Out of Supply units located in an enemy region have a chance of finding enough subsistence to momentarily avoid the penalties due to lack of General Supply. This depends on the terrain and Civilization
Level of the region, as well as the time of the year. A leader with the “Forage” Special Ability also improves his Force’s chances. One at a time, each out of Supply sub-unit will make a test to see if it finds enough Supply.
However as soon as a single test is failed, the region is considered to have been looted, as shown by the icon, and will not provide any more Supply until it recovers, which happens during the harvesting
season.
But if you have to be out of supply to attempt forage this is super risky. If the forage attempt fails the unit suffers severe attrition and the region is pillaged. Then you have to move out of the pillaged region, but you suffer horrible movement penalties due to low cohesion, so you may not be able to move fast enough especially combined with bad weather and rough terrain.
In my game I had irregulars crawling all over the Appalachians and the Ozarks. Come winter time most of them died of exposure. Was my strategy unsound, or did I just execute it poorly? Is this ok in summertime, but you need to hole up in winter? Is foraging easier in passive formation? Is it better to remain stationary than to move?
Any advice would help.
Thanks.