Clearing rubble

[Gris]

I feel the Rubble rule is really unnecessary. I was in two engineer battalions and clearing rubble is really a "theatre" level task. Not something assigned to a sapper "on foot" battalions. The Army Assets will clear a lane through it to create an MSR or more than likely the local government will deal with it. There are Combat Engineers and Construction Engineers. Both could accomplish the clearance to a degree, but one is more able due to MTOE. PzC IMO is more concerned with the Combat type of Engineer than Construction.

Honestly with the exception of a Stalingrad or a Dresden bombing event, the entire 1km hex is not going to be untraversable. Soldiers don't like to walk and will find a way to drive around it. That is what makes IEDs so deadly. The path of least resistance. How much time does that really add to the trip? The height of the building matters too and what they are made of. Knocking over a skyscraper will block the road, but rubble in a 1941 Soviet village made of wood is a not likely. I can clear a lane with a platoon of infantry or a tank. This is reflected in the movement modifiers, IMO.

Also even if you clear the "rubble" it is not a primary road until it is restored to a "primary road". I am just going to clear it, not pave it.

I can get behind the fact that the intent of rubble is more than anything to remove the road bonus and to add flavor to the game for the player. I am not against it, but it doesn't do much else. I just find it far below my concern as an Army or Theatre Commander. Except in the most extreme amounts of Rubble there is always a route. 

My thoughts on rubble.

1. I would leave rubble to the scenario designer. Let them place it and decide. 

2. Carpet Bombing or Level Bombing can create Rubble in a City hex only.

3. Artillery bombardment in a city hex can create, but only after a significant amount of ammo expenditure over a prolonged and sustained bombardment. Whatever that number is. 

4. If a historical context requires the use of Rubble clearance during a scenario, then create a "Construction" Engineer unit in the scenario for that purpose. 

Either way, my two sapper battalions of 90 men just cleared a lane in a 2km town of Rubble so my units could roll onto Budapest in Prelude. It took two turns. I don't know why. I didn't check. I continued the attack. If they didn't I would have drove around it and still made it to Budapest. As a player I usually ignore rubble and if I can't clear it, I keep going.

Great topic! 

Ready to clear RUBBLE with my entrenching tool"    -Gris