Victoria 3

Victoria 3

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Military Logistics and Stockpiles
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2 Jan, 2024 @ 10:51pm
18 Jul @ 10:05pm
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Military Logistics and Stockpiles

Description
Military Logistics and Stockpiles (Victoria 3 Mod)

This mod adds features to the game for stockpiling and distributing strategic goods for your military. This allows you (and the AI) to improve economic stability during warfare, and plan your wars with a more strategic lens.

How it works?

Build a military logistics center in a state to start gathering goods for your local strategic reserve. When war starts, distribution centers will open in states with a logistics center. These will distribute your reserve into the local market. When war ends, the distribution centers close.

Why Stockpiles?

The base game does not have a stockpiling mechanic. However, the storage of military goods was extremely (and increasingly) important during this time in history. The game's economic model is incomplete without this mod.

As I played Victoria 3, I realized that something seemed wrong. The autonomous construction queue never seemed to favor building military buildings during peacetime, but wartime was far too late to start building up military industrial buildings. I had to build it myself and subsidize it or it didn't exist.

Additionally, AI players, especially great powers, would have the same issue. Since I can't help them with building up their army, it made beating them in warfare fairly trivial. I would just need to stall for time and they typically go bankrupt due to not being able to scale up military industry fast enough to make military goods cheaper.

This is not realistic. It bothered me. For one thing, subsidizing my military industry during peacetime is fine, but all of the guns and ammunition that resulted from this just vanished. It was gone into thin air! It made no sense.

I made this mod because the lack of stockpiles really bothered me, and it's bothering you too, even if you don't realize it. With this mod, there is peacetime demand for military goods; the economic impact of war is more controlled; and the AI tends to go bankrupt a bit less when fielding large armies.

Give me the details!

Logistics Centers are unlocked when you research Napoleonic Warfare. The pops in this building are responsible for managing your stockpiles. For each level of a Logistics Center, you can store 4,000 goods. Most military goods can be stored in your stockpile, the full list of stockpile goods is here:

* Small Arms
* Artillery
* Ammunition
* Grain
* Liquor
* Fabric
* Sugar
* Tobacco
* Opium
* Groceries
* Radios
* Tanks
* Oil
* Iron

You can change the production methods to adjust which goods are being stockpiled. I based those methods on the units that you can select for your military.

A good rule of thumb is to build one logistics center level per every 30 units. Build the logistics centers in states that have a barracks. For added effectiveness, build your military industry buildings in the same location as well.

The production methods that you select should have the same inputs that your units require. If your infantry are mechanized, then you want to select the mechanized version. If you have basic infantry, then select that option.

Logistics Centers provide bureaucracy, qualifications, and innovation (as long as you have the right technologies).

Distribution Centers automatically get created a few weeks after you go to war. They open up in every state that you have a logistics center. Each distribution center focuses on distributing a single good.

You can adjust the speed of the distribution by clicking into a distribution center and changing the production method. You can disable distribution (which stops draining the stockpile). You can also double the amount distributed by selecting the "High Volume" production method.

Tips and Tricks

Disable specific stockpiles if your stockpiles are full or you just want to save some funds. If you want to avoid micromanagement, then you can toggle all of your stockpiles pretty easily from the buildings panel.

If you have a strong economy, there's nothing wrong with stockpiling a little bit extra. There's no penalty for sitting on a large stockpile.

You can always supplement your income during war by "dumping" your stockpiled goods out into the market. Just use the "high volume" production method. This is useful if you ever need to bail yourself out of a tight financial situation and you have no other options.

If you capture a state with an existing stockpile, the stockpile buildings are destroyed. However, you can still get a portion of the stockpile by building a logistics center in that state.

Is It Balanced?

Yes, absolutely. You can trust me, I'm an impartial observer.

Lore

“Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.”
-- John Pershing, US Army General


Prior to the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815), armies were typically supplied by taking supplies from the surrounding area. This "local supply" worked because military supplies were simple and army objectives were often populated areas.

Local supplies also worked because pre-industrial era armies were typically smaller than modern armies. However, as armies grew larger and military technology advanced, local supplies were no longer sufficient. Put another way, there was no way to supply more than a hundred thousand men with bullets by scavenging the countryside.

Industrial era technologies like railways, canning, refrigeration, and steam-powered ships dramatically improved the ability to move army supplies. As military supply operations became increasingly complex, specialized professionals became necessary to oversee the purchase, storage, transport, and preservation of these supplies.

Military Logistics grew from this increasing complexity. In modern warfare, the ability to get supplies to your army really can make the difference between winning and losing a war. Local supplies really aren't a thing anymore. This is a change that occurred during the timeline covered by Victoria 3.

Multiplayer Compatibility

I don't have any friends to play Victoria 3 multiplayer with, and I'm not even sure multiplayer is for me. This means that I don't know if this mod works in multiplayer or not. Give it a try! Let me know if it works!

Mod Compatibility

Most mods should work with this one just fine!

The only file from the base game that is modified is the "building_details_panel.gui" file. If you use the multi line production methods mod or the community mod framework, override those mods with this one. There is a built-in compatibility fix.

Potential Future Additions

I'm not sure. Apparently, the game developers are considering adding stockpiles themselves. We'll have to see what the future holds. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Contributions Appreciated!!!

Give me your feedback! I appreciate it! Just keep in mind that I may not change the mod based on feedback that I've recieved.

Language translations are always welcome!

Finally, there is an open source repository[github.com] if you're interested.

Other Mods I Use

* Victoria Tweaks Mod
* Forts and Engineers
* Locomotion: Land, Water, & Air
95 Comments
scarlyafterdark  [author] 18 Jul @ 10:07pm 
This mod has been updated. It is mostly unchanged, but logistics centers now provide a small amount of convoys, the AI is less likely to overbuild, and this mod is now compatible with multi-line production methods and the community mod framework. (You'll want this mod to be higher in load order.)
scarlyafterdark  [author] 1 Jul @ 12:14am 
Working on it! I need to rethink a few things in the mod to make it work with 1.9.x. It's going to take a while unfortunately.
kebabblaster9000 29 Jun @ 3:26pm 
update?
scarlyafterdark  [author] 7 Feb @ 10:24pm 
With the current state of the war AI, I'm waiting for the warfare fixes before I jump in to make other adjustments. Otherwise, I'll just end up having to redo it over again, which is the issue when you're trying to land on a moving platform.
Comrade Penguin 30 Jan @ 5:08pm 
I think this might need some more tuning for the AI, I'm playing as Colombia and have the biggest army in the Americas, and half the countries have no armies or barracks at all, just logistics centers that are presumably eating up all the military goods.
Chriskr23 2 Jan @ 4:00am 
If you can't make the building stop stockpileing a good when it is full, then you could make a notification appear once the stockpile is full
scarlyafterdark  [author] 14 Dec, 2024 @ 8:21pm 
I'm not sure? It might. You could add them both to test it. There may be a conflict in the building interface files.

I'm planning on making major changes to this mod after 1.9 releases. After that, if the war system is actually working as intended at that point, I'll possibly reach out to some other mod devs to collaborate on compatibility patches.
kebabblaster9000 4 Dec, 2024 @ 9:17am 
does this work with anbeelds stockpile economy.
scarlyafterdark  [author] 30 Nov, 2024 @ 9:30am 
As a shortcut, I made a small change that resulted in the AI building logistics centers more frequently. In my own game, I observed that this seemed to improve things a bit.

Right now, I'm really waiting for the next Victoria 3 release to make major changes. The devs said that they're going to do more improvements to the military system in the future. I imagine they're looking at making supply of military goods matter.

My ultimate goal would be to have a hearts of iron style supply system, but there is no support in the game right now to add this; I would know, I've tried several times and failed.
scarlyafterdark  [author] 27 Nov, 2024 @ 6:50am 
@K4mil That's actually not a bad idea. I think that if I did that, then the AI should know enough to toggle the production methods in theory.

I'll experiment with this for the next version.