Several Moscow 42 Questions

[Liquid_Sky]

Having grown up in Northern Alberta, I can say a couple of things about frozen ice in winter.

While the banks of a river will freeze (or a pond for that matter), and freeze rather solid, the center will inevitably be thin. It takes a long time at very cold temperatures before moving water will freeze. But what can happen is chunks of ice can block the water in places and cause ice bridges to form, that can be safe to walk across. Although I know of trucks that have crossed what used to be a ford, but is now frozen, I doubt a shaking 40 ton hunk of metal can survive crossing without seriously injuring the ice, if any water is underneath.

I have seen ice as thick as 10-20 feet at the bank, thin out to a mere skin of ice in the center. And this in January.

But once the river/pond freezes, it doesn't thaw. Not until spring. And the ground will never unfreeze to the point where one day you can't dig, and the next day you can.

Probably what is happening (totally conjecture on my part), is the Russians/Germans are building some sort of bridge to hop over the weak middle of a 'frozen' river. And that the constant use of supply vehicles crossing weaken it to the point where it needs to be rebuilt elsewhere. And the (random) time lost rebuilding the supply road/bridge elsewhere can be simulated by the weather change where the rivers 'unthaw'.

But I think that the weather should be permanently frozen, with storm to simulate blizzards, and visibility changes to simulate snow/blowing snow....or even snow blindness. Or have more 'fords' on the map to simulate ice bridges, and allow the weather to fluctuate.