Remove entrenchment during deploy?

[Case23]

Is this possible? If so, how does one do it?

[RightDeve]

I wonder why no one bothered to reply this simple question..
Yes, it's obviously possible. You see some icons on the upper right of the screen when you're deploying them, there are those button to "plant" them, and there are those to "remove" them from a hex.
One tip for deploying mines; if you want your mines to be invisible to your opponent, plant them after the attacking player has finished his purchase of units. Otherwise, it'll become visible to both sides.

Cheers...

[Case23]

Thanks for the reply.

In addition to mines, barbed wire, etc. there is also an option in some scenarios to use the E key to have all appropriate units create foxholes, etc. in the position they're placed. Pressing the E key again updates these to the current positions of the units, but there doesn't seem to be any way to simply eliminate the entrenchments.

It's not a big deal, since they're not doing any harm though there are some hack possibilities, as entrenchments don't appear to be removed if the unit that made them is loaded onto a transport.

I found a work-around. If you put a unit on a hex in which it can't entrench it's previous entrenchment will be removed but no new one created. You can also put the unit on the grey border hexes and press the E key, which will entrench there, where they won't affect the game.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Case23

Thanks for the reply.

In addition to mines, barbed wire, etc. there is also an option in some scenarios to use the E key to have all appropriate units create foxholes, etc. in the position they're placed. Pressing the E key again updates these to the current positions of the units, but there doesn't seem to be any way to simply eliminate the entrenchments.

It's not a big deal, since they're not doing any harm though there are some hack possibilities, as entrenchments don't appear to be removed if the unit that made them is loaded onto a transport.

I found a work-around. If you put a unit on a hex in which it can't entrench it's previous entrenchment will be removed but no new one created. You can also put the unit on the grey border hexes and press the E key, which will entrench there, where they won't affect the game.

In an assault game, every defending unit gets an entrenchment, whether you press the E key or not. It's a function of the save or the load code that ensures that they do.
The assaulter's infantry and soft arty etc also get entrenchments as well. Bar a few oddities.

The entrenchments are not "optional" in that mission, about the only ones that do not get one are units deployed in a building hex, and also I think some others like swamp hexes. Also, you can get an entrenchment "spare" if you then load up an entrenched grunt as a passenger - sometimes. Those are the "oddities" of the entrenching code, and have been there since SP1 days.

The E key simply updates where the unit entrenchments are going to be, as far as I recollect. But pressing the E key is a good idea, since it helps to avoid some of the strange results the entrenching code does come up with, if it is not pressed and the scenario load/save code has to be relied on to determine unit entrenchment hexes.

There is no "anti E key" - because all units are meant to have an entrenchment as outlined above, in that mission type. No option not to have them. (If you don't want them, then set up an advance scenario instead. Defenders have not had the time to entrench in an advance mission).

So there is no way to have some "with" and some "without" their assigned entrenchments in an assault. (Bar some tricks with using the scenario editor and changing the battle type between edits, which is not guaranteed to bring any sort of reliable result. And you can end up with phantom entrenchments under units as well if you try to mess with the mission type. Unit is flagged as entrenched, but the appropriate graphic was not married up to it - which the E key makes sure of)

Bottom line: in an assault, the defenders are almost 100% given trenches, and the attackers deployed inf/teams/towed arty are too.

NB - Unit entrenchments are free, there is no points expenditure as with other tabletop games rules. (Fire trenches/Tank ditches, mines, wire etc are not the same as the freebie individual unit entrenchments - and are paid out of engineering points and are laid by the scenario designer)

Andy