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Old September 15th, 2005, 07:39 PM
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Default Re: Engineers laying mines

A hex is 50 metres.

let's call it square for ease of calculation (it will actually be more)

Let us assume that 1 mine point represents about one mine in every 5 by 5 metre box for ease of calculation.

50 times 50 is 2500 square metres. divide by 5 times 5 is 25, so 2500/25 = 100 mines as a WAG for the amount needed.

100 anti-tank mines, are not carried in the back pack of a 10 man engineer section.

Additionally - SP minefields are dual purpose. So add a minimum of 100 anti-personell mines to our little garden of death. probably more, as apers to AP ratio os usually 2 to 1. say 300 mines.

A 1 point minefield may well be less than that figure i first guessed at - assume a narrow belt somewhere in the 50 by 50 square, rest being empty, so back to maybe 150 actaul mines. Still, probably a truck-load. And much more than a quick "phut" from some mine dispenser vehicle, which probably can throw a couple of dozen per discharge?. A bar mine layer might have 150 mines inside, but to plough that area would take it a half an hour (more?) - plus initial survey of the ground, placement of tapes and so on.

Any real minelaying is therefore not realistic in game terms. manual digging of the things would need a couple of sections (20 or so guys) and an ammo vehicle, with no interruptions, for maybe 2-3 hours (I dont have my mine warfare text to hand ATM). Surface laying would possibly bring the time down to 45 minutes or an hour - still not feasable in game terms, and we do not have a counter or any real concept in the game engine of an engineer task that needs 30+ turns uninterrupted to complete a task.


A mine symbol is not 2 engineer guys placing a half a dozen real mines into a 50 by 50 meter (half a football pitch or so) area.

Cheers
Andy
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