(09-04-2010, 12:52 AM)Bigbill Wrote: [ -> ] (09-03-2010, 10:33 PM)John(txic) Wrote: [ -> ]Yes, I think they do.
Thanks John, I'll have to watch where my engineer's are facing.
Here is what the game manual says I don't think facing matters
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Mines, Dragons Teeth, Fire trenches and Barbed Wire are bought by the defender, if he pays for engineering points in his purchase set up.
All mines in SP series games are dual-purpose minefields (both anti personnel and AT mines are in the field).
All minefields are "hidden" minefields. SP ignores the Geneva convention which requires marked minefields( so there are no dummy minefields either . )
The more mine points spent on mining a hex, the more densely mined that hex will be, hence more dangerous to cross (more likelihood of standing on one).
The faster a unit has moved on entering a mined hex, the greater the chance of tripping a mine. So if you suspect mines, move SLOWLY. Engineers and engineer vehicles are better than other troops in detecting mines. If they enter a mined hex, you may well get an "Engineer detects minefield" message, rather than an explosion. The engineer unit is then stuck in the minefield, but it will clear this faster than ordinary troops.
* Dragons teeth represent anti-vehicle obstacles of a substantial nature (such as piles of logs perhaps), used as an anti vehicle barrier, or as road blocks etc. They are best cleared by engineer types. They stop all (non-flying) vehicles, but are only an obstacle to foot troops.
* Barbed wire has been introduced for WinSPWW2 for defensive battles. It's bought in the same way and appears in the same menus as mines, dragons teeth and trenches. Wire CAN immobilize vehicles including tanks ( though it is rare, wire can foul running gear ) The effect is greater on wheeled vehicles. As a quick rule of thumb the lighter the vehicle the more chance it will be hung up by wire. Tanks can flatten wire, Engineer tanks can flatten and clear wire. Infantry can move through wire but only slowly. Typically you would move up to a wire hex and go no further that turn. The next turn you would enter the hex and go no further. The third turn you could move out but with a MP penalty so moving through wire is not a piece of cake Engineers and regular infantry clear wire just like they do mines. Engineers clear it by facing the wire hex and regular infantry have get in the hex to take it down ( and they are slower ). If the units trying to clear wire are under fire this slows things down just like mine clearing ."Flattening" wire is a random thing just like mines. How many mines in a Hex?? Well that just depends.....you'll know for sure when they are gone. The same idea applies to wire. When it's clear the graphic will disappear. Artillery does NOT remove wire. Everyone found that out 90 years ago. As well, entering wire can cause casualties and add suppression to infantry.
TWO IMPORTANT POINTS REGARDING THE USE OF BARBED WIRE
1. Wire and mines cannot co-exist in the same hex. We are at the limit of some coding issues and the result of that is you cannot have both wire and mines in the same hex together so this isn't a "bug" . It's what we had to do to make this work.
2. You CANNOT place wire in building hexes . This is not a code restriction . It's a design decision
* Large fire trenches can be bought and laid as part of the field defences. These shelter all ground troop types (even if they moved), including vehicles. They are a major obstacle to vehicle movement, and vehicles may get stuck in them, so this field defence can be used as an anti-tank ditch as well.
There are no bridging engineer assets modeled in WinSPWW2.
Notes
1] A "mine" is not "1 mine" but a random small number of mines. It is a symbol for a mined area and may be 2 mines or it may be 8 mines. ( or 3 or 5.....) If there are more than one "mine" symbols then there are PROBABLY more "mines" in that hex but if the random number generated hit's low for a three symbol cluster that hex MAY ONLY have three mines in it and if it hits high a 1 symbol mined area may have 8 mines. Those random numbers are there to eliminate the certainty of mine clearing.
2] Regular infantry squads will only clear mines if they are IN the minefield. Engineer units ( including mine clearing tanks ) will also clear mines from "outside" the field, if pointed at (facing) that hex.
3] Engineer infantry and vehicles clear mines faster than regular infantry. Because there are random numbers of mines and random numbers generated for mine clearing itself it is not possible to say definitively that "engineers clear mines 3x faster than infantry" because there are many factors built into the game to REMOVE the certainty that X action will take Y amount of time. If the unit removing mines moves that turn it can reduce the number of mines that can be removed on THAT turn. If they fire it slows down mine clearing. If they are fired on it slows down ( or halts altogether ) mine clearing. However, all things being equal the engineer type units WILL clear a given number of mines faster than a regular infantry unit.
4] Regular infantry, because they ONLY ( slowly ) clear mines from the hex they are in, can face in any direction while they do it. Engineer and mine clearing vehicles MUST face toward the hex they are the clearing mines from, if clearing from the hex alongside. If you face them away from a mined area or obstacle they will NOT clear it.
5] If there is a message ...... "XXX CLEARS 2 MINES " then 2 of the random number of mines in that mined area have been removed. When the message reads "XXX CLEARS A PATH THROUGH THE MINES" means all mines in that hex have been removed.
6] Experience plays a very important part in how fast a unit will clear a mined area. In one experiment, 4 engineer units with 30 experience and 4 engineer units with 120 experience were each placed in front of a mined hex. The expert units cleared their mined areas in 1-2 turns. The 4 green engineers took 7-9 turns to clear all four of their mined areas.
Notes on Deploying Mines in Scenarios
A design trick follows. Sometimes you will want minefields to be visible to both opponents. Basically, three things have to happen to make mines visible to both sides:
1) units have to be purchased as well as mines for the defender
2) the DONE button must be used to exit the Purchase Screen
3) the mines **MUST** be deployed before entering the attacking side's Purchase screen If the mines are re-deployed after entering the attacker's purchase screen, they will become invisible to the attacker until he finds them normall"