Supply - Units to keep/dispose of?

[Sirquacksalot]

So, I've read the 'Supply Management - Tips' pinned thread, and I don't want to create duplicates but it hasn't answered the questions I have.

I just finished Abiqulu and got.. well, a ton of stuff. I have the Abrams, Bradley, Stryker, APC, 2 Humvees, 4 Technicals, 2 light trailers/artys?, 1 Supply Trailer, 2 ATGM squads, 2 infantry, 2 rangers, 2 Big Rigs, 1 Armoured Container, 2 Militia, 4 Technicians, 2 Tank Drivers, 5 drivers, 4 RPG squads, 2 snipers, 1 'laser sniper's, and 1 Van, and 1 fuel truck (not trailer, but a self-driven one).

There's no indication for future missions what will be important/how many squads I can bring/will I need, etc.

Can someone give me a clear breakdown of 'You need to keep X units, you're safe to dispose of Y units, and Z units are 'at your discretion'. Also, what level of daily consumption is too high/just right? Right now with all of that, I'm at 41500/day? So like 3 days? In my general gaming-mind, I'd like to have 2 of each unit, one as the primary and one as the backup? But even that sounds like it's way too much?

Playing on Medium if that makes any difference.

[Mr.Kill]

In general try to have enough supply to reach the next mission. So if it takes 4 days to get to the next mission buy enough supplies to get to 4 days or downsize so you can make a 4 day trip. You do have more cars than you need for towing things so you can get rid of extra technical, Humvees and vans (vans let infantry shoot out of them from the sides though). The fuel truck is mostly pointless as you should refuel and rearm all units before entering the battle. Armored container can be very difficult to use but if you like firing loads of ATGMs and then loading the container with infantry that need reloads then it could be useful. In addition you can also equip the container with loads of guns at which point is basically a well-armed bunker.

As for your laser snipers, take one of the laser snipers off of them and give it to the other squad. A sharpshooter squad should only have one weapon equipped and the other left as default. This will save you the hassle of losing an important and expensive weapon should one of the two members be killed.

You also have way more technicians and drivers than you might need. Drivers cost more than technicians but get fire-rate and drive speed bonuses as potential level ups (but cannot drive tanks or helicopters ever while technicians can be upgraded to drive those vehicles). Considering selling these units (never disband as you earn more this way as its 10 goodwill for one reserves) to reduce your upkeep.

You should also consider selling any units that you aren't finding much use for. The humvees can be very hard to find a use for especially for their higher than normal maintenance costs. The styker and apc can also be hard to justify. The light platform if not converted to artillery can also be hard to justify keeping. Many people cannot get militia to work (though it helps if you give them an actual weapon instead of their default guns) so they are often times sold as well despite being one of the few dedicated anti-infantry infantry options you'll have early in the game.

Last but not least be aware that you are going to be fighting a lot of entrenched infantry in the future. Your initial priorities will be fighting waves of vehicles supported by barely effective infantry but after that it will be waves upon waves of mobile infantry supported by lightly armored but well armed vehicles. If you haven't stocked up on grenade launchers or 20mm miniguns for your bradleys you may wish to start doing that shortly after your next mission.

[zpc]

That sounds like a good starting army =) The two "light trailers" should have howitzers - everything else is of little use.

Later on, you likely will add more Bradleys (as they are the most versatile unit), a heavy defense platform (or artillery), some special infantery units (e.g. Guerilla / Mercenaries / Rocketeers) and lots of engineers* / drivers. Oh and some air units (heli). At some points more logistic units make sense, too.

*having a lot of drivers ensures that you can loot all vehicles you either disable or are derelicts. Those are your primary trading goods - and it really hurts to leave something behind just because no one can drive -.-.

There is a progression table somewhere handed by the devs - but roughly: your current maintenance increase by 10k/d for each mission solved.

[Mr.Kill]

Originally posted by zpc:

*having a lot of drivers ensures that you can loot all vehicles you either disable or are derelicts. Those are your primary trading goods - and it really hurts to leave something behind just because no one can drive -.-.

That's not actually necessary. A lot of missions will give you RPG squads or sharpshooters who can also drive vehicles in a pinch. So instead of having extra drivers who won't be leveling up or fighting, its better to just have extra RPG squads or sharpshooters instead. Provided some degree of front-line unit preservation is in effect, he should have enough units to loot the map at the end. One thing I might recommend is bringing extra tractors though since its possible to have more trailers and heavy platforms for looting than you do have tractors.

[zpc]

Originally posted by Mr.Kill:

Originally posted by zpc:

*having a lot of drivers ensures that you can loot all vehicles you either disable or are derelicts. Those are your primary trading goods - and it really hurts to leave something behind just because no one can drive -.-.

That's not actually necessary. A lot of missions will give you RPG squads or sharpshooters who can also drive vehicles in a pinch. So instead of having extra drivers who won't be leveling up or fighting, its better to just have extra RPG squads or sharpshooters instead. Provided some degree of front-line unit preservation is in effect, he should have enough units to loot the map at the end. One thing I might recommend is bringing extra tractors though since its possible to have more trailers and heavy platforms for looting than you do have tractors.

I disable a lot of units - and I have a huge army (a lot of engineers). Yet I had to leave a lot of vehicles @Chihuahua despite clearing my trailers and stationary guns. I'll never fall into that trap again. ;) It really hurts to leave 10k worth of good will points behind.

[wei270]

Chihuahua is too much of a trap design in to a game it is a bit of an exception.

[Maiskolben]

Stryker is good if you have to fight against humans/clear buildings. You can bring in infantry right next to a building and protect the last approach with smoke. The minigun helps to clear randome guys and rpgs that try to flank you. Still you will probably only need either one APC or Stryker at the beginning.

You can also use a Bradley but i use it mostly for for firesupport out of range of those pesky rpgs.

[Fireball]

Most important. There is no perfect way.
I e.g. sold all light plattforms and also apc and stryker. Many like the armored trailer, I sold it. I reduced my army to half of it for first 'real' mission. I got rid of militia, which some people use as meatshield or with later weapons cause they are a lot of people.
I tried to stay slim in the beginning. Kept stuff to kill tanks and a little against infrantry. Abrams and Bradly did main work in attack parts.
Some don't use snipers, some use them for scouting. Some sell all drivers and only use mechanics/engineers.

Only thing you always can sell is the fuel truck.

So just relax and test out and after the first few missions on strategic map you will find your way and most probable start again to go the way. Just try till you go to the first cartel mission, so you get a feeling of how much ressources you will need to get there.

[SirShreds]

Originally posted by zpc:

That sounds like a good starting army =) The two "light trailers" should have howitzers - everything else is of little use.

After the first mission the light gun platforms they are speaking of don't have howitzers yet. You get the ones with the howitzer upgrade + respective gun during Albuquerque. The ones in Abiquiu are bog standard light platforms with no upgrades and no special weapon just the default 25mm. They're barely useful, since if they are in the open the enemy just one taps them while usually your platforms whiff an entire magzine, or barely scrath the enemies light armor (they're ok vs spiders but movement rockets and founders inf are just as effective and are far more survivable as a defensive unit because they can be garrisoned and can move locations for better firing angles without the need of a another paper thin vehicle putting itself in danger.

You also dont need to hold onto those original light platforms to upgrade since the next mission gives you 2 or 3 ready made ones I think. Though I'd argue against using the light howitzers at all:

1. They are not the most efficient supply wise. YOu can quickly empty a supply truck just having them firing at a handful of targets.
2. Again for the supply cost you spend tons of rounds doing something your Bradley, and Abrams can do. Light howis are mostly useful against light armor and infantry groups....so its kind of just overlap IMO.
3. The heavy artillery while significantly more expensive can demolish strong buildings with far fewer shots and from safer positions...especiially if you're selective about their targets (which you should be with either artillery piece)
4. If you REALLY want a light howitzer you can nab cartel howitzer trucks...require 1 less crew man.

[HeathenSW]

Get rid of the self-driven truck (hemtt) as soon as you leave Abiquiu. You will have PLENTY of fuel for a long while due to a lot of trucks with it on the maps for you to grab and this truck eats 2k supplies a day. Sure it's cool to have it, but that's it.
Armoured personel carrier is also obsolete instantly - on the next map you can grab one with MG slot already installed.
Light weapon platforms from Abiquiu are also not needed, yeah, since you'll get plenty of them on the next mission and they are pretty weak to tow around. Heavy weapon platforms (1-2 at best) are pretty cool tho - a mini stationary abrams basically, that can be upgraded to be powerful artillery.

Other than that everything is subjective, honestly.

For instance I like to always have single supply trailer at all times with me, since I'm paranoid about running out of ammo. I dislike stryker so I usually sell it. I don't know what to do with that many techs and try to replace them with sharpshooters/heavy weapon teams asap (to grab all that tasty loot everywhere with them), leaving like 4-6 at best (techs can be upgraded to lay mines, drive tanks and helicopters, all of which is good). Drivers are cool on something that is fast firing or slow moving, since they can make vehicles move and fire faster, while techs are cool as a smol copy of founders engineers.

[Sardonac]

I've been running on keeping abrams and bradley vehicles as the focus, using founder type infantry as support. Even with some unlucky fights you can generally rely on getting at least 2 Abrams and 4+ Bradley without issue through the midgame, so if you aim for that long term and use Strykers/APCs in the meantime that you replace with Bradley IFVs as you get them.

On the supply side I like using the hemtt vehicle as a fuel truck since it can tow a heavy artillery platform and is the same cost as running a fuel trailer and a tractor. (needing 1 less driver too) I keep a few tractors around because they let you loot the extra trailers in missions and those sell for quite a bit, and I use one to tow a second heavy artillery.

I also keep 1-2 humvee around but honestly those could probably be replaced if need be. I like that with drivers and engine upgrades they can actually be pretty fast, sometimes that's actually useful.

[Dinvan]

Steal everything from the map, sell it for good will, buy supply.

Best units to keep are the ones you like using, for me it was rangers/mercenaries, snipers/marksmen, atgm teams/rpg squads and heavy squads. I usually kept 2 of each at the beginning selling off most else and equipping the few teams i have with the best gear.
From there it was just finding and keeping tanks/artillery. I had silly amounts of technicians acting as drivers.

You can even take lots of grenade launchers to the cartel missions and get most of them to leave their vehicles. Thats how i got the artillery humvee's. 4 of them from the 2 cartel missions. After those two missions im usually at 10+ days supply with silly amounts of good will.

Even from the beginning as long as you loot EVERY thing possible and sell anything you dont want, supply never becomes and issue. By the last mission I have about 10-20 days supply with a giant army keeping most things rather than selling after tortuga.

That said the supply system is weird, considering the game already limits what you use via deployment.