How to repair vehicles

[h00b22]

I think it's a simple question for expert players:
- Is it possible to repair disabled vehicles (tanks, halftracks ...) ?
- Are there some special units (men, vehicles ...) with this ability ?
- Is this only a question of "luck" to recover damaged vehicles ?

Awaiting for your answer, regards from Madrid.

[azraelck]

As far as I know, it's luck. I've never seen any vehicles repaired, but if they are immobilized due to terrain (i.e., running a tank through a swamp) there's always the chance they'll get themselves unstuck. Usually after the battle's over though.

[Korpraali V]

Yes, some vehicles may repair themselves (change tyres, adjust tracks etc.) during the fight if you are lucky. Most remain immobilized.

In Norway OOB you can find two AFV recovery vehicles at december 1949. They are for special scenarios, not for campaigns. They were rare, but could tow an immobilized tank. There's also many other wacky things in Norway OOB at 1949 for whether international or some specific nation's use.


Hope this helps.


Ps. You can find an interesting "Recovering the Big Cats" -scenario from the Depot at http://www.spwaw.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8496
To download, you have to join in. That's free.

[azraelck]

Wasn't there dedicated tow vehicles for damaged armor during WWII? I seem to remember reading something about it, though it may have been here. My reading tends to span a broad selection of books and sites, so it gets kinda hard to keep up with what was where.

[Dragoon 45]

I can't think of a single Nation that didn't have dedicated recovery vehicles during the war. The most common recovery vehicle the Germans used was an 18 ton unarmored Halftrack used to tow disabled vehicles; but they also had recovery versions of the Panther, Tiger I, Hetzer, Pz-III, etc. The US Army used the M-32 series recovery vehicles based on an M-4 Chassis and these vehicles were also supplied to American Allies, i.e. Brits, Russians, Canadian's, etc. Japs had a recovery version of the Type 97 medium tank.

Then also another tank could be used to tow a disabled tank. Germans used this technique quite often with their Tiger equipped units due to a lack of recovery vehicles, although it was prohibited by regulations to do so.

I suspect that actual repair work is left out of the game due to time factors. Breaking a track is a long labor intensive job. Taking it apart, laying it out on the ground, then backing the tank onto the track, and finally reconnecting the track can take hours to do. Only the simpliest repairs that take small amounts of time could be replicated in the game; i.e. unjamming weapons, extracting a dud round, reconnecting a loose wire, etc.

ORIGINAL: azraelck

Wasn't there dedicated tow vehicles for damaged armor during WWII? I seem to remember reading something about it, though it may have been here. My reading tends to span a broad selection of books and sites, so it gets kinda hard to keep up with what was where.

[Korpraali V]

Here's one example. [:)]

Two Romanian R-35s tow captured Soviet BT (probably BT-7) Bessarabia 7-41.

[omegaall]

The main form of 'in game' repair occurs when the vehicle has become immobilised. It may recover in time if it is kept out of the action. Not always easy.
This assumes the crew can get out of the vehicle and fix the track or tyres. If the vehicle is being continually engaged, fired on or shooting it will stay immobilised as the crew can not safely get out to fix the problem. Same issue with getting stuck.

[264rifle]

I am siding with the "Not enough time" peaple on this one. At even 5 min a turn a 30 turn turn game is only an hour and a half. Trying to model a non-combat operation that might take 4-10 hours in real life doesn't really belong in the average game. I do thank the peaple who are trying to come up with different small scenerios using this idea but can you imagine a large battle (2 or more tank companies on each side with multiple repair/recovery vehicles).

question; while I have had vehicles self repair and regain mobility I have yet to see a weapon be repaired. AND I am still trying to figure out how you break a mortar[&:]

[Korpraali V]

ORIGINAL: 264rifle

question; while I have had vehicles self repair and regain mobility I have yet to see a weapon be repaired. AND I am still trying to figure out how you break a mortar[&:]

I've never seen malfuctioned weapon been repaired until the next battle. Perhaps the mortar should explode instead of malfunction... double loading, overheating or so. [;)]