Stalingrad and pontoons

[Lowlander]

Constructed a pontoon with two bridging units over a Major river.
When it was completed I deployed the surplus unit to a other location, then moved my first combat unit on to the pontoon, however the far bank hex was RUBBLED so it finished that turn on the pontoon.
Next turn I attempted to move the unit off the pontoon but to no avail its now frozen midstream on the pontoon bridge !!!.

[Dog Soldier]

What size is the unit stuck on the bridge in terms of men or vehicles? Is the engineer unit maintaining the bridge in the rubbled bridge exit hex? How big is the engineer if it is in the bridge exit hex?

Check the unit sizes against the PDF for the scenario (press F4 in the game). Look for the road movement parameter which lists the number of men that cancels the road movement rate. Without road movement, a unit would be required to calculate movement by the other terrain in the hex. The rubble will probably prohibit movement off the road here. Seems you can not leave the bridge while in the water hex.

Try to breakdown the unit on the bridge into companies and move each off the bridge. Then reassemble the battalion in the rubbled hex or somewhere else.

It is always a good idea to build bridges where there is clear terrain on both sides of the bridge. As the defender, rubbling a village or town at the end of a bridge is the plan B when you can no longer prevent a crossing. In this case you can slow down the crossing units.

If needed, send me the file with the password and I will check it over for you.

Dog Soldier

[Glenn Saunders]

The issue is likely that RUBBLE negates the road movement and triples the terrain cost unitil it is cleared by an Eng.

Once cleared, Rubble still triples movement costs through the hex, but does allows road movement. Rubble that is not cleared is reported as "RUBBLE" in the Terrain Info Box while Rubble that is cleared is reported as "Rubble".

...I suspect that somewhere in this is the answer to your question or issue.

Glenn

[Dog Soldier]

Glenn,

Just my opinion, but I thought a unit could always move at least one hex, regardless of the triple terrain cost for the rubble, as long as there was no ZOC or prohibited hexsides, (llike and unbridged river). Stacking limits seems to me to be the only thing that would prevent a move off the bridge and into the rubble.

Please correct me if I am wrong about units being able to at least move one hex per turn.

Dog Soldier

[Lowlander]

Right, hav'nt received my game turn back yet, but did save a file as soon as I realised what had happened.Do you still want it ?.
The offending hex is in Stalingrad, the ferries worked A/OK but decided to constuct pontoon to aid transfer of supplies.
From memory a twenty vehicle towed 76.2 AT unit is on the pontoon.
On the near bank the bridging unit is maintaining the pontoon plus a deployed artillery unit.
On the far bank in a RUBBLED hex is one engineer unit clearing the said RUBBLE ( I had two engineers clearing RUBBLE but moved one away to increase chance of exit for towed guns ).
Again it cannot move forwards or backwards off the pontoon.

[Glenn Saunders]

[Dog Soldier]

Lowlander,

Send your game file to me and/or Glenn and we will sort this out. How many men are in the engineer unit clearing rubble in the bridge exit hex? Since there are 20 guns in the AT unit and most Russian pontoon bridge units are 200 men, this makes for 400 men equivalents in the hex when the AT gun attempts to move. Only 350 can use the road rate, this over stacking prevents movement.

I thought this was discussed some time ago when a situation came up moving along a road from a swamp hex into a rubbled hex.

I checked the motorized movement points in S42. Industrial and city cost 3MP, towns cost 5MP and villages cost 6MP. Even triple the largest (a village) is 18MP off road and a 20 gun 76.2mm AT regt has 60MP in travel mode.

I really think this is a stacking problem, not a problem moving into the rubble hex. Move the engineer out of the hex and see if the AT gun unit can cross.

Dog Soldier

[Glenn Saunders]

Guys:

I set up a test last night trying to replicate the situation as best as I could. Understand of course that often the cause of the issue being discribed is something different and this is why a file from the game is the way to go.

However, in this case I had a minute, tried it and spotted a bit of a logic flaw I think. John has looked at my test case, made a change and sent me back a modification which I'll test tonight.

Assuming all goes well, the fix will be in the next update. However, it doesn't hurt to send the file just incase I am fixing one thing and the issue you have is slightly different. This way if another change is needed it can be done for that next update.

Glenn

[Elxaime]

Glad to hear this is being addressed. I am having exactly the same problem. A Soviet artillery unit of 12 guns is stuck on a newly-laid pontoon, unable to move across or even back to where it came from. Either side of the bridge there is plenty of room for stacking. On the Stalingrad side, the hex is RUBBLE but it seems to me that the rule on being able to move one hex (except where the terrain is deemed impassable) should trump here.

As it stands, I have a unit frozen, apparently having the wherewithal to get onto the pontoon, and even deploy ON the pontoon to start firing, but unable to even cross back from whence it came.

[Glenn Saunders]

....

As it stands, I have a unit frozen, apparently having the wherewithal to get onto the pontoon, and even deploy ON the pontoon to start firing, but unable to even cross back from whence it came.

If you want to sned me your file and your password - the bridge hex and the hex you want to occupy, I can have a look and fix it in your game. I can't send you the EXE as there are other things in there now that isn't ready for release - but I can unstuck your unit for you.

Note - the cost is ALL MPs so yu unit has to be ON the Bridge for one turn. Will move to the RUbble the next turn.

Glenn