2 Points for consideration

[Malrubius]

Supply lines: Now we're talking! Though, I'm afraid that we can't link it to government buildings in the provinces, we can certainly detect if a character is in enemy lands, but basing it on distance would probably be overly complex with the engine we have at hand. Traiting could, however, tie it to the time the general has spent in hostile territory..

[Spitful]

Yay i finnally came up with something worth persueing, i did come up with it right? Even if someone else did i have some ideas about that

You could have a quatermaster ancillary, and alsorts of other ancillaries that could be derived from the howlong have you been in enemy territory trait, like if you took a new town or something like that after spending along time outside a city you get a "quatermaster" or something similar.

Also you could give him a trait based on what buildings were in the last town he stayed in cant you, you could say that a granary or armoury in that town dictates how good his logistics are, which could have an effect on the money he costs extra.

[Shigawire]

Seamus helped spark something potentially great.

Thanks for your ideas Seamus and Spitful.

It's always nice when fans and the community provide us with good ideas like this.

Kudos to the community for being so excellent.

[O'ETAIPOS]

You would hate me ... But still I have to say that there is one problem - in some areas plunder would be very big - in fact many wars were pure plunder which RTW is not depicting.
Making staying on enemy land very expensive won't be historical - in fact (exept some regions - forests, deserts) staying on enemy teritory should in fact give you money, not take it from you. On the other hand, in your land army needs to be fed and paid by your own men ...

also is there any posibility to give money to army winning a battle if anemy is destoyed or routs? It should be scaled to enemy army size, as it is to reflect capture enemy camp, loot the dead, sell captives.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

If the army is larger than the province could sustain, even if it is a foreign one, then supplylines are more important, but if it's of a certain small to medium size it could merit the bonus I would think in most provinces; and of course in winter it would be even worse. But I don't know how good the system could be at determining all of these variants.

[O'ETAIPOS]

I just read in Xenophon's history of grece that spartan army plundering Korkyra got so much, that soliders refused to drink wine other that tastes like flowers. :)

[Shigawire]

You would hate me ... But still I have to say that there is one problem - in some areas plunder would be very big - in fact many wars were pure plunder which RTW is not depicting.
Making staying on enemy land very expensive won't be historical - in fact (exept some regions - forests, deserts) staying on enemy teritory should in fact give you money, not take it from you. On the other hand, in your land army needs to be fed and paid by your own men ...

also is there any posibility to give money to army winning a battle if anemy is destoyed or routs? It should be scaled to enemy army size, as it is to reflect capture enemy camp, loot the dead, sell captives.

I would hate you?

I don't see why I would hate someone who reminds me of something so important. Loot! We can't have realistic attrition/logistics without local loot! In fact vanilla does simulate this for the faction being looted. The tile the enemy army sits on starts to look "scorched", and you get "pillage" penalties in your provincial finances.

Something you forget though, is that a lot of this money is basically just going into the hands of the soldiers who pillage. Varying on the abilities of the commander, little of this loot actually goes to the state treasury. But that's what traits and ancillaries can help with.

The mercenary army, of which Xenophon was a guest, also went through Cilicia. Due to Cyrus being unable to control them properly, they looted the country and wreaked a lot of havoc. Only thanks to Cyrus' diplomatic skills, and good reputation, did he save this dire situation. You remember the part where both monarchs gave eachother presents to patch up the relationship..

How much of the money do you think went directly into Cyrus' treasury? The soldiers were the looters. Most likely he ordered them to give it all back for diplomacy's sake. And to preserve his good reputation.

Hannibal Barka's forces moving through aquitania and the alps would scarcely get much of a bonus.. considering he lost 80`000 men on the march. But once on fertile land, with good celtic allies, he started getting reinforcements and supplies.. The local loot soldiers take from the areas they march over is small pickings compared to the enormous costs of bringing about sufficient logistical operations. But local loot may help alleviate these costs somewhat for an able commander. This is micro compared to macro though.

Allowing an army to loot the countryside is one way of preserving "morale" (god knows that definition is "flexible")..

[O'ETAIPOS]

still, while on good looting site they fed "on the enemy" so much less logistics are needed (just send foraging party or two)

I considered post you mention as spoiling idea that everybody cofirms great - so I wrote "You would hate me" :))

[jebes]

I don't neccessarily seem the problem. Raiding cities can give a large amount of money and really damage the enemies economy. How is that so different from foraging?

[Shigawire]

Foraging is a different thing to looting. The Greeks for example, were not very used to this "foraging" business. Polybius noted with curiosity the ferocity with which the Romans would forage food from the countryside whilst campaigning. This impressed Polybius a great deal, who was once an "alphamale" in the greek city of Megalopolis.

If you came across a town, then you would be lucky and get a lot of concentrated loot. Compare it to gold mining/sifting. A large nugget of gold is more valuable than the same volume of gold particles in a river. Even though they are of equal volume, the gold nugget is more concentrated, thus less effort is expended in "collecting" it. Though the golden nugget is more rare to come by..

But if your army is simply moving over terrain, you would be lucky to catch a few scattered huts with sheep-farmers and such. In this sort of terrain, your ability to loot matters very little. Foraging is a skill known to a man who is used to living outdoors. Foraging involves hunting, knowing which berries are non-poisonous, where the food can be found in nature.. that sort of thing..

This would certainly help diminish the logistical costs - hence the "forager" trait mentioned earlier.