Tideborn Command: stop losing to your own supply lines

I lost my first Tideborn Command campaign without a single ship sinking in battle. I simply ran out of supplies mid-map, and my fleet ground to a halt while the enemy expanded around me. The tutorial barely mentions this, so I want to.

Supply flows from your fortified islands along the routes you set. If you push too far ahead of your supply chain, your ships fight at reduced strength and cannot repair. The game does not scream this at you; you just quietly start losing winnable fights.

The fix is boring but effective: fortify one island before you take the next, and keep your front line no more than two hops from a supply source. Slow expansion beats fast collapse every time.

Once I treated supply as the main game and battles as the side effect, everything clicked. Tideborn is really a logistics puzzle wearing a naval-combat costume, and it is much better for it.