Question about rivers

[JudgeDredd]

I just spent quite a few turns and used units combat chance to blow bridges (I'm in full retreat as the Russians) and the Germans just walzted over a river hex...

Is there any benefit to blowing bridges?

I did touch on this in my post about my findings on the game, which are still very positive...just confused about the bridges thing...I was hoping to delay the Germans as I am getting my bum kicked.

[Carl Myers]

Mechanized units can only cross major rivers by bridge, major rivers also halve the basic attack strength of units. The Soviet player needs to keep the Southwest Front assets available protect Izyum. The three divisions that are released by the capture of Lannaya are part of those Southwest Front assets. German infantry units have the mobility to cross major rivers, so it is important to have those Southwest Front assest to defend the Donetz river line.

[JudgeDredd]

German infantry units have the mobility to cross major rivers

So for the Soviet player there is no benefit to blowing bridges? It will not hinder the Germans?

Too late for Izyum...I've already resigned to losing this one, but as I did in GG War Between The States, I'll play it through and come back stronger [&:]

I am a little concerned that I lost "this bad" (it's only turn 8 I think) to a Normal AI [:D]

[e_barkmann]

have a look at the OP costs for units moving across a minor/major river as per the Hexsides display below - it shows all the info Carl mentioned and note how much the OP costs are - by blowing bridges you can slow down or prevent enemy movement, hinder resupply etc, so I think it's always worth doing. Note also, if the weather for the turn was mud, not even infantry can cross a major river.


In the game system there are 3 types of hexside terrain: minor river, major river and cliffs.

You can see what type of river hexside is portrayed on the map by right clicking on the hex containing the river and looking at the terrain popup display(and generally the artwork for river hexes gives a good indication if it's minor or major anyway).

To find out more about how rivers affect the game, click the Terrain/CRT button in the Control Panel (bottom left of the main game display, the button is hexagon shaped) and click on 'Hex Sides' (towards the bottom left of the Terrain Data display page).

The first thing you do is look in the centre of the chart and locate the transport type icon under the 'OP' column. (You can determine the transport type of each unit by looking at the unit's popup display).

Next, determine what the current weather is. This is displayed in the top right of the main game screen. In the Kharkov campaign, it's mostly 'Dry'.

Now, look under the 'Dry' column and cross reference to the movement type icon in the middle.

Let's use the infantry movement type as an example.

So the readout for that under the Dry column is: 1/8/*

This translates (via the legend at the top of the chart reading '(+) Minor Rivers/Major Rivers/Cliffs' ) to:

+1 OP expenditure to cross a minor river hexside / +8 OP expenditure to cross a major river hexside / crossing a cliff hexside is not allowed.

Another way to quickly identify different river OP penalties on the chart is look at the color of the OP numbers - light blue=minor river, dark blue=major river.

As well, there's a range of hexside combat adjustments in the legend at the base of the table, using colored arrows and asterisks.

So for instance, we can see by the orange arrow icon that attacking across minor rivers in dry weather will result in normal attack factors being used but no tactical shift bonus can apply through that hexside - so there's a good reason to defend behind a minor river hexside, for example.

Even better for the defender is the major river, where the red arrow pointing upwards indicates that attack factors are HALVED when attacking through a major river hex, as well as the whammy of no tactical shift bonus.

Worse again for the attacker - look across at the 'Mud' weather side of the table on the right. The red asterisk at the base of the major river column indicates that NO ATTACKS can be made at all across these hexsides in muddy conditions. You'll also note there's a lot more yellow asterisks in the major river column in mud weather, which indicates no movement allowed unless across a bridge.

So that's where bridges are very useful for your enemy as they negate the effect of rivers if they are intact - so they are very definitely a weak spot in your defense if you are defending behind a river.

Bridge blowing is not automatic but if you are lucky enough to have a unit with the bridge blowing bonus displayed in the unit popup (as per the unit quick reference guide), you will have a much higher chance of blowing the bridge.

cheers

[JudgeDredd]

mmm....sorry about that. I did look at the Terrain/CRT screen but, tbch, I don't understand it.

It's second nature to people who have played board games with those cards...I had one, MBT...didn't get played much mainly because it was too difficult to understand/too much infor to take in and, in part, I did not understand the info cards that came with it.

I will try and get a grip of these screens. However, I am reading the manual piecemeal, so I will look out for an in-depth description of these screens and what they depict.

Thx

[Fred98]

In that screen shot above, the item at the top is a reference to supply.

The other movement types are foot, horse, wheeled and tracked.

There are 2 wheeled vehicles in the list and I have never understood why.

[Waffenamt]

Joe 98,
 
Could that last one be semi-tracked? Just a wild guess...

[e_barkmann]

I've edited my post above to include some additional comments on how to interpret the hexside display.

cheers

[Noakesy]

That's a really useful note Chris - to be honest, there were elements of the CRT that I've never fully understood (only been playing these games for a few years now[8|]), but now I do - very helpful.[:)]

[Gregor_SSG]

Chris has explained everything perfectly, so I'm not going to try to add anything, except my thanks.

Just a note for both sides though, the Germans do have a pontoon unit, which can be useful if the Soviets has completely stacked the most direct approaches to Izyum. The Soviets don't have enough men to defend strongly everywhere along the river line, so the Germans can use their infantry to clear the way, pop a bridge across and then pour their Panzers through.

Gregor