Can Engineers Blow Up Bridges?

[Mobhack]

In the original SP games, it was simply a hit with the right warhead size that removed bridges. There was no chance element about it.

So a 122mm HE hit always removed a wood bridge section, and an 8 inch a stone one.

Now there is a random chance whether a hex is damaged by a hit, so it is much less often that just the one hit will crater a hex, or drop the bridge section. You will usually have to pound on a wood bridge for a few turns with a 122mm battery - though you may be lucky and smash it in the first turn of course.

And in any case an engineer throwing a satchel charge of what - 10 lbs of HE? - onto the top of a bridge being able to blow it, was always a bit too "gamey". Bridge demolitions took hours to prepare properly, not a case of some Hollywood actor lighting a stick of dynamite with his cigar and casually chucking it over his shoulder!

So - line up a train of engineers and keep banging away in Z-fire, and you may get your "Hollywood moment", in time - especially if you have an ammo truck nearby to refuel from. But don't get that ammo truck too close to the bangs or it may go boom.

Hmm - Kamikaze mode ! - just park the ammo truck on the bridge and bombard it with HE if you want to try that route - it goes off with the effect of a 1000Lb aircraft bomb (sometimes 2)! Also - in a scenario - use the demolition class with a big HE content, or buy a suicide truck instead of (or as the starter for) the ammo truck as a mobile banger.

You could also move the ammo truck onto the bridge hex - and let the enemy fire it up for you, the AI will likely oblige, though a human opponent might not. But the opfire routines are AI so a moving ammo truck may get set off by that.

Bridge hexes are also something that pilots are reasonably good at hitting, so plot a strike plane with a decent bomb load (1000 pounders) on it - target spot is the bridge hex - and there is a fair chance he will hit it, including with stand off LGB or guided missiles. (Not the level bomber class - they are only there to spread bombs in a random circle around the target)

cheers
Andy

Re thread's title - yes they can, just use a civilian counter from the UN OOB as the wedding party...