Clearing a mine on a straits hex

[mdsmall]

Hi Bill,

I just finished play-testing against the AI a mod I designed which includes a new DE to make an Entente amphibious attack on Gallipoli more feasible (still difficult, but feasible).
However, I encountered the following weird glitch.

The Ottomans (as played by the AI) placed on a mine on the first straits hex before the Dardanelles. I discovered this by flying a recon mission with a sea-plane against Chanak to see if there were any Ottoman troops there. As a result of spotting the mine by air, my naval units could not clear it by moving adjacent to it. Nor could my naval units move through the hex and enter the Dardanelles, as the straits hex was still under Ottoman control (as a land/sea hex). However, when I made an amphibious landing with marines, I found they also could not move through the hex - I presume because a land unit can not attack or remove a naval mine. The net result was that the straits hex was completely impassable to my land and naval forces (and may have been impassable to CP land units too).

Is this by design, or is it a glitch? As you know, the British began the Gallipoli campaign by clearing the straits of naval mines, so it should be possible to remove them with some effort on the Entente side. Since I did not tinker with any of the underlying mechanics of the game (at least not intentionally), I believe this is due to the game settings, rather than my mod.

Grateful for your advice,

Michael

[BillRunacre]

Thanks Michael, we'll have to think about this one as it's obviously not right to have an unremovable minefield.

One solution for your game might be to temporarily switch sides and see if an Ottoman naval unit can remove the minefield by moving into that hex.

[mdsmall]

Hi Bill,

I did a hot seat test of this situation using the 1917 campaign settings. The same thing occurred. Ottoman naval units can can move through the straits hex without difficulty and they can also accidentally trigger the friendly mine. Ottoman land units can also move across the straits hex. But once the mine is spotted, the hex is impassable to both Entente naval and land forces.

I agree it is not right to have an unremovable minefield, especially in a strategic location like a straits hex. I am surprised no one has discovered this before now. I hope that you can resolve it.

Michael

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks for the report and we'll look into a fix for this.

[Hellfirejet]

Thanks for the report and we'll look into a fix for this.

Maybe one possible solution might be to combined Destroyers and Torpedo boats into one unit type, and the Torpedo Boat unit type could become a Minesweeper with the ability to remove enemy laid mine fields?

[mdsmall]

Or, as I have argued for a while, give destroyers and torpedo boats a minesweeping capability. That way port hexes would not be taken up by a new weak naval unit with a very narrow (but important) function.