Supply affects the amount of resources that industries and units receive. Upgrades and units must have a friendly-held route to a military base, supply depot, or city. The larger the base or city, the greater supply it can provide to the surrounding territory. For peak production, an industry must be in full supply (i.e., 100%).
Supply is amplified by highways and railroads. Looking at the supply model (Hotkey S), one may notice that highways and railroads are more opaque than the surrounding territory, as they function like arteries in distributing supply. Highways are more effective than railroads in amplifying supply, and offer movement bonuses to units as well. The effectiveness of these highways and railroads is affected by a region’s level of Infrastructure funding, which can be found in the Interior panel.
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100% = 1.0 Hexes = plots = tiles
Generally supply spreads over an area surrounding "supply centers". These can be cities, industrial or military complexes or special buildings. There is a maximum range to which supply spreads. If any hex is within range, it get's its supply from this "supply center", but the supply level will be lower the greater the range to the supply center. If it is within range of more then 1 supply center, let's say 3, it gets the highest value
Example:
This hex will determine the highest supply it can get is 0.65, so you supply level will show 65%
Following objects can be added to any of the 'Base Objects', but only once they add to supply. This means, even if you were able to put 2 Air Bases and 2 Sea Ports on any hex, you'd still have only 0.4 added to your supply level
Following objects can be stacked on top of anything up to 100%(1.0)
I'm not sure if the barracks are a bug or something. Especially since their -0.4 only has effect if you build them before your supply levels are up (they kinda prevent them going up) but once your supply levels on a hex are up, you can place them and the supply level remains on it's high value (as if the barrack has a 0.0 effect)
This information comes from a user named: "bvb" link: http://www.bgforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=19303 Little information I couldn't verify, and updated with my own observations
If any information provided here is incorrect please update the information for future readers. If you want to update these values, keep in mind supply levels are not raised instantly.
I used the cheat 'breakground' to instantly place those objects for testing purposes
Obviously there is some supply more then should be 0.3 + 0.4 = 0.7 and not 0.76
If you wish all your hexes to have 90% supply level the minimum. You might start with giving your Capital an Air Base so it gets 100% supply. You then go to the closest tile getting 80% and place enough supply objects on it to get 100%. In the middle between those 2 you'll get something around 90% (maybe 1 or 2 less or more) and spread your supply like this. Remember, if you do this while infrastructure level/spending is lower then 100%, if you later in the game increase your infrastructure spending, the supply will gradually increase. Getting 100% everywhere is possible only in theory:"You'd have to place supply centers virtually every single hex" Since funding everything in the beginning is pretty tough, you might want to create 100% supply centers every distance from your capital where you'd have a supply of 60% from your capital, it means all tiles will be around 80 or higher. Air Bases and Sea Ports are IMHO the best option to start with to spread supply, as they give the same supply level as 2 supply centers, but take less soldiers to maintain them. The difference is money is not that big to be of our concern.
To build an upgrade, the hex it would be in has to be in supply. On ground hexes, this can be a rare problem in some isolated lands such as South West Australia's desert and, more commonly, on newly captured territory that has not built supply yet. On water hexes, many players forget the need for a sea base or pier. Not only do you need this during construction, but you need it to continue operating upgrades (oil derricks) and units.
The exception to needing supply in a hex is that Engineering units are able to build Air Strips, Sea Piers, Supply Depots and Emplacements in out-of-supply areas. Having multiple engineering units acting together will increase construction speed somewhat.
How fast structures are completed, their build time, is affected by the level of supply of the hex it is constructed in. For example, in an area at 45% supply, an industrial goods plant might take 83 days, while in an area at 90% supply it might take 63 days. At the extreme end, very little supply can make building in some barely-in-supply hexes close to impossible. This is true of roads, which can be completed much sooner near the better in supply region than the extremity to which you are building.
The amount of goods an upgrade can produce is affected by supply.
When a unit captures a hex, the hex doesn't provide supply right away; it needs time to build up. At least a day is needed to build any level of supply. Units are always using supplies, but in the time that they are in unsupplied territory, they dig into the supplies and petrol they carry with them. If out of supply too long, they can run out.
Units restock their supplies faster in an area of high supply. To gain supply as fast as possible in enemy territory, consider advancing along a highway or railroad and have infrastructure fully funded. Also, paradrops or seaborne invasions can be made on cities or military bases which become a self-sustaining source of supply.
When a unit runs out of supplies, it becomes unable to fire and its morale may lower (unconfirmed). If it is out of petroleum, it will be unable to move as well. Units out of supply are obviously very vulnerable, being unable to defend themselves. A common tactic employed by both players and the AI is to move behind a unit to cut its supply. When a unit is out of supply or nearly out, its HUD color will be red.
Units vary in their rate of supply and petrol consumption. Some of the heavier units, such as artillery and tanks, can quickly run out of supply in enemy territory. This is exasperated some technologies that increase ammunition consumption, notably the very popular ERFB-BB Ammunition (increased range) technology. Lighter units such as Light Infantry and LAVs/VABs use less supplies and can usually operate longer without supply, but this depends also on the amount of supplies and petrol they carry. An armored unit such as the VAB can actually move further over unsupplied territory than a light infantry unit because it carries almost twice as much petrol, but with very similar consumption rates.
Supply trucks and aircraft that have spare cargo capacity can be used to resupply units. Just move a one into the hex a unit that needs to be resupplied and supplies will transfer. To restock the truck or cargo aircraft, move it back to in-supply terrain and wait a bit.