How can you make infantry dig in?

mrdomenic · #1 December 31st, 2005, 02:36 PM

HI all -hope I am posting thisis the correct place...how can you make infantry dig in once they stop moving? I play a lot of infantry based scenarious, but can't get my troops to dig in? Thanks in advance...

Mark

Mobhack · #2 December 31st, 2005, 06:17 PM

In an assault/defence game you get dug in for "free". You can occupy existing fire trenches or foxholes etc. later in the battle.

In other games, there is simply insufficient time to dig in during the game. A 2 man slit trench takes an hour or more to dig in good digging soil, with nobody shooting at you. I've done that, and it is much more er,um "fun" when you do have to do it wearing your "noddy" suit in summer in BAOR (even without the respirator on).

SP3 allowed improving positions - but each unit was a platoon, and turns were meant to be 5 minutes or so. SP3 allowed infantry units to dig in far faster then real life (about 4 turns or so).

Cheers
Andy
Cheers
Andy

mrdomenic · #3 December 31st, 2005, 08:04 PM

That makes sense - I didn't think about the time aspect. My airborne infantry keeps taking heavy casualties when it gets to the objective - but I guess that is realistic! Thanks again for your help.

Mark

Zipuli · #4 February 18th, 2006, 08:07 PM

But even small holes where you can lie covered is sufficent when mortar shells start hitting the ground around you. This can be done quite fast if not under fire. The improving of positions feature was a good idea in SP3, but it was a bit too fast and gave a bit too much cover (tanks!! they just don't dig around without the blades, and those are not installed in 2 mins)...

I think it could be nice if infantry could in say 5 combat-free (not being pinned or greated) turns improve their positions a little, not much. Small hole ~0.5m deep where their whole body would not be over ground level, giving X amount of extra cover (+ hide?) in that hex. Of course inf in cliffs etc. would be unable to do so. Idea worth concidering?

Zip

Mobhack · #5 February 19th, 2006, 12:51 PM

the game already does this - if you were stationary the turn before and this turn, you are a little better off than remaining stationary this turn, but haviong moved the turn before.

"Dug in" is a flag - on or off, and it is reserved for entrenchments in an assault.

Andy

Mustang · #6 February 21st, 2006, 05:05 PM

Zipuli, the "clear" terrain modeled into the game isn't perfectly flat. There is still cover on the ground (small bushes, short hills, etc.) that infantry are assumed to take advantage of. So, because they're already taking advantage of this cover, making a very small trench like you suggest would be unrealistic.

About tanks digging in in SP3: Each SP3 turn supposedly represented 30 minutes of real time (according to the manual). It took maybe 4 turns to dig in, and I guess that you're supposed to assume that the crew climbs outside of the tank and shovels some dirt in front of the hull. Wouldn't be all that unrealistic, if 4 turns meant two hours of real time.