Entrenched Units

[helop5]

I was recently in a detailed battle. I was playing the CSA side. The Union established a line of defense with every unit dug in. I outflanked both sides of the line and was in the rear of these dug in units and they still were devestating.

If a unit is dug in does attacking them in the rear or flank minimize their defensive value? Because it did not seem so.

[Joram]

They shouldn't be, of course, but I've been wondering the same thing as they seem awfully indestructible if they are anywhere near an entrenchment.

[Erik Rutins]

Unfortunately, trench facing doesn't seem to affect casualties (much if at all) in the current public version. This was apparently due to a bug that Eric has since fixed, so the next update should make trenches significantly less invulnerable.

Regards,

- Erik

[Joram]

A-ha!  Thank you for the confirmation.  It's one of those things that I knew felt strange but didn't have enough data at hand to really know if it was a bug or not.  Glad to hear it is going to be fixed.

[Viking67]

What about fortresses? Does facing matter?

Cannon can not occupy a fortress and change formation to Line, meaning they can not make very good use of their cannon, which does not seem correct.

[Ironclad]

I assume facing still matters. In the detailed fortress hex your unit has a cannon superimposed (as it acts like heavy artillery) so its facing should determine level of casualties. The cannon graphic is a very nice touch.

[Viking67]

I am talking about an individual artillery unit, moving across the HW map. I put it inn a fortress and it can not change formation to line and effectively use it guns. I think this is wrong.

[Joram]

I think it's a moot point Viking as any unit in a fortress is supposed to fire out as an artillery unit.  I actually almost never get fort maps so I can't be sure if it's working.

[Houtje]

to the original poster: usually, when the union is dug in in entrenchments and you flank them, you'll run into 'yellow' or 'red' hexes, i.e. difficult movement. Movement in these hexes will lead to morale losses in your units;
therefore, you have to overwhelm the union troops rather quickly or suffer multiple routs of your leser quality units. These considerations have, of course, nothing to do with the casualty rate in fire exchange.

[Gray_Lensman]

Referring to page 148 of the manual:

Entrenchment and Flanking: Ineffective--Flanking is not exerted across entrenchments.

Guess it depends upon whether the troops are actually down inside the entrenchments, or just laying prone behind them. I tend to think of entrenchments as actually dug into the terrain, and therefore should provide some benefit even from flanking

[Joram]

The issue is that you'd expect the entrenchments to help only when you are firing across them but what is really happening is that the enemy only needs to be next to them.  It doesn't matter if you are "behind" it or not currently. 

[Ironclad]

Facing entrenched troops I do try and keep the facers out of range and outflank the entrenchments with others. Whilst the latter do seem to inflict heavy (near normal casualties) to start with anyway that seems to fall off very quickly and the outflanked or rear attacked entrenchers appear very resilient. However as I have playing the Union I am not sure whether this isn't just the Rebs great morale boost heightened on the defensive.

[helop5]

No...this is not just an issue from the Federal side, as noted by my first post.

Eric, I appreciate the info on this being corrected. I am impressed by your responsiveness to our posts and thoughts. Very impressed!

[Ironclad]

Sorry I missed the earlier posts including Eric's reply. Roll on the patch.