What a Military Supply Depot Contains

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

For one of my games the PCs have found a National Guard supply depot in the States. What might it contain. I currently have:

• Ammo (but how much?)
• Weapons (ditto)
• Food (both MREs and bulk shelf stable food to be cooked)
• A couple of humvees

I've also decided they have a barracks, small machine shop, and of course supply buildings.

What am I missing? References to GURPS books with equipment a huge plus. A little help would be most appreciated.

First let me say, If its empty of people there should be a REAL good reason it hasn't been looted to the dust on the floor, because I promise you everyone for 100miles knows about that place and has at least had a conversation about how to get the goodies.

Also a disclaimer than most of my experience is with RESERVE units which are different but we interacted with the guard enough to have a decent idea how it was laid out.

Some states don't even offer Weapon training to their NG people (Ohio is one), thus you will probably not find any ammo in these depots. I don't have any first hand knowledge of any state that does have NG units that roll with weapons.

Without knowing the world status I would also say if this is a post apocalypse kind thing you would probably find it full of the NG families and friends. Knowing military people (as I am one, and have had exactly this conversation in the past) there would be at least verbal plans made in the event that it all falls apart to bring their loved ones in, keep things going and make themselves comfortable and safe.
There would also be a significant chunk of Locals that would probably be thinking that taking that depot would be their best survival option and 20 guys with high powered hunting rifles, some skill shoooting and a little planning could have a decent chance to take a facility like that if they could get organized before the NG guys do (assuming the NG guys wouldnt already just have them on the list of people to invite).

Depending on the scenario your PCs might be walking into a Jerico/Thunderdome/armed fortified settlement situation where they have to give up their weapons if they can even get entry at all.

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You also need to keep in mind there is a great deal of variation depending on which state and which depot.

Some states invest much less in their NG than others, and all states prioritize them fairly low compared to police/fire/medicine/ etc... Also most States/units have fallen victim to the same bean counters that pushed all the other supply chains into Just In Time efficiency (I'm actually hedging a bit here saying "most" cause I really think is "ALL" but I'm not 100% sure). Depending on the actual function of the depot in might be very specialized instead of having everything you need, it might just be MREs or Construction equipment, etc.

So anything that doesn't have an exception shelf life (water, Fuel, medicines) is probably NOT stored in greater quantities that the initial "emergency roll out phase" requires. There would be plans to supply those items at the emergency location as needed rather than having people roll out with hundreds of tons of equipment to regain control of New Orleans after a hurricane.
More likely (if they even have weapons) they might have ~1,000 rounds to be dolled out to one or two "trusted" people per squad across the whole unit. Enough Fuel for the transports vehicles (they probably subcontract for buses to move personnel), and maybe a small 500gallon supply of gas/diesel for chainsaws and generators. Tents for the Unit personnel (max~500 more likely initially 250 or so) and some initial triage, lights and radios.

It would be perfectly legit to have a depot that has a "NON-Combat" mission and does not have quantities of ammo/food onsite.

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The more the state in question invests in their NG, the more variation you can expect to find and the more complete and supplied it will be for their most likely missions.

If they have significant ammo onsite, they will have a round the clock guard force in addition to other security measures and requisite supplies and resources to keep them going for a period of time along with the fact that the guard force has access to all these other resources in the event of catastrophe.
It would also be unsurprising to find a very limited quantity of ammo on most sites because most units draw from a common specialized ammo supply depot because of the security requirements. So you may only find a small amount of secured small arms sufficient for initial stand up.

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Some states see the NG role to be more a riot control/disaster support so the gear would be less in the direction of armored weapon platforms or ammunition and more on Generators, chainsaws, riot gear, non-lethal deterents, razor wire (constantina wire), water treatment equipment, tents, barricades, radios, MREs, hospital gear, blankets, construction equipment for digging, grating, lifting. Fuel and water would probably be limited as most units plan to pull from larger depots for specific missions.

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Access to any computerized inventory systems is likely to be a challenge not just because of security, but because many of those older systems are not windows based. hacking them or perhaps even navigating them could be a challenge for someone not familiar with Unix style menus or 'command line interfaces'.