Can You Spot the Missing Supplies? 5 Logi Puzzles: Bulk Shipments Edition

Many people have enjoyed "5 Logi Puzzles to Sharpen Your Instincts". 

This guide will provide a good handle on how to analyze and respond to the logistical demands of entire regions by focusing on bulk storage and transportation. 

Rule of the Game: You have 1 Flatbed with a large shipping container which allows 60 spaces. (Tech level: Field cannons for the first 3 puzzles, tanks for the 4th and 5th) What do you bring?

Remember, the solutions are "ideal" loadouts that best fit the situation for ONE trip. In actual practice, you may find it simpler to just make multiple shipments bringing a few kinds of items each trip. (Or even better yet, use freighters and player-made ports. More on that next time)

Foxcatcher Depot (War 86)

 

Foxcatcher was a very heavy frontline in War 86, and the depot served as an excellent frontline logi stockpile for the whole region. It's well defended, so there is little worry of oversupplying. The refinery in the city provides most of the bmats, so its important to check if there are public bmats in the refinery before deciding whether to bring more bmats to the town. 

Analysis: There is a good supply of shirts and utilities, and there is a deficiency is in meds, tripod weapons, and throwables. When supplying depots, we want to pre-empt demand and overcompensate for highly sought items. This includes rifles/ammo, grenades of all types, and utilities. We need to watch out for oversupplying bunker bases themselves, but there is less of that issue for a well defended storage depot. Having plenty of HE nades will make sure frontlines can push against enemy defenses or kill border bases. Ammo should be at least at a 2:3 ratio (in crates) of the weapons themselves. Shovel crates will allow for quick establishment of important bases by randoms. Tripod weapons are cheap, and there is no reason not to have ample supplies of them, as even a few can stem a major enemy offensive or support a push. RPG shells are expensive, but if you make sure at least the Foebreaker launchers themselves are available, the randoms will provide their own ammo, and provide excellent offensive PVE and defensive AT capabilities. Frags and Green Ash can obliterate an enemy Mammon rush on its tracks, and clear trenches with ease. Without shovels, there are no builders, and witthout builders a region is never really "ours". Make life easy for our engineers, and we will be rewarded.

Mountedantman's Solution:

4x First Aid Kits
4x Trauma Kits
6x Tripods
6x 7.62mm
3x Ratcatchers
3x Foebreakers
10x Mammons
4x Fiddler Smg
6x 9mm
4x Green Ash
3x Frags
3x Shovels
3x Stickies

Port of Rime Seaport. (War 86)

POR offers easy access from backline logi hubs using freighters, and it's recommended using them for such midline seaports because it can transport 5 containers at a time. From POR, you can even send a freighter to Axehead seaport in Godscroft, should the need arise. However, there were also many pirates in the nearby waters in War 86, so land-based logi can sometimes be the only option. A midline stockpile can have as much supplies as you can afford to put in it, since there is very low chance of it being lost before they are all used up. 100 crates is the maximum for most types of supplies (300 for bmats), so consider creating overflow stockpiles in such cases. 

Analysis: Utilities are very important for midline stockpiles because this is where many combat vehicle operations are staged. Clans will often transport their armored vehicles here in crates to unpack and equip their crew. Hence, radios, binos, wrenches, gas masks, filters, and bmats should always be in good supply. Midline stockpiles are also used by standard logi to pull supplies when frontline stockpiles are dry. Ideally we want to keep a carbon copy of frontline stockpiles (Foxcatcher in this case), to serve as a secondary source of public supplies for frontline logimen. The POR stockpile currently lacks all types of grenades, full-auto small arms, tripod weapons/ammo, and shells. Normally we expect 40mm to be provided by the people bringing their own vehicles/cannon, but we see there is a Wolfhound 40mm cannon in public.We can provide just a couple crates of 40mm to that stockpile to make the job easier for anyone who wishes to take that cannon out for a PVE operation. 30mm is not used by any Warden weapons at this stage of the war, but always have some on hand in case the Colonial Dauscus ISG is captured in the frontlines, which happens quite often, and makes a big difference when the ammo is available.

Mountedantman's Solution:

3x Shovels
6x Tripods
3x Ratcatcher
3x Foebreaker
4x Frags
12x Mammons
4x Stickies
4x Green Ash
4x Fiddler smg
7x 9mm
6x Bayonets
2x 40mm
2x 30mm

Blackwatch Depot. (War 86)

Blackwatch depot only supplies the town of Blackwatch itself, since if you wanted to supply the other regions, it's more efficient to grab it from Axehead and use a logi truck. Since Blackwatch itself is a dangerous front, it's important not to oversupply it, while still making sure it has the bare esssentials, and enough ordanance to make a push. It may be better to put the shirts inside the town hall or nearby BB itself than the depot, because pulling shirts out of the public depot stockpile takes incredibly long. 

Analysis: There is 1 public cutler launcher crate, so we can complement that with just a couple RPG shell crates. 12.7mm is missing even though there are ratcatcher MGs. 7.92mm is essential because they are used by armored cars. 2 Wolfhound FC are in the stockpile, so we can buff their presence with 40mm that can be used to push the front, expecting 2 crates of ammo per cannon.

Mountedantman's Solution

6x Shirts
4x 12.7mm
3x Shovels
3x Wrenches
3x Stickies
3x RPG shells
2x Tripods
4x Fiddler smg
7x 9mm
3x Bayonets
3x 40mm
1x 30mm
2x First Aid Kit
2x Trauma Kit
2x Bandages
3x Loughcasters
3x Binoculars
4x 7.62mm
1x Bayonets
2x Foebreakers

Thunderfoot Seaport (War 87)

Tough fighting rages on across Umbral Wildwoods, and many towns exchange hands frequently. Wardens have made it their goal to heavily fortify and hold onto Thunderfoot at all costs, and for a good reasion: its seaport allows the whole hex to withstand a seige even if logi lines are cut for a long period of time, provided it is well stocked. In this situation, think about how to best help the defenders survive the night, even after you log off. They will need plenty of all types of basic supplies, as well as essential utlities that they may never get from anywhere else for hours. Your shipment can mean the difference between the survival or devastation of the entire hex by the time you wake up tomorrow morning. Thunderfoot is missing so much, and we must be economical with our choices and quanities of supplies we choose to bring.

Analysis: The fastest to run out on any beleagured frontline would be shirts, bmats, and small arms, in that order. Luckily there is an ample amount of shirts and bmats stocked already, so you can focus on small arms and missing utilities and ordanance. It will be wise to buff the existing reserve of rifles and 7.62mm, diversify the arsenal with smgs, and make use of the existing 11 crates of .45 ammo with some revolvers. No frontline can reasonably push back without mammons. The large amount of ATRs will help against armor, so only a little bit of stickies are needed. As a rule of thumb, when tanks are unlocked, double the amount of AT weapons you usually supply in the frontlines. Also missing are binos, which are needed for spotting for arty, radios to counter enemy partisans and get more logi, and also frags and green ash would greatly help push enemy infantry out of their hiding holes. There is 12.7mm and rpg shells but not many ratcatchers and foebreakers. Since a single light arty gun is available, even a small amount of 120mm will be a nice option for defenders to defend themselves with. All the medical supplies are available except the bandage. This is unsurprising because bandages are always gone first due to being able to be used by infantrymen as well as medics. Always make sure there are more bandages than other types of medical supplies.

Mountedantman's Solution:

3x Loughcaster rifles
2x Blakerow carbines
6x 7.62mm
4x Fiddler SMG
5x 9mm
3x revolvers
7x Mammons
3x stickies
3x Green Ash
2x Frag grenades
5x gas masks
4x radios
4x binoculars
4x bandages
2x Ratcatchers
1x Foebreakers
2x Bayonets

Brodytown Depot (War 87)

Reaching Trail has been one of the most volatile fronts of War 87. The sheer amount of territory that needed to be held despite to lack of good defensive rocks or suitable terrain made it untenable without large expenditure of resources. The entire hex served as a huge buffer zone for both sides, with a large no man's land and becoming a proving ground (and graveyard) for countless tank operations. Ultimately, it fell upon a faction's ability to keep the front supplied with the basics, that decided who controlled this region. At the same time, you don't want to oversupply a potentially vulnerable depot such as Brodytown in this situation. Keep it efficient and diversified.

Analysis: The region by nature has high demand for bmats. You know a region is bmat-thirsty if there is a lot of undefended terrain that could be built up, if only the engineers had enough to work with. Regions with lot of natural defenses (rivers, mountains) tend to be able to hold more lan with less bmats, but places like Umbral Wildwoods and Reaching Trail are designed to be difficult to hold even with a fair amount of defenses. There will be more shirts needed, but 9 is better than nothing. There are no small arms which is a big and easily solvable problem. Utilities are lacking, as well as grenades, AT weapons, and medical supplies. AT rifles are incrediblly resource efficient and newb friendly, costing only bmats for gun and ammo, so take advantage of this. The one FAT can become useful even with a small amount of 68mm, so if you have any saved up, this is the time to spare a few crates. The large stock of RPG shells probably won't be used by the 2 crates of cutler launchers, so add a few Foebreakers to the mix. Finally, A crate of ratcatchers will balance out the existing 12.7mm and tripod crates. 

Mountedantman's Solution:

4x Loughcaster Rifles
3x Blakerow Carbines
8x 7.62mm
4x Fiddler SMG
5x 9mm
3x Stickies
3x ATRs
4x 20mm
5x Mammons
2x Green Ash
3x Gas Masks
3x Radios
3x Binos
2x 68mm
1x Ratcatchers
3x Foebreakers
2x Frag Grenades
2x Bayonets

The Foxhole nutritionist prescribes an abundance of protein (bmats), steady flow of carbohydrates (shirts, small arms, ordanance), and trace amounts of vitamins (utilities) sprinkled in to sustain a healthy frontline. Even without fancy tanks or fireworks, as long as you strengthen the fundamentals, the war and the faction will forever be in your favor.