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Napoleon Bonaparte said that what a soldier needs most is two things, “a full belly and a pair of shoes” and we are told that Frederic the Great used to say, “An army, like a serpent, goes upon its belly.” They meant it. A Roman legionary received 960 grams (over 2 pounds) of wheat every day, for bread or porridge. A single Republican legion had about 20000 men and armies ten times that size were commonly fielded even in the most remote times. For an army of that size the grain alone amounted to a couple hundred tons (the equivalent of some 320 ox-cart loads worth) of supplies to move every day. Plus wine, oil, meat, vegetables and other fresh food and then the were the tents, leather, cloth, iron to repair weapons, tools and equipment, personal belongins, loot... not to mention siege trains, the forage needed for all the animals who pulled the vehicles to carry all the above, etc. The supplies for the army have always been a logistic nightmare, and even more so without the exceedingly efficent infrastructures the Romans or the Empereur were able to create. All this to say that while in a real battlefield there always are mountains of supplies and stacked goods these so far have been missing from most gaming tables... well, we think it's high time to change that!
The humble items presented here are meant to help you detailing you camp and baggage scenes, but are also perfect for hundred other uses, work well for a large variety of periods and also with different scales, since most of these objects were employed in a very large variety of sizes.
There is a lot more supplies on the way for you, including figures and vehicles and even dedicated ships and buildings! And as usually, the best way to ensure we have adequate funding for speedy development is to hurry and buy some of these now!!
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Without supplies neither a soldier nor a general is good for anything.
Clearchus of Sparta
Speech to the Greek Army 401 B.C.
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