Mines, Mines and for the love of G*D mines!

[cward]

Is anyone as frustrated as I regarding the sheer number of mines that the AI purchases in the WWII campaign generator?

Geez louise they must spend 40-50% of total point count on mines alone..

In one Al Aghila scenario the brits had (at least one who knows) a band of mines from the top to the bottom, with the max number of mines in each hex..

No AT guns to speak of, nothing but mines on the front line.. grrr.. it is extremely frustrating (and annoying!) because unlike SP1 it seems to take forever for an engineer squad to clear a hex of mines.. and the germans dont have funny's to deal with them either..

So give a guy some help.. What is one to do? has anyone developed a fast method to clear paths so that the blitzkreig can roll on (semi)unimpeded?

[panda124c]

Originally posted by cward:
Is anyone as frustrated as I regarding the sheer number of mines that the AI purchases in the WWII campaign generator?

Geez louise they must spend 40-50% of total point count on mines alone..

In one Al Aghila scenario the brits had (at least one who knows) a band of mines from the top to the bottom, with the max number of mines in each hex..

No AT guns to speak of, nothing but mines on the front line.. grrr.. it is extremely frustrating (and annoying!) because unlike SP1 it seems to take forever for an engineer squad to clear a hex of mines.. and the germans dont have funny's to deal with them either..

So give a guy some help.. What is one to do? has anyone developed a fast method to clear paths so that the blitzkreig can roll on (semi)unimpeded?

Stack a platoon (4 squads) in a mine hex to clear it quickly (4-12 mines a turn) cover your engineers flanks with smoke, keep your penatration area small. Back up with MGs who can see into the hex in front of the engineers. Pre-bombard the mine field with all artillary, note the AI sets it's mine field one to two hexes behind the start line. The bombardment will expose mine and destroy some. Then just roll the barrage forward to supress any enemy units behind the mine field.
Oh yea and be patient, it take time to clear a path. FIgure 3 to 5 turns before you can break through. For some historical insight into mine clearing, read about El Alamin from the Britsh side.
[ July 18, 2001: Message edited by: pbear ]

[ July 18, 2001: Message edited by: pbear ]

[AmmoSgt]

I think there is a Princess Di unit in the British OOB ...maybe if you use the Nations button to buy Her for your core force the Mines will go away ?
Seriously, being held up for 5 turns ( 10-15 minutes ) by maximum mine belts seems like the mines are probably to easy to clear ...mind you i am not saying Mines make the game fun or that i want them to be made harder to remove .. I am just saying that I would be on the side of folks saying learn how to clear mines, and be thankful that they are not portrayed more realistically in the game and that the game doesn't have a die roll for curious soliders who want to go souvenier hunting ... you would not believe some of the stuff i have been asked to go identify in Barracks ,or that US Solders pick up to put on their coffee tables ... talk about "geeze Louise"

[Paul Vebber]

No Pricess di unit...but a Princess di button...I don't know if th AI si smart enough not to buy mines when you turn the 'mines' preference button off, but you won't have to worry about them if they do.

Try it out and see?

[Arralen]

Would it be possible to make the AI buy (and deploy) not only mines but other obstacles as well .. and maybe leave some hexes un-mined ??

would be more realistic, leave the AI more points to buy guns and will the attacker almost the same time to sniff out ..

A.

[murx]

It always feels as if the AI gets their girdle of mines for free ...

murx

[john g]

Originally posted by cward:

So give a guy some help.. What is one to do? has anyone developed a fast method to clear paths so that the blitzkreig can roll on (semi)unimpeded?

I don't know if it still works in 6.1, but back in 4.3b 60mm-81mm mortar fire would clear hexes in no time at all if you have enough tubes firing at the hex. Any weapon at least 20mm will take out mines if fired at a hex, though smaller weapons take more than one shot to take out each mine. If you have problems with frontal assaults against the ai, be advised the ai (almost) always leaves the two edge rows free of mines. I have seen mines there only once. I have seen as many as three strips of mines with random mined hexes behind that when the ai has even more points to spend on mines. It kind of makes up for the fact that the ai is helpless against a minefield. I once tried a game where all I had was the A0 and mines and I still won against the ai, it lost so much going through the minefield it couldn't make it back up with taking victory hexes.
thanks, John.