Bridges and bridges

[Dog Soldier]

Snafu,
Remember you can ferry infantry across the river to create a bridgehead. Select a point where such a buffer would prevent the defender from observing the bridge work, cover the bridgehead with loads of artillery and you will get across even under the worst conditions.

Dog Soldier

Dog Soldier,

I dont understand. Dont you need a ferry or ferry hex to move troops across water without a bridge? Im sure I missed it but I looked through the manual and dont see any reference like that.

Snafu,
A picture is worth a thousand words. Download and unzip the file below into your S41 game directory. Choose the File>Replay menu option to select and run the replay file.

A few points. This file is an illustration of the two ferry techniques engineers can perform. The first is an assault. The second is using movement into unoccupied hexes. Foot units can be used instead of sending mechanized infantry. The motorized infantry in the file first had to use the "On Foot" command to be eligible for enginneers to ferry them. The engineers had to start in the same hex as the units they are ferrying.

Notice the Russian unit was softened up prior to attempting the assault. Some form of recon is useful before ferrying. Notice the German motorized infantry is quite vulnerable to counter attack for the next Russian turn as they remain in travel mode. This is to simulate the situation of an opposed crossing. Do your best to cover the troops and recon the other side or put the are under direct observation with LOS so you know there are no nasty surprises waiting to ambush your ferried infantry. In the next German turn the infantry across the rive will shield the engineers while they build the bridge. (I did not move the bridge engineers up to the river bank in the replay, but assume they would.) The engineers that ferried the infantry need to stay adjacent to the infantry they are supporting on the other side of the river. If the infantry and engineers become separated, the infantry will be considered isolated until a supply route is established, (the bridge for instance).
This is a good case for VST or explicit supply rules as the default supply rules would allow tracing supply off any board edge creating unrealistic river crossings in some cases.

Finally, there is a good scenario in the Budapest 45 game which acts as a tutorial for river crossings. I see you currently do not have that game, so you might consider adding it to your PzC collection.

Best of luck.
Dog Soldier