when to go offroad?

[gwgardner]

I know this question is not specifically about this game, but I'd like to know in order to make playing it more immersive:

At what point do modern/WWII military forces go off road, ie go from moving in column along roads to spreading out or taking up ready formation?

I started wondering about this when I found myself playing each scenario as if no roads existed, just moving cross-country all the time. (I realize that all roads and tracks are not included on the maps.)

Surely the terrain and weaponry of the enemy are critical factors - how about on the steppes of the Soviet Union during the Stalingrad campaigns? At the scale of this game, are the forces already so close to enemy positions that they would mostly be going cross-country?

[bcgames]

At what point do modern/WWII military forces go off road, ie go from moving in column along roads to spreading out or taking up ready formation?

Depends on the terrain (jungle vs desert) but...As a general rule, the lead element(s) of a unit should be deployed in a tactical formation before they cross the line of departure/line of contact (LD/LC)--from fire team to brigade level. Following forces might remain in column until committed. If the lead force cannot fight through an enemy contact, then following forces might attempt to flank by maneuvering to the left or right.

Deployed or not, if a road is available it provides a "hand rail" to guide an attack. Clearing roads of enemy forces and fire is important. The combat trains, recovery vehicles, aid stations, medical evacuation vehicles, DS artillery need a way to go to and from the front without getting lost or shot up in the process. That's usually along a road "to the rear with the gear".

[springel]

Especially in your next game there will be places where Tanks can only drive on roads, on the dikes in the river area, where the soil is too soft for tanks to go off-road. I guess that is represented by swamp hexes?

This happened a few kilometres from my house in 1945

Swallowed Canadian Sherman-tank (1945)
A remarkable story! In may 1945 a Candian Sherman-tank (32.000 kg) sank in the muddy surface of the Reigerlaan at Paterswolde near Groningen. Swallowed up and until now in a probably pretty good condition. A piece of history as a memory of Canadian liberators of Haren, Paterswolde and Groningen. The incident was known by some locals but Sietze Dunning (1949) ans Wybe Westra (1937) from Haren investigated the story and contacted witnesses and other people who confirm the story. De buyer of the ground, this year, says: “After bying this old house a neighbour came to ask me if I knew that I just bought a tank, haha.”
The two gentlemen from Haren made a reconstruction of the events in those times. About how the tank sank in about one or two days. The story is that one of the people who lived there during the war was so happy after liberation that he wanted to restart a little motorsloop to go out on the lake. He met Canadian soldiers at Café Nijdam and asked if they wanted to deliver him the fuel. The soldiers agreed and asked 1 bottle of Jenever in return: deal! They drove their Sherman-tank to the Reigerlaan, but they didn’t know how muddy the grounds there were (and still are). They parked the tank beside the road and suddenly saw it starting to sink. In blind panic they asked for help from their collegues, but it was not possible to save the vehicle. Lost!
It is still not known if the soldiers were punished because of their unthinking actions. It was however a serious matter, because they lost a valuable vehicle, owned by the army that times. Maybe though nobody cared, because of much more losses during the liberation of the Netherlands. Fact is that the Sherman-tank with everything inside sank and now could be a very interesting ‘museum’ underground. The buyer of the house initiated a simple investigation of the surface, that learned that there ‘might be something big’ in the ground. Now he needs to initiate further investigation with radar, that is planned in january 2017.
Sietze Dunning and Wybe Westra think that the tank is still at a depth of not more than 18 feet in the ground, because at this depth there would be a more steady surface of sand. A Sherman-tank could have the value of about 200.000 euro’s or more. At this moment someone already called to offer 80.000 euro, nervermind in what state the tank will be lifted. The question now is who will be the owner of the Sherman-tank? The law says that the man who bought the ground is owner of surface and everything underneath. Some people mean that the town of Tynaarlo will be owner. Than there is the problem of raising and securing the vehicle in this muddy area. Jurjen Hoogstra, expert of the Mammoet company says that he sees a possibillity to fix this job. And last but not least there is the question of ammunition, that might be inside the tank.
The brandnew owner of the ground says laconically: “We let it the way it is now, at first I want to build my new home here. But I think one day I will start to dig.”

[bcgames]

A great story. Should warm the heart of any tanker.

[Zovs]

They gave me the nickname of “submariner” when I first drove our M1A1 through 5 foot deep mud pool, then the nick stuck when my right rear got sucked into a swamp and killed the engine.

[bcgames]

Everyone wants to be a U-Boat commander. Did it at Hohenfels up to the sponson boxes.

[Saint Ruth]

Great story! 18 feet in the ground! That's some soil!