Serbia '14

[ComradeP]

There's an issue with damaged full hex ferries. Though they're down, supply is still traced through their hexes if possible.

This gives 11. Armee a decent supply level in the Fourth Campaign after they've either cleared the damaged ferry hexes or linked up with the forces landing unopposed near a damaged ferry hex.

I discovered this when I wanted to check if the units landing across the Danube would be Isolated when the -20 supply modifier is applied on the 12th. The answer to that question is yes (when they can't trace supply to a damaged ferry hex). Should that not be intended, increasing the supply on the other side of the Danube to 21 instead of 15 should solve that.

[Volcano Man]

Thanks, I just fixed the two missing weather days.

Regarding the damaged full hex ferries (supply trace), I will pass this on to John and see what he says. Sounds like a bug to me.

[Elxaime]

A question on sappers/engineers. Playing as Central Powers in the 4th Campaign, I noticed my engineers have no function/ability to clear the (numerous) obstacles. Is this intended?

[ComradeP]

There are no mine clearing engineers in Serbia '14, and thus obstacles can't be cleared by either side. Aside from the digging-in bonus, being able to damage ferries and railroads and possibly having the "has boats" flag, engineers in Serbia '14 have no special capabilities as far as I can tell.

What's peculiar is that bridge engineers can construct bunkers, the restriction mentioned in the user manual doesn't work. That might be a bug.

[Mr Grumpy]

There are no mine clearing engineers in Serbia '14, and thus obstacles can't be cleared by either side. Aside from the digging-in bonus, being able to damage ferries and railroads and possibly having the "has boats" flag, engineers in Serbia '14 have no special capabilities as far as I can tell.

What's peculiar is that bridge engineers can construct bunkers, the restriction mentioned in the user manual doesn't work. That might be a bug.

That is correct, in fact engineers cannot clear obstacles in any of the FWWC titles that is not unique to S14.

Engineers can also damage bridges if the "wired bridge" rule is not being used.

S14 is the first FWWC title where engineers with "Has Boats" make an appearance and are able to ferry over full water hex's, rivers and canals.


Have you actually built a bunker with a bridge engineer? If so I agree that sounds like a bug assuming the wording of the manual is correct in that they should not be able to.

[ComradeP]

It seems bridge engineers can build bunkers in PzC too, I just never noticed it until now. I ran a test in Kharkov '43, and bridge engineers constructed a bunker.

There's no prompt that only engineers can build bunkers when you select digging in on a TRENCH hex and the bridge engineer switches to Digging In state.

[Mr Grumpy]

It seems bridge engineers can build bunkers in PzC too, I just never noticed it until now. I ran a test in Kharkov '43, and bridge engineers constructed a bunker.

There's no prompt that only engineers can build bunkers when you select digging in on a TRENCH hex and the bridge engineer switches to Digging In state.

OK thanks, so either the manual is incorrect or the engineers are doing something that they should not be able to, let me check this out. 

[Ricky B]

So the manual is incorrect in part/confusingly written, but written from the design side of bridge engineers, rather than how they are implemented. Basically, Engineer is a type of unit, while Bridge Engineer is a flag. Any unit type can have the bridge engineer flag - in other words, an engineer, or infantry, or tank, or other types. Not sure all would work, but they can be set as Bridge Engineers. I believe in at least one game, maybe when bridge engineers were first created, they weren't engineers but rather infantry - the only thing they could do is build bridges - I may not remember this correctly though?

I created my own bridge engineer type as infantry, and put a regular engineer with the bridge flag, and my custom engineer, in a test scenario in TRENCHes. The regular engineer could build a bunker, the infantry with Bridge Eng flag could not. And the infantry type displayed a message that "Only non-bridge engineers can build bunkers". Regular units that can dig in provide the same message. So I am thinking that is why the manual reads the way it does.

As the Bridge Eng flag could imply the unit is an engineer, I now read the manual as more correctly stating Only Engineers that aren't solely Bridge Engineers can build bunkers, although even that is a big confusing. Really, ONLY engineer types can build bunkers, and bridge eng status is meaningless for this check, which is what the phrasing must mean to say.

If that makes sense. An issue with using engineer two different ways - one a type and one a flag.

Rick

[Mr Grumpy]

Yes Ed says it is the manual that is at fault, Bridge Engineers can build bunkers!   

He will correct the wording in the next update.

[Ricky B]

Only if they are engineers types. I will ask him to run the text by us first!