Guide

Mandate Order Storage & Transportation Guide – Warehouses, Routes and Resource Movement

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Mandate Order storage and transportation guide for warehouse placement, accepted goods, worker travel distance, cargo routes, courier routes, full storage, and resources that stop moving.

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Published: Last reviewed: Patch-sensitive facts are marked for recheck

Mandate Order Storage & Transportation Guide

Storage and transportation decide whether your city feels rich or starved. You can have timber, food, ore, fuel, tools, or weapons somewhere on the map and still watch buildings sit idle if those goods cannot move to the right place at the right time.

Use this page when a warehouse is full, a workshop is missing input, a harvest is not feeding houses, or resources exist but refuse to move.

The Transportation Chain

Source -> pickup storage -> route -> receiving storage -> consumer

Every step needs a worker, a reachable path, accepted storage, and a destination with demand.

LinkWhat to check
SourceIs the resource actually being produced?
Pickup storageIs there nearby space for the resource?
RouteIs the distance short enough for the current labor pool?
Receiving storageDoes it accept the item and have capacity?
ConsumerIs a building, house, army, or project using the item?

Warehouse Placement

The best warehouse is not always the biggest or most central one. A useful warehouse shortens a specific route.

Warehouse roleBest placementWatch for
Food storageBetween farms, foraging, and housingCitizens starving while food sits far away
Raw materialsNear forests, mines, clay, stone, or waterWorkers spending all day hauling
Workshop inputNear first-stage processorsWorkshop missing input
Workshop outputNear buildings that consume processed goodsOutput full messages
Military storageNear armory, barracks, walls, and muster pathsArmy slow to equip
Frontier storageNear outer extraction sitesGoods stranded far from the city

One warehouse for the whole settlement becomes a bottleneck. Too many unfocused warehouses scatter goods and make shortages harder to read.

Accepted Goods and Full Storage

A full warehouse is not automatically good. It can mean:

  • The wrong goods are occupying space.
  • Output has nowhere to go.
  • The next building is too far away.
  • A destination warehouse does not accept the item.
  • Construction or recruitment consumed the expected route.

When a nearby building is idle beside a full warehouse, check filters and accepted goods before adding another production building.

Transportation Distance

Long distance creates fake shortages. The city technically owns the item, but the effective supply is too slow.

Fix distance with:

  1. A closer warehouse.
  2. Roads along repeated routes.
  3. District-specific storage.
  4. Shorter source-to-processor loops.
  5. Cargo or courier systems once local hauling is not enough.

If one worker route crosses half the city, the answer is usually layout, not more production.

Cargo and Courier Routes

Use cargo and courier systems after the local route is stable. Start with one important route, confirm goods leave and arrive, then expand.

Good early candidates:

  • Forest district to construction storage.
  • Farms to food storage near housing.
  • Mines to first processing district.
  • Armory output to military storage.
  • Frontier extraction to city-center workshops.

Do not create a complicated route network while the first route is still failing. It turns one visible problem into five hidden ones.

Fast Troubleshooting

SymptomCheck firstLikely fix
Resource exists but building says missing inputWrong warehouse or too much distanceMove input storage closer
Warehouse always fullOutput has no consumerAdd destination or adjust accepted goods
Workers idleNo valid route or priority conflictCheck worker guide and storage filters
Food not reaching housesFood storage too far from housingAdd nearby food storage
Construction stallsTimber path is slow or blockedShorten forest -> timber -> build route
Army waits for gearWeapons stored too far from muster pointAdd military storage near barracks

FAQ

Why are my resources not moving in Mandate Order?

Usually because workers cannot complete the route: storage is full, the item is not accepted, the route is too long, the destination has no demand, or another system has higher priority.

Where should I put warehouses?

Put warehouses near the route they serve. Food storage belongs near food demand, raw storage near extraction, workshop storage near production, and military storage near army preparation.

Should I build more warehouses?

Build more storage when it shortens a route or separates goods by purpose. Do not add warehouses only to hide a broken production chain.

What is the main resources page?

Use Mandate Order Resources & Logistics Guide as the main hub, then use this page for storage placement and route troubleshooting.