Supply wagons and pack animals

[martin goddard]

These items are very important to the supply of an army.
Probably not so important to fight with.
Do you depict these on the battlefield for looking good or do you give them  an in game  task?

This might include pack camels, pack mules, bearers (Gunga din carrying water), carts and wagons.

Peter Pig make these items and they do sell quite well.

martin

[Martin Smith]

These items are very important to the supply of an army.
Probably not so important to fight with.
Do you depict these on the battlefield for looking good or do you give them  an in game  task?

This might include pack camels, pack mules, bearers (Gunga din carrying water), carts and wagons.

Peter Pig make these items and they do sell quite well.

martin

I use them as objectives in some games, and as camp elements in others.

[Colonel Kilgore]

I like the PP games that include such things. For example,the optional Liabilities in Western.

Simon

[Leman (Andy)]

I use wagons and pack animals in wagon convoy scenarios, e.g TYW, SYW, ACW.I also use farm animals, eg. goats, in Dark Age raid scenarios. In smaller scale games I use wagons and limbers to depict supply areas, to which troops retire to replenish ammo etc.

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I'm with Leman and Martin S, they add local colour and can make useful objectives in scenarios.
I have mule teams as well as ACW mule wagons for gunrunning scenarios and supplying my Revolutionistas for Mex Rev.
I have various animals both farmyard and feral for both Mex Rev and WotR
Wagons for revenue and convoy ambush scenarios in my WoTR.
Pack camels and mules for my AK47 as well as Wild Asses and camels.
Russian horse, ox and mule drawn gun limbers for my various RCW armies.
I'm currently working on multiple ox teams and ox drawn limbers for my Late c18 Indian armies. The rules don't call for it but it illustrates the difference between heavy guns, battalion guns, horse artillery and gallopers and clutters the battlefield.

Neil

[martin goddard]

The transports do indeed make a table look better I think.


martin

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I agree Martin,
And it makes you think of the sheer effort needed for an army to get from A to B.
To get a single artillery piece in the field required a team of 6-8 horses and another 6-8 to pull a limber/caisson plus additional outriders etc. A single 6 gun field or horse battery needed almost 100 horses to operate.
A seminal work for me was D W Engels, Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army (1980)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexander-Great-Logistics-Macedonian-Army/dp/0520042727
Positing the exhaustive research needed to cross Asia to ensure there was adequate forage and supplies for the army as well as the mechanics of moving so many troops. And that was for a pre-gunpowder era army.
Almost approaching the Secret Policeman's Ball sketch stating you had to get up 6 hours before going to bed!
John Lynn (Ed.) Feeding Mars: Logistics in Western Warfare from the Middle Ages to the Present (1994) is another good read.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feeding-Mars-Logistics-Western-Warfare/dp/0813318653

Compared to all that having some roaming goats and sheep and a cart on the table seems small potatoes by comparison

Neil
 

[Leman (Andy)]

Well why not, when a couple of dozen figures represent a battalion of several hundred.