Development ideas

[Mike Abberton]

I wouldn't have a problem with engineering or recovery vehicles being added/expanded. There are already mine/blockade-clearing tanks that are effectively engineering vehicles anyway. Just make some new units that retain the engineering capability but have no/very little combat ability, low defenses, low morale (so they don't become gamey assault vehicles) and you're all set.

However, recovery vehicles should be limited to clearing wrecks not fixing vehicles, which basically just makes them less-effective engineering vehicles anyway. They shouldn't get a die roll per turn to create/replace SPs of AFVs, since all they did in real life was tow fixable tanks to the rear for repair, not fix them in the field. The only tanks that might get returned to service quicker would be bogged tanks or tanks that throw a track due to terrain, but CS doesn't model these situations. Losses are generally due to combat, not movement.

If you want to simulate repaired tanks returning to service, it would be better to create some sort of replacement system with the appropriate limitations (e.g. repaired tanks/replacement infantry not warping magically to the front lines), but even that is out of scale for all but the most stretched time-scale scenarios. In a 2-3 hour battle (20-30 turns at 6 mins each), that sort of replacement just didn't happen very often, if at all.

Mike