Bolt out of the Blue 5.3

[Midge]

Just curious. Will version 5.0 alter the digging-in, mine-laying or bunker construction probabilities? Being able to construct some bunkers, even in the time frame of the game, could be useful, especially for the NATO in the Jutland area.

Digging in is now 25% so that makes eng 75% and mine probability is 20%, no bunkers though. Jutland is 10 times better now for nato but still going to be tuff just because of the open terrain.

Just curious why no bunker-building capabilities? Is it a play balance issue? I am no engineer, but my lay-man's thought is that by 1989 a military engineer could do things much faster than his 1944 counterpart. It would add a nice element of strategy since building even a small bunker line can provide a useful pivot for gathering reserves.

While we are at it, a question on Deception units. Is it an appropriate house rule to require both sides to deploy them once they arrive on-map? In some games, I have noticed players keep them undeployed and use them to both fight and cause casualties and also to spot for air/artillery. Then, once the enemy is closing in - poof - they deploy. This seems iffy to me. Also (and I admit to guiltily doing this myself) if they appear close enough to the front you can deploy your SpecOps units back onto hexes occupied by your own side. They reappear undeployed at the start of your next turn and then can be deployed again further back in this way, out of enemy range, to serve as a reserve secret weapon to deploy if the enemy breaks the line. This also seems iffy, although I have done it myself. So - any suggested house rules on Deception units with Bolt 5.0?

Just to add to what Aaron has said:
Modern Engineering assets are capable of adding to a defensive position quickly, but these positions in essence are IP or at the most Trenches. The various values tweaked allows these things to be built pretty quick especially if you have an Engineer Company in the hex, pretty much one turn and you have an IP. The defensive benefit from both IP and Trenches have also been improved slightly. A little tip for any potential Nato Players, dig and dig quick!

Deception Units: They are marked as Partisan which means you get the Deception benefit without having to deploy them and you can also use them for raiding which would be high up on the list of priorities for these SF in reality. Both sides SF trained for these "deep raids" on command C3 targets and other important targets such as Nuke launch platforms. Note, as they're marked as Partisan they can't call in Arty or Air, slightly unrealistic I know as these SF would call in airstrikes on any juicy targets they found. In the tests I did with Aaron as the Sov player I managed to hit two or three Nato HQ's with Spetznaz raids destroying the 3 Pz Div HQ completely. We have the attack values of these units set quite high so you are able to raid a "soft target" and cause considerable damage. If you hang about though you will die. You also have the option if you wish of just deploying them into Deception Mode and forget their raiding potential, your call.
Personally I prefer the raiding option, it can have a marked effect on Command and Control, especially for WarPac as their Command is not as numerous and flexible as Nato's. Its a WarPac weakness that Nato needs to take advantage of as they'll need all the help they can get, trust me!