Crew Recovery

[Kirk]

Does anybody know why if a crew abandons a vehicle or field gun that they can't rejoin the battle after they've sufficiently recovered? Is it because there are a minimum number of crew members required to man a tank/field gun and the assumption is that once they've abandoned their post the manpower just isn't available to effectively man the weapon anymore? It just seems strange that at one point in a battle there can be a dozen crews milling about that can't reenter the battle by climbing back into their tank or remanning their AT gun.

[Jim1954]

They can reoccupy guns and vehicles after they pass some sort of morale check. The gun may have a lessened ROF due to crew casulaties, and then again, they may never re-crew it if they never pass that check. They won't re-crew a destroyed unit but might an abandoned one.

[Resisti]

Note also, that a crew can only reman his own vehicle/gun.
If you try to reman another one, you'll never succeed.

[Kirk]

How does one perform this special morale check or is it something unseen by the player? I've never seen a crew do anything out of the ordinarry of any other infantry unit. I've seen many of them recover, but they mostly just mill around and provide targets for the enemy. Also, how do you reman a weapon? If my 88 crew breaks and runs, then recovers, how do I get them to start firing their weapon again? Thanks for the help.

[Jim1954]

This morale check is hidden in the background and you never see it. The best way to re-crew is to get the specific crew in the same hex as the abandoned ordnance and just wait . Sometimes it will happen, sometimes it won't. I don't THINK that this is a check that can be affected by leader proximity to the crew.

Same with immobilized vehicles, although usually the crew stays with it. After they pass an arbitrary check they may fix it and off you go.

[Kirk]

OK, so all I can do is have the crew sit at their weapon and wait?

I have another question that is essentially the opposite of my first question. If a crew is in an immobilized vehicle or at a gun that has no ammo left, is there a way I can have them bail out and go do something else? It seems silly that a crew will sit diligently by their gun if it's broken or if they have no more ammunition.

[Jim1954]

Kirk, this attached link is for an older version than 7.1 so I'm not sure it works or not but set up a game and try it. Supposedly the "9" key will do it when the vehicle is selected. Notice it is NOT the F9 key, which surrenders you.

showthread.php?s=&threadid=3265&highlight=crew+bailout

[sandman20]

Originally posted by Kirk
If a crew is in an immobilized vehicle or at a gun that has no ammo left, is there a way I can have them bail out and go do something else? It seems silly that a crew will sit diligently by their gun if it's broken or if they have no more ammunition.

Just press button "9" (IIRC) and game first asks if you want that crew bail out, then select yes.

Jim was faster than I

[Gary Tatro]

Originally posted by Kirk
OK, so all I can do is have the crew sit at their weapon and wait?

If your crew has a suppresion of 0 it allways in my experience recrews the vehicle or gun. If it has a suppresion of 1-5 it will sometime recrew, this is where I think the moral check comes in. This is why it is imprortant to target thoughs abandonded vehicles with artillary until you know the crew is kaput.

[rbrunsman]

Originally posted by Kirk
It just seems strange that at one point in a battle there can be a dozen crews milling about that can't reenter the battle by climbing back into their tank or remanning their AT gun.

Keep in mind that crews make excellent "free" scouts. They have the added benefit of getting to assault AFVs that blindly stumble into them (unlike those stupid Ski Troops:mad: ).

I never have crews "milling" about as you say.

[Kirk]

I read the message string Jim listed and I have one more question: Does the bailout option also work for AT guns/artillery? I played a game a couple nights ago where an AT gun malfunctioned and I couldn't figure out a way to separate the crew from their useless gun. Thanks for all your help guys.

[Wolfleader]

Are you using Version 7.1 of SPWAW? Some much older versions may not allow you to recrew abandoned vehicles. (I have a very old copy that I got from a copy of PCGamer from a while back where I encountered the same situation also).

Also check your units morale and make sure they're standing in the same hex as their own vehicle since they won't crew any other vehicle other than their own. Be sure to rally them before you end your turn, the lower their suppression the better the chance that they'll recrew the vehicle. Also make sure that there will be no enemy units firing on them or enemy arty comming down at their location at the end of your turn.

[Kirk]

I'm using V7.1. Prior to playing this version I just played the original version of SP, so I'm not aware of all the differences in the two.

[Jim1954]

The post dates on that thread are quite old, so who knows what version they were referring to.

[Resisti]

Originally posted by Kirk
I read the message string Jim listed and I have one more question: Does the bailout option also work for AT guns/artillery? I played a game a couple nights ago where an AT gun malfunctioned and I couldn't figure out a way to separate the crew from their useless gun. Thanks for all your help guys.

Kirk, the bail out key (9), can be used for any weapon/vehicle and stuffs that has a crew. This includes ALSO any type of forts/fortifications ! In the latter case, you could have very big squads messing around

[Griefbringer]

At least for me re-manning of abandoned vehicles and weapons works pretty well - just have the crew stand in the same hex as the thing to be re-manned for a couple of turns and they will re-man if it is unsupressed.

The 9-key for bailing out should work with all vehicles and crew-served weapons. Though sometimes it happens that a bailed-out crew does not happen to have any weapons when they get out - happened to me a couple of times.

And always make sure to finish the bailed-out enemy crews before they manage to hide or recover and re-man their vehicle.

Griefbringer

[Resisti]

Originally posted by Griefbringer

Though sometimes it happens that a bailed-out crew does not happen to have any weapons when they get out - happened to me a couple of times.


Griefbringer

This is a known bug, or at least a game limitation, and it is linked to the destruction of the vehicle/gun primary weapon: i.e., if a tank has its gun destroyed(or broken down), its crew, too, when bails out, will have no weapon in slot 1(so will be weaponless).

[chief]

I have found that adding smoke to the abandomed weapons hex, with crew in same hex, helps considerably in the remanning of said weapon. Also rallying after each turn also helps. FWIW

[WhiteRook]

I have found that having good leaders near-by does not seem to effect the crew at all, and also I have went several turns with a crew at zero surpression and they have not re-crewed the vehicle or gun. No smoke did not help either in those cases either. But to be fair it has helped on several other occasions.
The only thing I can attribute their refusing to re-crew is that they have simply decided that the position of the tank/gun is just untenable.

[john g]

Originally posted by WhiteRook
I have found that having good leaders near-by does not seem to effect the crew at all, and also I have went several turns with a crew at zero surpression and they have not re-crewed the vehicle or gun. No smoke did not help either in those cases either. But to be fair it has helped on several other occasions.
The only thing I can attribute their refusing to re-crew is that they have simply decided that the position of the tank/gun is just untenable.

Perhaps they got back in, noticed the jammed turret (or other important damage) and immediately bailed back out. Without the turret ring working a tank is lucky to hit the broad side of a barn.
thanks, John.