The Supply Post is a type of commercial building in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
A supply post has all the purely military equipment needed to keep an army effective in the field.
An army marches only because the bellies of the soldiers and horses are full and their feet are properly shod. A supply post exists to keep supplies flowing into an army, all the military necessities that cannot be taken from the enemy's lands for foraging. This is the responsibility of the commissariats, although many field officers would argue that their only mission in life is keeping their account books in order!
The great soldier-king, Frederick the Great of Prussia, entirely grasped the need for a properly organised system of supplies for his campaigns in Silesia. His rigid tactical system was almost obsolete by the Napoleonic period: indeed, the Prussian army suffered dreadfully for keeping to it when facing French armies. His supply methods, however, including the creation of extensive supply dumps along lines of advance, were a triumph that every general would have done well to study.
General Information[]
Supply postsmoderately increase the replenishment rate of regions they are built in. They grant the largest increase to replenishment rate out of all starting structures, making them particularly useful buildings when built in regions near hostile factions. In the early game, where replenishment rates are very slow due to the lack of buildings and technologies boosting replenishment, even an 8% boost to replenishment may prove crucial. For all factions outside of France, default replenishment rate is 4%, so building just one supply post effectively triples replenishment rates. Supply posts are conversely less useful in the long term, where multiple other sources of replenishment can make them redundant. They may be upgraded to supply warehouses, which grant a larger bonus to replenishment rates.
Supply posts, and their counterparts, occupy the same building spots as markets. As markets make money and supply posts do not, supply posts are usually only best placed in regions where fighting is common and armies can rest, while regions far from fighting benefit much more from the wealth markets provide.
The Peninsular Campaign[]
In The Peninsular Campaign, supply posts require 200 gold and 2 turns to build.
Trivia[]
- The description mentions Frederick the Great of Prussia as the "soldier-king". However, it was his father (Frederick William I) that was most commonly known by this nickname.