points.
Then we look here:
And we see that the SHQ can use 40% of that (2558) for SHQ->Zone, 40% (2559, yes the number is different) for SHQ->Unit, 20% for Zone -> SHQ and 20% for Replacements. Yes that adds up to 120%. What this means is that THEORETICALLY, if every previous step uses all allowed, units can not receive reinforcements. This situation ALMOST never happens. But it CAN happen. Then it MIGHT make sense to adjust those percentages for a turn or two. But you can EASILY destroy your entire economy by setting bad values here!
Finally, replacements
If there are logistical points left over, then units can use these to receive replacements. You will almost always be sending less replacements than requested, because militia units ask for replacements that you can't build but only hope to receive. As with the others, under Stats -> Logistical Statistics you can look at all units and what replacements they requested, received or returned.
Finally, finally if there are still logistical points left over, then the order is reversed and LP can be used beyond the LP usage limits set above. Since reinforcements RARELY use up all the remaining LP points, and Zone-> SHQ comes next after that, you will notice that very, very, very often Zone -> SHQ will be higher than the limit. Like in my screenshots.
