Bridges

[dthen01]

I am new to WITE, and I have not been able to find anything on destroying bridges. Can anybody help me?

[Speedysteve]

Bridges are simulated by the increased MP cost to cross minor and major rivers.

[dthen01]

but shouldn't an in tact bridge require less MP than a blown bridge?

[PyleDriver]

Hum this is a very old subject. Its asumed they all get blown. How many were intact when they got there. I know of one in the west, how many in the east. Any numbers and names?

[neuromancer]

I've wondered that myself.  At the very least once I've got a rail across a river (indicating constructed rail bridges at least) the cost to cross the river at that spot should probably be the same as normal for non-rail traffic.  Or did they fix the rail bridges but not the traffic bridges, and absolutely won't let vehicles onto the rail bridges unless properly placed and secured on a rail car?
 
Who knew the Eastern front was unionized.
 

[Scook_99]

From all accounts I read, from Poland to the Low Countries to France to Russia, they almost always find a route across a river, or build one within 24 hours. At this scale bridges wouldn't apply. The extra movement is for searching for a correct route across and building up on the other side of the river.

[randallw]

We don't need no stinkin' bridges.

[dziki]

Do I understand well, Russians always withdraw units across the rivers using railways and Germans can't blow up or bomb that bridges ?
On the other hand, Germans must always wait to repair whole railway to the river to do the same ?
This game is very strange at some aspects :/

[thedoctorking]

Historically, the Soviets in particular were quite good at rapid bridging operations. The Germans had rollbahn repair troops who kept roads and railroads open. The railroad bridges were not necessarily intact when captured and in fact not necessarily replaced during the war - cargoes would often be unloaded, taken across the river on temporary bridges, and then loaded on trains on the other side. This continued to be the case in Europe well into the late 1940's - my parents remember a trip from Cherbourg to Bordeaux in late 1945 that involved "innumerable" river crossings at broken bridges across temporary structures and took six days (for a journey you could do today on the autoroute or in a train in four or five hours).

The game abstracts this by, for one thing, making rail journeys take far longer than they would in peacetime. It certainly wouldn't take more than a week to travel from eastern Germany to the Volga in 1938, assuming you had the proper passports. Another abstraction is the cost in MP for crossing a river during normal land movement, which again can take almost a week for a major river if you are crossing into an enemy zone of control. It goes more quickly if your side controls both sides, but still can take a significant fraction of your weekly allowance of MP, reflecting the time needed to go up or downriver to find an intact bridge or to build or repair a bridge where you want to cross.

[timmyab]

I know of one in the west, how many in the east. Any numbers and names?

I can only think of three off the top of my head although there are probably some other less famous examples.
They would be Daugavpils in June 1941, Voronezh in July 1942 and Kalach in November 1942.

Personally, as much as I love to capture me a bridge, I think the designer is correct to absract them in a game of this scale which doesn't include a road network.

Edit. Actually a bit of googling shows that there were quite a few examples of major bridges being captured intact during operation Barbarossa.

[Neogodhobo]

Yes there were tons of bridges captured intact in the East and it was one of the biggest strategy around : capture the bridge intact.
I also think it should be included in the game since bridges played such an important role.

[Denniss]

I'd really like to see rail/river hexes captured without combat be captured with rail either intact or damage-1. If captured in combat then with full damage + rail repair of such a hex should cost double/triple the normal amount.
No idea if this is programmable though (should be player only anyway as the AI would likely fail over this)

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: Denniss

I'd really like to see rail/river hexes captured without combat be captured with rail either intact or damage-1. If captured in combat then with full damage + rail repair of such a hex should cost double/triple the normal amount.
No idea if this is programmable though (should be player only anyway as the AI would likely fail over this)

Not all bridges were battle sites. Many bridges weren't, just blown.

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: Denniss

I'd really like to see rail/river hexes captured without combat be captured with rail either intact or damage-1. If captured in combat then with full damage + rail repair of such a hex should cost double/triple the normal amount.

The following is the right answer:

ORIGINAL: timmyab
Personally, as much as I love to capture me a bridge, I think the designer is correct to absract them in a game of this scale which doesn't include a road network.

Anyhow I'd like to check in WITW, where some roads are provided, how it handles the bridge issue;