The Macabees
28-01-2005, 22:48
OOC: First one of these I've done...but, it differs from the last in the way that the last one kinda yelled at everyone for unrealistic military operations..this one talks more about...logistics.
__________________________
Throughout history logistics has been the driving force behind all armies, great and small, famous and infamous. Alexander the Great could not have conquered the known world without logistics, and Napoleon couldn't have terrorized Europe without logistics, and consequently, just as is impacts the real world logistics, and the problems that are attached to it, concern the World at War just as much. So, this text is offered to all world at war players in order to explain, as best as possible, what logistics are in a fully professional manner.
Napoleon is quoted to say, "An army marches on its stomach," and he is not far from the truth. Every single person who marches with your army, wether a front line soldier, a combat engineer or a measly cook must be fed, at the very least a single meal a day. For those that wish for one hundred percent combat effectiveness this number rises to just around three meals a day. Just as humans eat food vehicles eat gasoline, and so they too must be periodically resupplied with the essentials to run. So, it becomes an early realization that an uninturrupted stream of essential supplies is absolutely necessary during both peace and war. Failure to do so will seal the fate of your army, and doom its success. A list of essential needs of an army are: Rations, water, petroleum, spare parts to armaments, new uniforms, pay, etc, etc.
So, the next question is obvious. How do you ensure this constant flow of goods and services? Well, good luck finding the answer - the geniuses of war throughout history have spent their lives looking for it, and failed. However, their are ways to improve it and give it just about 97% effeciency. For example, when Alexander the Great was returning from the Indus Valley he used naval vessels to run along the coast, port to port, supplying his army by sea - although it didn't work too well as he lost the majority of his army crossing the desert - during the past two thousand years human beings have improved on ship designs and such an idea would most likely succeed nowadays. The most straightforward way of making sure your army does not suffer shortages during combat is to make sure your rear is always clear and open. To ensure this you must be able to always keep your lines closed, or else an enemy armored, or mechanized, force could easily roll into the rear echelon and ruin your front line's day. You also want to make sure that when you're in enemy territory to keep a security force to supress any attempted raids, ambushes, or general insurrections against your logistical highways. Other ways is to armor your logistical trucks and other vehicles and arm the men on them so they can defend themselves - however, this is both expensive and excessive. Furthermore, you need to make sure you use good roads, and you must have alternative routes, such as railways or by air. All of them suffer their own disadvantages, but a coalition of all of them might just work.
Now, realistically, taking in mind logistical problems, what's a realistic number for your military? Well, in times of total war, meaning a complete draft - as in you're about to get your ass kicked and you need men fast - 5% is the absolute maximum you should go - anything else you'll have so many men in the military your economy won't be able to supply them even in total war. For anything other than that it's pretty much of to you and how much money you want to spend for your war. Most nations use 1% to 2% of their total population for peace time/normal war circumstances.
Now, 2% of your population doesn't mean that all of those are front line troops. Included in that percentage are logistical personnel - meaning, engineers, cooks, janitors, drivers, etc - and realistically the front line personnel to logistical personnel ratio is anywhere from 1:7 to 1:11, however, for all intents and purposes on this RolePlay a ratio is 1:7 is sufficient and is advised - most of the better RolePlayers use this as their logistical ratio. Some claim that the United States has a ratio of 1:4. Until Agnosticium personally tells me that number is correct I won't buy it, so don't count on passing with that.
Now, just as important, your logistical personnel require logistics too. Yea, it's a pain in the butt having so much logistics - logistics, logistics, logistics - but, if you plan to have any sort of success you better count on logistics. So, in short, those truck drivers also require some kibbles and bits, so take that into account also. Additionally, the trucks you use to supply your armies require gasoline also, so that's also a major concern for logistics.
If you want to look truly proffessional in your writings always include logistics with utmost precision and the most accurate degree of detail in order to make sure your enemy knows you mean business and have a legitimate logistical system to get you to his capital. Meaning, if you fire two thousand missiles explain why and how - this saves later confusion and a lot of unecessary out of character bickering. So, solve the problem before it comes up.
Important logistical cases that some people tend not to pay attention to are amphibious landings, offensive operations into enemy territory, and aerial operations. All of these require a bit more than normal combat operations and this must be explained in detail.
Amphibious Operations
At a certain point in a war you may want to assault an enemy coastline, as it is your only offensive option at the given time, and consequently you're provided with a stretch of beach, and some landing craft. In all respects amphibious operations require you to ship your soldiers to sea and to the general area, which provide you with two logistical situations, the resupply at sea, and the twofold complication of supplying your men on land. Both of these will be dealt with in the following paragraphs in as much detail as my poor brain can stand - I do get tired of writing these you know.
Supply at sea is not as easy as you think. It's not as simple as driving to the line and dropping off some crates or having a big jumbo military jet paradrop boxes full of equipment and supplies. What is required are supply ships, which should not have to shuffle between your fleet in a continous stream, less they suffer horrible casualties at the hands of enemy raiders. It does require, though, that your fleet starts out from port with sufficient logistical vessels to carry what you're going to need for the upcoming operations, and to guestimate that you're going to need to actually sit down and plan out your strategy instead of typing it out of your ass - meaning, you're going to have to measure the distance between you and your enemy, the number of days you think your fleet will be in combat operations before enemy ports are captured, and the number of ships and men your fleet contains. All of these are relatively easy and should be dealt with in a hefty explenation in your first post. Sometimes, though, plans go awry and you're forced to swifty change to plan B. When plan B comes up you're probably going to need to organize large shipping convoys that sail in groups to your fleet with the resources necessary, and this may mean that you're going to have to set up multiple convoys and that convoys are going to have to sail back and forth as fast as possible. To ensure this the same basic rules as in ground operations apply, you want to keep your rear open, and you want to assign security forces to your convoys - that's why they sail in convoys.
Now, once your men start landing on the beaches you're presented with two different logistical scenarios - the fleet logistics and the ground logistics. Once your men are in combat operations they're going to need up to two or ten times the amount of goods as before, as they're going to be moving around quite frequently, even if you're not exactly advancing. Shuffling forces from one side of the front to the other requires fuel and food, and that fuel and food don't grow on trees - well the food does, but I doubt there are a lot of cherry trees on a beach. Additionally, your men don't secure sporadic supply dumbs when they first land like in Battlefield 1942 - those simply don't exist because I guess one day a general said, "Hmph, every time they land on the beach they take that damn supply dumb." Yea, damn that general, I know. Because of him you're forced to ferries supplies from the fleet to the beach - so the same rules apply... keep your rear open and assign security forces - again, men eat food - or if you're really, really, lucky your men will eat dirt.
Offensive Operations
When you enter enemy territory the enemy population rarely welcomes you as their new king, and gives you a golden crown hoping that they can give you a lap dance and return home without further ado. They normally raise arms and fire a couple of thousand shells into your army until you kill them. So, quickly put, when your army occupies towns and cities you're going to get a lot of insurrection and partisan action, which is going to danger your logistical supply routes, perhaps mortally.
For example, Soviet partisans were the main reason why the Werhmacht was unable to made quick advances along long axis, and was one of the major causes for the eventual German defeat. Tanks without spare parts aren't happy tanks, and unhappy tanks don't win wars.
That's pretty much it for this topic. Ah yes, one more thing. Roads in enemy countries aren't your roads, and sometimes your roads might be better than theirs - meaning, your trucks are accostumed to run on concrete, not on concrete with potholes, or sometimes concrete with big mines in it, and other times just mud and dirt. So, keep that in mind.
Aerial Operations
Look guys an aircraft with a ten thousand mile range doesn't mean it can go ten thousand miles straight, it means it can go five thousand miles, and then turn back. So keep that in mind when you go launch planes to bomb halfway accross the world. Also, aircraft require to be refueled, pilots also eat and planes also get pretty banged up. So that's that.
Maintaining Forces
I've noticed that nations have a tendency to have batches of different classes of ordnance for the same type - such as having an Arleigh Burke AEGIS Cruiser and also having a Russian class Cruiser, or an older American class Cruiser. I severely suggest against this, as this forces said nation to provide spare parts for all three different type of weapons - meaning, there's going to be mix ups most likely and you're going to be wasting money trying to produce three things, when you're much better off simply mass producing one. Therefore, I sugggest you standardize your equipment - as in, have one type of MBT, not five, have one type of carrier. That way, when you have to deliver spare parts your logistical personnel in the back only have to worry about one type, so it makes things easier for them, and consequently, makes logistics faster and much more fluid.
If you have trouble standardizing your equipment because you're afraid that only having one type of battleship means that its weaknesses aren't going to be made up by another then make your own equipment incorporated the strengths of both kinds - although the idea of such a thing is plain silly. Nonetheless, choose one, if you don't like either make your own.
-Macabees out
__________________________
Throughout history logistics has been the driving force behind all armies, great and small, famous and infamous. Alexander the Great could not have conquered the known world without logistics, and Napoleon couldn't have terrorized Europe without logistics, and consequently, just as is impacts the real world logistics, and the problems that are attached to it, concern the World at War just as much. So, this text is offered to all world at war players in order to explain, as best as possible, what logistics are in a fully professional manner.
Napoleon is quoted to say, "An army marches on its stomach," and he is not far from the truth. Every single person who marches with your army, wether a front line soldier, a combat engineer or a measly cook must be fed, at the very least a single meal a day. For those that wish for one hundred percent combat effectiveness this number rises to just around three meals a day. Just as humans eat food vehicles eat gasoline, and so they too must be periodically resupplied with the essentials to run. So, it becomes an early realization that an uninturrupted stream of essential supplies is absolutely necessary during both peace and war. Failure to do so will seal the fate of your army, and doom its success. A list of essential needs of an army are: Rations, water, petroleum, spare parts to armaments, new uniforms, pay, etc, etc.
So, the next question is obvious. How do you ensure this constant flow of goods and services? Well, good luck finding the answer - the geniuses of war throughout history have spent their lives looking for it, and failed. However, their are ways to improve it and give it just about 97% effeciency. For example, when Alexander the Great was returning from the Indus Valley he used naval vessels to run along the coast, port to port, supplying his army by sea - although it didn't work too well as he lost the majority of his army crossing the desert - during the past two thousand years human beings have improved on ship designs and such an idea would most likely succeed nowadays. The most straightforward way of making sure your army does not suffer shortages during combat is to make sure your rear is always clear and open. To ensure this you must be able to always keep your lines closed, or else an enemy armored, or mechanized, force could easily roll into the rear echelon and ruin your front line's day. You also want to make sure that when you're in enemy territory to keep a security force to supress any attempted raids, ambushes, or general insurrections against your logistical highways. Other ways is to armor your logistical trucks and other vehicles and arm the men on them so they can defend themselves - however, this is both expensive and excessive. Furthermore, you need to make sure you use good roads, and you must have alternative routes, such as railways or by air. All of them suffer their own disadvantages, but a coalition of all of them might just work.
Now, realistically, taking in mind logistical problems, what's a realistic number for your military? Well, in times of total war, meaning a complete draft - as in you're about to get your ass kicked and you need men fast - 5% is the absolute maximum you should go - anything else you'll have so many men in the military your economy won't be able to supply them even in total war. For anything other than that it's pretty much of to you and how much money you want to spend for your war. Most nations use 1% to 2% of their total population for peace time/normal war circumstances.
Now, 2% of your population doesn't mean that all of those are front line troops. Included in that percentage are logistical personnel - meaning, engineers, cooks, janitors, drivers, etc - and realistically the front line personnel to logistical personnel ratio is anywhere from 1:7 to 1:11, however, for all intents and purposes on this RolePlay a ratio is 1:7 is sufficient and is advised - most of the better RolePlayers use this as their logistical ratio. Some claim that the United States has a ratio of 1:4. Until Agnosticium personally tells me that number is correct I won't buy it, so don't count on passing with that.
Now, just as important, your logistical personnel require logistics too. Yea, it's a pain in the butt having so much logistics - logistics, logistics, logistics - but, if you plan to have any sort of success you better count on logistics. So, in short, those truck drivers also require some kibbles and bits, so take that into account also. Additionally, the trucks you use to supply your armies require gasoline also, so that's also a major concern for logistics.
If you want to look truly proffessional in your writings always include logistics with utmost precision and the most accurate degree of detail in order to make sure your enemy knows you mean business and have a legitimate logistical system to get you to his capital. Meaning, if you fire two thousand missiles explain why and how - this saves later confusion and a lot of unecessary out of character bickering. So, solve the problem before it comes up.
Important logistical cases that some people tend not to pay attention to are amphibious landings, offensive operations into enemy territory, and aerial operations. All of these require a bit more than normal combat operations and this must be explained in detail.
Amphibious Operations
At a certain point in a war you may want to assault an enemy coastline, as it is your only offensive option at the given time, and consequently you're provided with a stretch of beach, and some landing craft. In all respects amphibious operations require you to ship your soldiers to sea and to the general area, which provide you with two logistical situations, the resupply at sea, and the twofold complication of supplying your men on land. Both of these will be dealt with in the following paragraphs in as much detail as my poor brain can stand - I do get tired of writing these you know.
Supply at sea is not as easy as you think. It's not as simple as driving to the line and dropping off some crates or having a big jumbo military jet paradrop boxes full of equipment and supplies. What is required are supply ships, which should not have to shuffle between your fleet in a continous stream, less they suffer horrible casualties at the hands of enemy raiders. It does require, though, that your fleet starts out from port with sufficient logistical vessels to carry what you're going to need for the upcoming operations, and to guestimate that you're going to need to actually sit down and plan out your strategy instead of typing it out of your ass - meaning, you're going to have to measure the distance between you and your enemy, the number of days you think your fleet will be in combat operations before enemy ports are captured, and the number of ships and men your fleet contains. All of these are relatively easy and should be dealt with in a hefty explenation in your first post. Sometimes, though, plans go awry and you're forced to swifty change to plan B. When plan B comes up you're probably going to need to organize large shipping convoys that sail in groups to your fleet with the resources necessary, and this may mean that you're going to have to set up multiple convoys and that convoys are going to have to sail back and forth as fast as possible. To ensure this the same basic rules as in ground operations apply, you want to keep your rear open, and you want to assign security forces to your convoys - that's why they sail in convoys.
Now, once your men start landing on the beaches you're presented with two different logistical scenarios - the fleet logistics and the ground logistics. Once your men are in combat operations they're going to need up to two or ten times the amount of goods as before, as they're going to be moving around quite frequently, even if you're not exactly advancing. Shuffling forces from one side of the front to the other requires fuel and food, and that fuel and food don't grow on trees - well the food does, but I doubt there are a lot of cherry trees on a beach. Additionally, your men don't secure sporadic supply dumbs when they first land like in Battlefield 1942 - those simply don't exist because I guess one day a general said, "Hmph, every time they land on the beach they take that damn supply dumb." Yea, damn that general, I know. Because of him you're forced to ferries supplies from the fleet to the beach - so the same rules apply... keep your rear open and assign security forces - again, men eat food - or if you're really, really, lucky your men will eat dirt.
Offensive Operations
When you enter enemy territory the enemy population rarely welcomes you as their new king, and gives you a golden crown hoping that they can give you a lap dance and return home without further ado. They normally raise arms and fire a couple of thousand shells into your army until you kill them. So, quickly put, when your army occupies towns and cities you're going to get a lot of insurrection and partisan action, which is going to danger your logistical supply routes, perhaps mortally.
For example, Soviet partisans were the main reason why the Werhmacht was unable to made quick advances along long axis, and was one of the major causes for the eventual German defeat. Tanks without spare parts aren't happy tanks, and unhappy tanks don't win wars.
That's pretty much it for this topic. Ah yes, one more thing. Roads in enemy countries aren't your roads, and sometimes your roads might be better than theirs - meaning, your trucks are accostumed to run on concrete, not on concrete with potholes, or sometimes concrete with big mines in it, and other times just mud and dirt. So, keep that in mind.
Aerial Operations
Look guys an aircraft with a ten thousand mile range doesn't mean it can go ten thousand miles straight, it means it can go five thousand miles, and then turn back. So keep that in mind when you go launch planes to bomb halfway accross the world. Also, aircraft require to be refueled, pilots also eat and planes also get pretty banged up. So that's that.
Maintaining Forces
I've noticed that nations have a tendency to have batches of different classes of ordnance for the same type - such as having an Arleigh Burke AEGIS Cruiser and also having a Russian class Cruiser, or an older American class Cruiser. I severely suggest against this, as this forces said nation to provide spare parts for all three different type of weapons - meaning, there's going to be mix ups most likely and you're going to be wasting money trying to produce three things, when you're much better off simply mass producing one. Therefore, I sugggest you standardize your equipment - as in, have one type of MBT, not five, have one type of carrier. That way, when you have to deliver spare parts your logistical personnel in the back only have to worry about one type, so it makes things easier for them, and consequently, makes logistics faster and much more fluid.
If you have trouble standardizing your equipment because you're afraid that only having one type of battleship means that its weaknesses aren't going to be made up by another then make your own equipment incorporated the strengths of both kinds - although the idea of such a thing is plain silly. Nonetheless, choose one, if you don't like either make your own.
-Macabees out