Thread by @EdPaintsKrieg

You asked, so here it is. A nerdy thread on #AstraMilitarum logistics in the #Warhammer40K universe - a side project of mine. Mixes background with my own experiences as a staffer and reading as a historian. Many guesses and assumptions. Collar tabs must be this red to enter.

This all started with a spreadsheet that lists each company type's supply requirement, how much it weighs, and how long it takes to use up. e.g. a gasmask canister weights 2kg, needs replacing every 10 days, so you need 200g of gasmask canisters/person/day.

There's three consumption figures - one for static, one for defensive ops, one for attack. Eg. a standard ten-platoon #Krieg infantry company needs 4,500kg of supplies/day when static, rising to 33,000kg when attacking.

For a tank company, those figures are 1,300kg static (much lower, because there are only ~70 soldiers rather than 700+), but rise to 56,000kg when attacking, mainly due to fuel and heavy weapons ammo.

First consideration - Guard units don't need small arms ammunition, lasguns charge themselves. This is massive, since IRL small arms are the hardest to plan for. In some massive day-long engagements you can fire barely 2-300 rounds and let heavy weapons do the work.

Other times you can burn through ten magazines in half an hour if it's very intense and close-up. For infantry companies, where number of lasguns is high, this reduces the supply burden by about 45%.

Using the ORBATs given in the Siege of Vraks books, companies tend to have between 1 and 4 Trojans (I've had to fill in a lot of blanks, but that's about average for companies of all types).

Haulage capacity estimated, but that is usually fine for supplying a company in static ops - e.g. an infantry coy needs 9 Trojan-loads of supplies per day.

Infantry coys have 3 Trojans - probably enough for each one to do four runs per day, allowing for breakdowns and combat loss. However in offensive ops, that rises to about 67 - clearly too much for three Trojans.

This is where a Staff Korps needs to be invented to fill the gap, and where my manual comes in. Regiments, korps and armies have staffs appropriate to their size - e.g. korps logistics staff has 180 Trojans, with crew, under a Lt Col, reporting to the Korps General.

Assuming a regiment has 20 line companies, and that no more than half would be actually attacking at any one time, this would be plenty. On top of that, the Army staff also has a logistics dept of its own, with even more reserve Trojans.

Takeaway? Nothing that affects the tabletop, this is all for fun. But when I play a game, it's nice to know the CO has allocated me 2-3 Trojan runs to resupply the water, food, grenades, helmets, shovels, utility knives, grenade belt clips, lasgun straps etc etc that I'll use up.

I've modelled a Trojan for my #Krieg company, and am eagerly awaiting the day someone asks "what's that crane tank for?" and I can recite this entire thread at Gilbert-and-Sullivan speed. One day I'll perfect the Staff Manual and make it available for download.