Resiliency of troops in collapsing buildings

[LukeFF]

I just had this happen to me in a CMFI scenario, but I've also seen it in CMBN: troops who have just survived a building collapsing on them seem to be far too quick to get back on their feet and start shooting again. In several examples I've leveled buildings with 150 mm HE fire, only to see the enemy firing again from these same leveled buildings less than a minute later. One would think that a building caving in, with all the accompanying dust, smoke, noise, and general confusion, would cause troops to be disoriented/pinned for a substantial amount of time. Thoughts?

[Doug Williams]

Though I don't recall experiencing this in any of my games (possibly because if a building is receiving enough HE fire to make it collapse all the troops in it are usually KIA/WIA), yes I agree.

[slysniper]

Well, then there is people like me, who loves to place units close to a building the enemy is collapsing, when it then happens, I move them troops in normally under all the smoke it creates. So talk about mind games.

[LukeFF]

Though I don't recall experiencing this in any of my games (possibly because if a building is receiving enough HE fire to make it collapse all the troops in it are usually KIA/WIA), yes I agree.

Yep, in one recent example (GL Bear Claws), I had just leveled a 3-story building with 150 mm fire. No enemy contacts were seen, so I moved my troops up. Imagine my surprise when out of the rubble comes a pair of grenades that took out 3 of my men. :mad: This sort of thing isn't an outlier, either. Time and again, right after buildings collapse, the enemy will be right back to shooting their still-deployed HMGs, lobbing grenades, or firing their rifles. Something just doesn't seem right about this.

[Vanir Ausf B]

There may be some abstraction here. In reality, buildings under fire would usually not catastrophically collapse all at once as in a controlled demolition. They do that in the game, but perhaps casualties are deliberately lowered in recognition of that being unrealistic.

[YankeeDog]

I used to think the resiliency of units in collapsing buildings was a bit much, too, until I compared what I was seeing in the game to modern AARs from places like Fallujah where they'd hit buildings with heavy ordnance like tank rounds, TOWs, even aerial bombs, and the insurgents would still sometimes pop up fighting in the rubble after the dust cleared.

I think you have to assume some abstraction; buildings don't usually collapse all at once into rubble as the game depicts, and I think we also have to assume that infantry inside buildings are making best use of the protection available, and sheltering deep in well-protected areas (e.g., basements, interior stairwells) when heavy fire comes in.