Assaults and the mine belt
 

I played every SP till SP WAW… I found SPMBT and SPWWII just two weeks ago. So am not really used to their engines. I downloaded Win SPMBT about an hour after it became available and love it so far. Except…

I can not win or even breach the mine fields in an assault! The computer is putting a band 5-6 hexes deep and I can not tell when my tanks have cleared a hex! In the old SP if you held the mouse over a hex it would tell you the conditions of the hex. In WinSPMBT it just tells me the terrain type. It says clear even when I can see mines in it. How do I tell a hex is clear of mines if I have a immobile tank in the hex?

In SPWAW I could win a assault by “drilling” a hole in the mine belt with 10-12 mine clearing tanks clearing a 1-2 hex path in 2-3 turns. I have played three Assaults in WinSPMBT so far and even with 20+ mine clearing tanks and 9 combat engineers I have not made it through the mine field in the time allowed! (And the AI’s arty loves me sitting still that long!)

Any hints of how to get through the mine belts?

BTW LOVE THE UAVs! Makes my arty very useful!

Pavel

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

The game should not be telling you it's clear when there are mines in the hex and you shouldn't be having that much trouble getting through the mine belt. ESPECIALLY with that many mine clearing tanks. Post a save game in this thread and we'll look at it

Don

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

Here is the latest try. I gave myself HUGE points and bought a big force to mess around with. I have 13 M1A1 MCBS and 4 engineer squads. Notice the immobilized MCBS tanks. Those happened when I tried to move to the next hex without clearing the one they were working on.

Pavel

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

Sorry, I think you forgot the attachment

Don

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

Here's something else that you can try. When you are deploying your forces, you can change how many turns the game lasts. If you're not into "the Charge of the Light Brigade" type of game, you can double or triple the number of turns the Assault is supposed to last. You probably will want a lot of smoke to cover your Engineers, too.

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

let's try this again.

Pavel

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

Strange. Nothing came through again. I'm going to try adding one of my own

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

Strange. Mine came through OK.

Try sending the save to

drg@shrapnelgames.com

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

*sigh*

Pav

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

OK, I got it and will look at it on the weekend but NEXT TIME just go into the save folder and zip up the CMT and DAT files for that save game instead of sending me a .DAT file renamed ZIP. It saves everyone a lot of time

Don

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

A couple of items

1} I was wrong ( thinking of something else ) mines are NOT reported when you mouse over

2} Specialist engineers and Engineering vehicles clear mines from outside the hex. Stand outside the mined hex. Point your engineers or engineer vehicles at the mined hex and the game will tell you when it's clear.( the mines will disappear ) If you move into a mined hex even with specialists you risk detonation. The more engineer type units you have pointed at a hex the quicker it is cleared.

3} When you deploy if you need more time ( everyone plays differently ) press View Map and then press the "stopwatch" button and increase the number of turns.

4} I know this may sound lame but try bigger maps with the big point games or less points. We increased the points allowed so that people could build big modern tank battles. When you try those big numbers in assualts on (smaller) maps the AI will sometimes build ( really ) big minefields. We may need to tone that down a bit. You used the maximum number of points to build this didn't you? Try again on a 160x200 map.

5} if you have a wreak in a hex the only way to know 100% that it's clear of mines is to send in the engineers

Re: Assaults and the mine belt
 

As Don says - the prime advantage of engineers and engineer vehicles is that they clear obstacles from the next hex, so there is no need for them to enter the obstacle hex, possibly tripping a mine.

That is already stated in the "Mines and field engineering" section of the manual - bullet #2 in that section.

If you assault with a large number of points, the opponent will have more points to use, including buying field defences. Similarily, if you attack on a narrower map, then the opponent has a narrower frontage to fill with defences (and troops!) so you will have to fight through a deeper and denser concentration of forces the narrower the map you select.

So, as suggested - with a very large allocation of points, then you should possibly also consider choosing a wider map, so the defender density will be reduced per unit of area. If you choose a map with double the width, then the defender will have to use double the width of mine belts to close off that width, thus reducing the density by 50%, and the defending troops will be more spread over the map as well, allowing you to gain local superiority that much easier.

If you use lots of attacker points on a narrow map, then it can result in a defended zone more like a WW1 trench system, or Kursk-level defences etc!.

Therefore as suggested - you can increase the number of turns, and that may well be a good idea if you choose an assault battle that is guaranteed to produce a thick concentration of enemy troops and defences to fight through. More turns will let you fight a more deliberate step by step assault, and balance off the extra time the enemy field defences will need to overcome.


Cheers
Andy