Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

and what's IIRC?

Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

Internet Shorthand - "If I recall correctly"

Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

Gliders fly to the LZ then offload troops and are then marked as destroyed because they are no further use to the player. If they were left "live" then the AI would spend lots of time shooting them up if it got LOS to them as soft vehicle type targets.

In reality, the glider crews left the things and went to a central rally point and were eventually sent home. They are too valuable as trained pilots to use as infantry.

Another point to destroying them on landing - it stops silly players using the glider crews as "scouts". It also gives their VP to the opposite player, making the use of glider borne troops need a bit of thought.

The gliders advantage is that any troops landed in them are reasonably concentrated on landing whereas paratroops are usually spread all over the landscape like confetti. Gliders like about 500M of open flat space to land on - they do not like trees, orchards, buildings, slope hexes, marshland, rough ground or water landing hexes!. Good visibility reduces landing crashes, but this opens up the chance of AAA, and gliders are slow fliers...

Cheers
Andy

Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

Hi Andy
Any chance of removing the suppression the landed gliders give to their own troops?

Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

The gliders will give no suppression to the landed troops, as they aren't destroyed by enemy action, just marked as destroyed.

Any destruction would only count in the landing phase anyway, since wrecks have no suppressive effect beyond the destruction phase when all the troops are forming up, so are somewhat useless anyway?. You don't just land and go - see the glider landing at arnhem - but the forming up time for glider troops will be less than if you shotgunned paratroopers all over half a county. However either type of air landing troop if it falls under the guns of any formed enemy will be toast.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

Hi Andy
Well I guess Im missing something then, In the test game attached unit D1 landed with 4 suppression points and after two turns sitting there now has 5
E0 had 4 now has 7
E3 had 5 now has 7
E4 had 5 now has 6
F0 had 4 now has 7
G0 had 4 now has 10
G1 had 4 now has 11
etc. etc.
They all landed cleanly without casualties and havnt moved I havnt done any rallying myself just relying on the autorally.
Most units are gradually increasing suppression I thought it must have been the wrecked gliders but if it isnt I'd be interested to know why suppression is increasing.
Ive also seen a "wrecked" glider with 2 suppression points shouldnt it have had 0?
Regards Chuck.

Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

Looks like I missed a little bit of code - friendly wrecks within 7 hexes do give a chance of 1 point of suppression per such wreck.

It's irrelevant what suppression any wreck has - as it may just be what it had on crashing etc. and not cleared. It is not going to be morale tested on it.

I'll look into the glider landing routine - will probably mark them as abandoned with nil crew, so it will only be marked destroyed if the enemy co-locate in the same hex, or at game end if the game is his win etc.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

Gliders landing code changed - crew is reduced to 0 etc. as before, but they are marked as just STATUS_ABANDONED, not as STATUS_DESTROYED.

The suppression add for destroyed wreck within 7 hexes is now not applicable, unless the enemy remain in same hex as the trashed item and so flame it, as with any other abandoned item.

(Duplicated for MBT code as well)

Cheers
Andy

Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

As someone who has toyed around with airmobile assaults in WinSPMBT I can assure that this is no cake walk either. It has its own set of difficulties. Helicopters are extremely fragile and extremely responsive to enemy fire. A transport plane or glider isn't going to turn around in the face of enemy fire. A helicopter might, and it might just be carrying the exact units you need to break out from the LZ. You need to find a landing zone with a good covered approach...and barring that set up a walk of smoke or otherwise suppress any defenses that are on route. You'll note that in the early days of airmobile operations, at least for the US, laying thick smoke screens around the LZ was part of the general plan, to provide an immediate defense against enemies taking advantage of helicopters at their most vulnerable.

Re: Gliders or Paratroop transport?
 

When Gliders Crashlland do they disappear? I can't find them after the action turn, also flame hexes give your troops supression?