D85. WP inf riding APC's question

[JDR Dragoon]

This is another area, not unlike the representation of helicopters, where the game starts to creak in the seams.

The problem is, that the game is dualistic in this regard: an armored infantry unit is either deployed and moving at foot pace and is a soft target, or it is in road column(s) using travel mode and is a hard target. There is no inbetween, even though this is actually what characterizes armored infantry units and makes them unique: the ability to rapidly shift between mounted and dismounted combat depending upon the terrain and tactical circumstances.

While infantry in a non dug-in defensive position might not run to the APC for cover while under artillery fire (if dug-in it might have its own fighting position in connection to the squads and thus be reachable through a communication trench and usable as overhead cover if there hasn´t been time to prepare this), infantry hit by artillery while mounted will use the protection and mobility of their APC/IFV to move out of the beaten zone or into concealment. There are also phases during an attack in which the infantry will tend to remain mounted (typically while moving to and into the final assembly area, which the enemy might be so unsportsmanlike as to put under harassing artillery fire).

This dualism between an armored infantry being either Soft or Hard, depending upon whether it is in travel mode or not is doubly felt when we take those IFVs w. a 2 hex Hard Attack into consideration. These units are able to sit and snipe at enemy Hard Targets (typically tanks) at 2 Hex range with impunity, even though the factor generating this attack (the IFV) is properly a hard target and should be targetable in return if the original target has a 2 hex range as well. But since deployed armored infantry counts as Soft targets, the offended hard target cannot fire back, since it has a soft attack range of 1 (some user mods give them a SA range of 2, but since their SA is usally not that large to begin with, and when halved for firing at 2 hex range, they can at best barely keep pace with the damage dealt by the offending IFVs).

This problem also rears its head when actually trying to use the mobility of armored infantry. Say you want to withdraw. You pull back your armored infanry unit 1 hex and put it into travel mode. But wait! It is now a hard target and thus suddenly eligible to receive opportunity fire from enemy units w. 2 hex HA. Paradoxically, motorized infantry units in soft trucks are actually better able to escape here, since they remain soft targets throughout.

So in conclusion: In the game, the armored infantry unit w. its APC/IFV´s are only superior to straight leg and motorized infantry in two regards: They typically have markedly higher HA and a slightly higher SA and they are better able to withstand the effects of interdiction and slightly better at withstanding artillery and direct fire while in travel mode (but since most units, including the artillery, have a respectable HA, they remain perfectly liable to take huge losses, albeit less than non-armored infantry). The advantage in tactical mobility and protection, vital in regard to their mission of being able to constitute a combined arms team operating in close conjunction w. armor, is not really represented in the game. When deployed, they are as fast as all other infantry and just as vulnerable (even though a large part of the unit consists of armored vehicles)

The only one of the problems outlined above that is solveable at the moment is the issue with IFV equipped units "sniping" with impunity at 2 hex range: reduce their range to 1, but let them retain their improved HA. In this situation they get to deliver their licks, but also get to take the full brunt of the return fire. The rest requires some kind of code change (probably not forthcoming) which will allow armored infantry both improved protection (rightly at the expense of making them hard targets, which would make them vulnerable to 2 hex hard attack, even when deployed) and improved movement thanks to their APC/IFVs, and thus properly represent the aspects where the strenghts and superiority of these units lie. But the game is what it is and can, as a simulation, only represent reality to a certain degree in its current form. We must thus play it with this in mind :)