In M44, I'm playing a small scenario with a river to cross.
Ferrying is nice, but when the units cross and move 1 or 2 hex away from the river, they become isolated (virtual trucks rule). Why ?
Is it better to build a bridge ? How long does it take ?
The rule is that engineers can ferry supplies to units adjacent to them over a river, assuming the engineers haven't moved and aren't in travel mode and aren't disrupted.
To extend operations further than the immediate hex adjacent to an Eng unit a bridge needs to be built to allow supplies to flow across the river.
Is the river you are talking about a one hex wide river or a hexside river?
I suspect the reason your units become isolated is because the ferring enginneers can only supply the river bank hex, this has nothing to do with VST.
If you build a bridge then supply will flow as normal, the time it will take will depend on the river type and the quality of the enginneers.
*FLG beat me to it* :)
The river is an hexside only.
So ferrying cuts supply ? Then the interest of ferry is very limited because a isolated unit can't do much.
matxer Wrote:So ferrying cuts supply ? Then the interest of ferry is very limited because a isolated unit can't do much.
The interest is great, you can ferry across a couple of battalions to hold the terrain on the other side of the river while your bridge engineers construct a bridge so that tanks and artillery can follow.
I see. But in a 7 turns scenarios, you don't have time to build a bridge, do you ?
And can you ferry HQ ?
matxer Wrote:I see. But in a 7 turns scenarios, you don't have time to build a bridge, do you ?
Depends on the Bridge value which can be found in the PDT (press F4) but 7 turns is a bit short maybe, especially for the Russian with their low morale engineers. But it could work if you are lucky.
matxer Wrote:And can you ferry HQ ?
No, only Foot units can be ferried by engineers. HQ:s are most often motorized.
matxer Wrote:So ferrying cuts supply ? Then the interest of ferry is very limited because a isolated unit can't do much.
It is also useful for transfering lots of units over a river to an area already in supply. Useful for keeping things moving while you are waiting for a bridge to be built. As only motorised units can't be transported these can catch up fairly rapidly once a bridge is built.
Also remember that most motorised Inf units can be changed to "go on foot" and so would be able to be ferried across as well! :) The cost is that they lose their extra mobility until they later stack in the same hex as their HQ.
The quickest bridge attempt i have seen was two moves with a A quality unit.
These tips are pretty interesting.
If I combine 2 Engineer Battallions, will the combined unit build the bridge faster ?
Also, does it make sense to start attacking with isolated units or is it too life costly ?
It take around 4 turns for my Soviet Battallion 'Bridgers' to build a bridge and that's lenghty...