Quartermaster Baldwin Bierbaum seemed busy today. He was planning for the coming deployment in unknown territory. While he was tending to the accounting, some sheets of paper, bearing the Kingās Seal were left on the side of the table. Any curious soldier could eye over their content. Too kept by the melody of ink and quill brutalizing a sheet of paper, the man wouldnāt notice anyone peering over his shoulder.
Guidelines about food and rations.
The Three Rules :
This paper is dedicated to remind all quartermasters about the imperatives of food supplying within their respective units. Good meals are necessary to maintain soldiers in perfect condition and decent morale. However, that does not mean they should be treated by the most delicate dishes the Crown could offer. Indeed, food has to satisfy those three criterias :
- Affordability : Gold is fuel for the war effort. We cannot spend it all on feeding our troops. Therefore, the cheapest alternatives must always be considered. The more affordable a food is, the more you can buy of it.
- Resilience : Food that perishes easily leads to waste and is a strain on the logistic chains. Stocks and rations must be able to be maintained for weeks in case of lack of supplies.
- Transportability : In order to maximize efficiency, it is best to choose food that can be easily carried in large quantities within the standard crates. It thus excludes any food that requires cooling containers or presents an exotic shape.
Those criterias and their applications will be discussed with examples further in the guidelines.
Creating a Balanced Diet :
To keep a soldier healthy, all of their nutrional needs have to be met. We do not expect our quartermasters to become physicists but it is paramount they understand what keeps a man going.
- Carbs : The basics of any diet. Those food must be present in every single meal. They will keep the bellies full and quench hunger all while providing lasting energy to the soldiers. Examples or carbs include cereals, breads, potatoes. Those are the easiest to provide as most of them follow the three rules.
Cereals come in a huge variety and are the most prone to breaking the Affordability rule. We advice quartermaster to prefer rye, barley, buckwheat, millet and oats depending on production and prices. Wheat, corn and rices, due to either difficulty to cultivate it or noble renown are too expensive to be considered. Gruels are the better preparation of cereals : fast, efficient and easy to season.
It thus ties into breads. Only darker flour and dry breads are to be used. On top of being more expensive, white bread is harder to conserve and spoils within a day compared to a week for most other darker breads. Dry biscuits are a good staple for rations. Due to their dry and portable nature, they make for perfect portions.
ā - Fats : A readily available nutrient that will not make your soldiers obese if managed properly. Some suspect oils help keep the body safe from sicknesses. Encourage your soldiers to mix a tea spoon of oils into their cooking while in camps or barracks. Cheap vegetable oils include poppy, walnut, hazel and filbert. Fish liver oil must be given by the spoon to every soldier once a week. While disgusting, it keeps them strong and healthy. Oils are to be prefered for deployments. Standard issue glass bottles are resilient to shock and can store a huge supply for little effort.
A lump of salted butter must be maintained in every barracks. It is a good substitute to oils and helps the men swallow the hardened breads. No butter is to be carried during deployments since it breaks the third rule of transportability.
ā - Proteins : The hardest food need to meet the three rules. Meat is expensive, no matter its form. Salted meats, despite satisfying resilience and transportability, will often lead to massive spendings and are not recommended.
Fish perishes within the day and will only be consumed if it can be fished by the soldiers and prepared instantly after. No leftovers are to be carried in any circumstances.
While eggs follow approximately the same rules as fish, they come with an added drawback. Foraging for eggs in deployment is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. Wildlife is deadly. Hordes of angry raptors have devoured regiments that stole their eggs.
Cheeses usually satisfy the three rules so long as they are fermented. Cheeses that are creamy inside (ex : Stormwind Brie) arenāt to be included in rations. They are best grated over meals. They are also very tasty and promote morale to high ends. To that end, they are best kept as rewards for performing units rather than a staple.
Beans and legumes are the best source of proteins in regards to the three rules. They are incredibly cheap, very nutritious, easy to transport and rarely spoil. A crate of lentils can feed an unit of twenty men for a week. Choose those sources in priority and establish them as staple.
ā - Vegetables and fruits : Due to perishability and transportation issues, we advise against carrying most of those during deployments. While in the barracks, prefer locally grown produce that accomodates the harvesting cycles. We will nonetheless speak about two vegetable groups that are particularly interesting : squashes and roots.
Roots are the only exception to the deployment issue since they follow the three rules. They do not perish and are easy to store. They are best cooked into broths and gruels. Do not hesitate to prepare rations with carrots or turnips. They will ward scurvy from your soldiers.
Squashes vegetables are incredibly cheap yet incredibly huge, making them a very good vegetable to fit into budgets. They also grow naturally in hot environments where most of the Horde live. Therefore, you can easily forage them during trips. Not a single species of squash are toxic to soldiers, hence the recommendation.
On drinks :
As you all know, strong alcoholic beverages are prohibited during duty. The reasons are obvious : an intoxicated soldier is less effective at combat, less aware of his surroundings and misbehaves.
On the other hand, pure fresh water is a rare commodity outside of Stormwind. Unsure sources of water must be avoided at all cost : the risk of poisonning or disease is too high. If the safety of the water cannot be established, the soldiers are to be given lightly brewed ale. While soft enough to not intoxicate your men, the alcohol will cleanse the water of any impurities, making it safe for consumption.
Teas and coffees can be consumed in any quantities by the soldier and can be used as a morale tool. Ground coffees ersatz are to be prepared as, on top of being incredibly cheap due to poor quality, they are the easiest to transport and brew. Easiest coffee substitutes to find are chirory roots. A mix of 60% chirory root and 40% grinded coffee is ideal. Peacebloom tea is the prefered infusion for the same reasons. On top of that, it will soothe your soldiers and ease their sleeping patterns.
Milk is to be avoided due to digestive issues and its perishability.
Supplying :
Quartermasters should preferably supply themselves from the Kingās stores. Most of the produce is readily and cheaply available to any soldier unit from his Majesty. It also comes with the added benefit of having passed the checks of the three rules, sanitary and quality control.
While on deployment, supplying from becomes harder and quartermasters must become more ingenious. Teach your soldiers how to forage safely, possibly with the help of a druid. Bargaining with the local population is also do-able. In such case, make sure to have a signed contract between your unit and the supplier, detailing every single category of item bought with their costs. It will help you with accounting.
Books must be tended in all situations to ensure the good use of the finances entrusted by His Majesty into your unit. Poor managment of budget will lead to reprimands.
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A long detailed version of the book if found amongst Baldwinās stacheā¦ Probably too boring for most soldiers to keep on browsing.
