Vehicle recovery

[Ratel]

I am busy with a campaign game. Am now busy with the third battle. Had some tanks and armored cars immobilized by enemy fire. Is there a way to recover them? Can I tow them to safety with another vehicle? I suppose that tracks can't be fixed ingame during the battle.

[Walrus]

Hi
There is no recovery of an immobilised unit in SPCAMO games.
Once something is stuck, it is stuck for the remained of that battle.

Your best bet is to bail out the crew, that way the actual vehicle cannot be killed.
If you can get the crew back into the stuck unit before the battle ends...then you have a safe vehicle that just needs some repair points.
The trick is not to get the crew killed in the interim

Good luck

[Ratel]

How do I deliberately bail my crew out?

[Walrus]

I believe the command is
"shift" 2 or you might say @

It leaves a puff of smoke, as if the vehicle was abandoned.
The crew then is a small group of infantry with grenades and pistols...and smoke grenades which can be very handy.
If you leave them in the same hex as the abandoned vehicle, they will try to get back in the next turn.
If not suppressed, they will usually do this in one turn...so if you want them to stay out, you need to move them away as soon as you bail out.
Experiment :-)

hope that helps

[Ratel]

It leaves a puff of smoke, as if the vehicle was abandoned.

Hmm... maybe they should change their rations. Sounds like an excess of onions or cabbage.

Thanks for the tip.

[Cross]

I am busy with a campaign game. Am now busy with the third battle. Had some tanks and armored cars immobilized by enemy fire. Is there a way to recover them? Can I tow them to safety with another vehicle? I suppose that tracks can't be fixed ingame during the battle.

A game turn roughly represents around 3 minutes, so a 30 turn battle is only about 90 minutes. Which is why vehicle recovery and track repair doesn't really fit into the scale of the game.

One thing you can do in campaigns is make a rule that you can purchase enemy AFVs and crewed guns that surrendered, were immobilised or abandoned and ended the battle overrun and undestroyed.

If playing against the AI, the rule could only apply to you, and the challenge is for you to capture enemy vehicles intact. But in a PBEM campaign you also have an incentive to protect (recover) your own immobolised vehicles.

I believe captured vehicles/guns were sometimes called 'trophies'.

[Weasel]

If I remember correctly, a tank transport, when moved into the same hex as a stuck vehicle, can load that vehicle and move it. Of course, the TT moves super slow and can become stuck itself.

[klanx171]

I have always thought that a vehicle that is immobilized by fire shouldnt be able to move any more but that one that gets stuck in mud or swamp or whatever should be able to move again like in the older type of SP.

This has been one of my bugbears in SP.

[Ratel]

Well, sometimes the damage to the vehicle could be minimal and the crew are still in good health. For instance if a bazooka takes off the track of a Tiger. I would likle to get that Tiger back to safety if I could, but as Cross says the game only represents about 90 minutes of realtime. Therefore it maybe isn't realistic to recover a tank like that and reach the edge of the battlefield before the game ends? Take into consideration that a commander will not send a recovery team in unless the area is secure.
So, if your tank gets immob within the battle area, you spend x number of turns before you can secure that part of the map (if you manage to beat off the enemy), you send in your (slow) recovery vehicle, spend time on 'loading' and then still have to get back behind your own lines to safety. Maybe 30 turns is not enough after all?? On the other hand effective use of smoke could reduce the time to wait before your recovery team moves in.

I have always thought that a vehicle that is immobilized by fire shouldnt be able to move any more but that one that gets stuck in mud or swamp or whatever should be able to move again like in the older type of SP.

This has been one of my bugbears in SP.

[Vesku]

I remember reading somewhere that one broken piece of track could be repaired by the crew on field in just 15 minutes. That's of course one of the easiest possible immobilization cases but like Dan said, stuck vehicles and lightly damaged should have a chance to return to duty.