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Logistics and Supply Lines
May 1, 2026 at 05:12 PM
Initial article (2026-05-01)
Anvil Empires is a sandbox where the side with the deeper supply chain usually wins. Battles are won not only through strength of arms but also require a strong economy and a working supply line. Logistics is the gameplay loop that ties homesteads, towns, caravans, and front-line siege camps into a single producer-to-consumer pipeline.
A supply camp is a fortified rear-area depot. Unlike a siege camp it is not built next to the enemy; it sits along the route between a producing town and the front, well behind contested territory. Supply camps store food, weapons, armour, ammunition, and siege materials, and they exist so that a caravan does not have to make the full journey from a deep-interior town to the front in a single trip.
A caravan is the player-driven movement of goods from one location to another. In practice, a caravan is one or more carts, ships, or pack horses with player escorts. Caravans carry barrels of bulk resources, finished arms and armour from town smithies, and reinforcement avatars sent to the front under the avatar deployment system.
Caravan Type | Carrying Use | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Pack horse | Light cargo, scout supplies | Fast but limited carrying capacity. |
Cart | Bulk barrels and crates | Standard overland hauler; passengers can ride alongside the goods. |
Cargo Ship | Long-range bulk supply by sea | Connects coastal settlements; the fastest way to move large quantities across the map. |
Food: Cooked meals from Cooking stations and barreled grain from Farming. Hungry soldiers fight worse.
Arms and armour: Forged Weapons and Armours, typically packed in barrels for bulk transport.
Ammunition: Arrows, scorpion arrows, oil flasks, catapult boulders.
Siege materials: Reinforced planks, ingots, and rope intended for assembling rams, towers, and ladders in a forward Sieges camp.
Trade goods: Linen, lead ingots, and rosin produced from regional trade resources, hauled to a Trade and Economy Marketplace for sale.
An army that runs out of arrows or rams stops being an army; it becomes a target. Veteran factions plan their war the way a quartermaster plans a campaign: backwards from the assault on an enemy keep, through the supply camps that will refill the siege camp, to the towns and homesteads that will produce the food, ingots, and ammunition. A surprising fraction of the playerbase chooses to specialise in this work because their contribution is what allows everyone else to fight.
The flip side is raiding. Light cavalry and small parties roam the world looking for unescorted carts, vulnerable supply camps, and isolated coastal ports. A successful raid against an enemy caravan does not just take their silver and resources; it removes the materials those resources would have become if they had reached the front. Raiding is a recognised role in the war and one of the named pillars of the game pitch.
