Forcing Bridges against ZOC

[typhoon]

Hi very rusty and trying to find out how this rule works. My windows 8 is not letting me open my manual so I have no idea how this new rule works any help gratefully received.

[raizer]

its a great aid to attacking forces. You get a clean, and intact bridge in front of you, but I leave it vacant-with no force defending it BUT I have a unit in the hex next to it. Guess what. You have nothing to assault, nothing to strike at to take the bridge and my ZOC from the unit next to the bridge prevents you from ever moving into the hex until you break my unit. This rule allows you to go into T mode and take the bridge, despite the ZOC of my unit next to it.

[typhoon]

Thanks for the reply. Does it cost the full movement allowance to cross or is there enough MP's left to get yourself out of that vunerable travel mode?

[raizer]

It takes all of your movement to get across in T mode and you are stuck-also, the units must be in good order to do this

[JDR Dragoon]

Be advised, that this only works for hexside bridges. You cannot enter a full-hex bridge in travel mode, end your turn in travel mode on the bridge, and then assault into the ZOC-blocked hex at the start of your next turn, utilizing your entire movement allowance.

[Dog Soldier]

As raizer points out is easy to defend against. The key is the loss of all movement points and remaining in the vulnerable travel mode. A swift counter attack on the offending unit or stack including an assault whether they are disrupted or not should yield a gaggle of prisoners, or at the very least a disrupted unit or stack that cannot expand the bridgehead. As defender, wash rinse and repeat until the offending unit(s) scream.

Dog Soldier

[Fhil]

So the question I would like to raise - did any of you guys already tried to cross the bridge using this special movement? I didn´t yet in any of my games, and you guys are right, it must be a pretty dangerous way of creating a bridgehead.

[Mr Grumpy]

This rule was originally created for F14, when i realised that engineers could not assault or allow troops (on foot) to assault across river side hex's i suggested to VM that this would make the placing of a unit to the side of a bridge and hence blocking it with a ZOC even more effective than in PzC, add in to that mix the small MG units that were almost invulnerable to direct fire had a ZOC i could see straight away how they would be used to block bridges as you could not assault them away using engineers or break them with direct fire.

So i assume that VM took the issue to JT and this is the fix that was introduced, it was then later on rolled out over the PzC series as well.

I cannot speak for PzC games, but i have used this rule a few times in F14 games, of course i plastered the defenders with ranged field gun and MG fire for several moves to try to leave the defending battalions disrupted and unable to assault the units that had crossed, it may be the case that the large number of FG/MG units in F14 that can fire 2+ hex's may make this new rule more effective than in PzC games where units with a SA range of 2+ hex's are quite rare?

[Marquo]

Kevin,

The latest patches (hopefully you are using) will unzip the manual as a pdf file.

Mark

[Liquid_Sky]

I find the rule useful in Normandy as the allies to take those early bridges. I would have found the rule useful in Stalingrad, where the germans would use a single unit to zoc a bridge to hold it...forcing me to cross with engineers, or try and shoot the guy to death.