Searching for Mines

[Probus]

When Engineers search for mines (like down a road), is it better to use the Move command or the Hunt command.  Using the slow command would just be too slow. I'm playing the new British campaign in Final Blitzkrieg and thar be a lot of mines out thar.

[Centurian52]

I'd go with hunt. It'll wear them out, but I believe their situational awareness is a bit better with hunt, and they'll stop moving if they hit a mine. They'll tend to start running after hitting the first mine if you use move, so you'll be more likely to get mass casualties.

[Silentkilarz]

I move mine into a action square and wait a few turns. Engineers seem to be able to detect them within a few action squares.

[Vacillator]

Either of the above sound good, but neither are quick if you have a distance to travel.  Detecting mines was/is not a quick thing I suppose.

Bring on the flails if you have them but keep them covered (and keep your fingers crossed)...

[Warts 'n' all]

I don't see the point of searching for mines. The Milk Snatcher closed them all. Ah, sorry, wrong kind of mines.

[Artkin]

Crawl and imagine theyre picking through the dirt with bayonets 

Edited March 5 by Artkin

[Probus]

1 hour ago, Vacillator said:

Bring on the flails if you have them but keep them covered (and keep your fingers crossed)...

I don't dare put my flails at the head of the column.  Too many Panzershrecks.  I've been Moving my engineers, infantry behind them, and flails behind the infantry.  I think I'll try putting them on Hunt so they'll stop when they find mines.

5 minutes ago, Artkin said:

Crawl and imagine theyre picking through the dirt with bayonets 

That's just too darn slow!  They give you a bunch of time, but I don't think that'll support crawling across the map.

[Vacillator]

38 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said:

The Milk Snatcher

Coincidence - I mentioned this just yesterday to my son, who was surprised that we used to get milk at school. Until... well of course you know.

And as for mines, Arthur S will be turning in his grave.

[Vacillator]

2 minutes ago, Probus said:

I don't dare put my flails at the head of the column.  Too many Panzershrecks.

Without playing it (I will when I get a chance) I wouldn't know but yes, if there are PS (or even PF) teams about that might not end well.  Which is why I said cover them, but easier said than done.

Having said all of that, if you have flails they're not there to clear the road after everyone has passed?

[Probus]

4 minutes ago, Vacillator said:

Having said all of that, if you have flails they're not there to clear the road after everyone has passed?

Nope.  Engineer squad, then an infantry squad to cover them (that hopefully stops before the mines). Then the flails clear the mines. Then the rest of the column follow the flails. (tanks and mechanized infantry).

Twice now my infantry were following too close behind and blundered into the mines.  I've gotta be more careful.

[Vacillator]

2 minutes ago, Probus said:

Engineer squad, then an infantry squad to cover them (that hopefully stops before the mines). Then the flails clear the mines. Then the rest of the column follow the flails. (tanks and mechanized infantry).

Sounds good.  I think I'm going to have to play it (after a few other commitments).

[Warts 'n' all]

6 hours ago, Vacillator said:

Coincidence - I mentioned this just yesterday to my son, who was surprised that we used to get milk at school. Until... well of course you know.

And as for mines, Arthur S will be turning in his grave.

I always refer to her by that moniker. Hopefully your son will call her that if she ever comes up in conversation again.

As for Arther i think he is still with us.

With regards mine clearance in game, I love Sherman Crabs. Although I do sometimes jump out of my 400 year old skin when things go "Boom!".

[Brille]

My experience is that hunt wont give you an advantage in spotting mines.

However it prevents soldiers from switching over to quick or fast once an explosion occurs or they get triggered by small arms fire if they would just "move", leading to possibly more mine related casualties.

So "slow" or "hunt" orders would be the way to go, combined with "pause" so they have time to find them.

However this I would only do on suspected and rather small areas. Usually my mine detection is that someone or something triggers one.

If those are AP mines I try to clear the surroundings of enemy presence and then just crawl past or bypass them because I rarely have engineers with me.

If those are AT mines they usually got triggered by something of a scout vehicles/APC. So I try another route and let the tanks follow when this one is free of mines.

Or I let the dices roll and hope for the best, driving right through.

 

[Vacillator]

3 hours ago, Warts 'n' all said:

As for Arther i think he is still with us.

Yes, my mistake - he's a spritely 86.

[chuckdyke]

2 hours ago, Brille said:

So "slow" or "hunt" orders would be the way to go,

I tested it in Red Thunder (Soviet Engineers), best results are, move slow with a waypoint on each action square. That the unit gets exhausted doesn't seem to make any difference. It is not fool proof but at least they detected two mines against one casualty. They didn't stop at a mine on hunt. 

Edited March 6 by chuckdyke

[Warts 'n' all]

56 minutes ago, Vacillator said:

Yes, my mistake - he's a spritely 86.

I sometimes feel like 86. Which reminds me I still had enough hair to Spike the last time I saw him making a speech.

[chuckdyke]

12 hours ago, Vacillator said:

we used to get milk at school.

Refrigerators were a luxury, so the milk came in brown glass bottles. This was supposed to make the milk last longer. 

[Vacillator]

22 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:

Refrigerators were a luxury

Yes, my memory is of crates of small bottles left outside the back door of the school.  You were lucky if you got one of the bottles that the birds hadn't already opened by pecking the foil caps.

[Centurian52]

4 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

They didn't stop at a mine on hunt. 

That's my experience too. They stop when they trigger a mine on hunt, but not when they just see mines. I usually don't have time for slow though. So I use hunt with the aim of limiting casualties, rather than outright preventing casualties. I generally use slow to move troops out of an already detected minefield when I don't have engineers available to mark the mines.

[Erwin]

Greg: The "horrible" reality of the game is that the only way to efficiently spot mines is to send "Expendable" units ahead to trigger a mine.  (And even then the first unit could be lucky and run over mines without triggering anything.)

I consider engineers valuable so would send them to a triggered minefield in order to mark them (If it is absolutely necessary to cross that location) which makes the minefield a little safer to cross on SLOW.  But even when traversing a marked minefield moving SLOW a unit can still trigger a mine and get blown up.  

Theoretically you would think that the first unit should be a mine-clearing vehicle.  If one is concerned about AT weapons and has the arty, try blowing up any potential hiding spot within a 100 meters...  or... use SMOKE to hide the vehicle so it can clear the mines with no enemy having LOS.

[Brille]

5 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

They didn't stop at a mine on hunt. 

That wasn´t my meaning. I was comparing hunt with the move order to spot/react to mines. The problem with the move order is that everyone that has it applied will start running once bullets or explosions occur, what will most likely happen when a mine is triggered.

Running through a minefield has just that much more potential to trigger another (maybe unseen) minefield too. The hunt order prevents this because everyone will just hold at the spot, preventing them from triggering another mine.

Moving slow is an option but will tire out the searching parties way to fast. And especially when you don´t know if there is a minefield or not, it can be difficult getting them to another location afterwards at high speeds.

[chuckdyke]

6 hours ago, Brille said:

Moving slow is an option but will tire out the searching parties way to fast.

It doesn't matter even if the unit is exhausted. It won't affect their performance in the slightest in finding mines. It affects only their move orders they can do the standard move (N) and the slow move (O). Spotting and firing is not affected. I appreciate we all play the game differently. I use slow finding mines that is the purpose of engineers and breaching obstacles. Once they achieved this regular infantry takes over. I use slow a lot when the terrain offers concealment the unit moves under LOS. Other units which move on slow are FOs and HQs. Not meant for combat and if they are exhausted it is fine.

[Brille]

9 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

It doesn't matter even if the unit is exhausted. It won't affect their performance in the slightest in finding mines. It affects only their move orders they can do the standard move (N) and the slow move (O). Spotting and firing is not affected. I appreciate we all play the game differently. I use slow finding mines that is the purpose of engineers and breaching obstacles. Once they achieved this regular infantry takes over. I use slow a lot when the terrain offers concealment the unit moves under LOS. Other units which move on slow are FOs and HQs. Not meant for combat and if they are exhausted it is fine.

Well preserving at least some stamina of my soldiers is somewhat of a resource management for me.

Tired out troops can fight like any other If they stand in place. But If they need to retreat, advance or dislocate fast they are at a disavantage.

Thats why I try to not go lower as "tired" because they could still do at least a "quick" command for a reasonable distance.

If you then even have weakened troops you have to be even more careful in preserving their stamina, otherwise they can turn into sitting ducks.

That doesnt mean that I dont use slow, I use it pretty often in fact.

If a tankhunter team can reach a good firing spot with "slow" movement, while totally exhausting them, is is fine with me when they can actually achieve a hit.

However If I can achieve this in a similar way while preserving their stamina at least a little bit, Im more likely to go that way.

 

[chuckdyke]

2 hours ago, Brille said:

Well preserving at least some stamina of my soldiers is somewhat of a resource management for me.

Like I said we all play it differently. Only engineers can detect mines for me no problem if out of a platoon a section gets exhausted as long as they detect mines. They can mark mines too being exhausted doesn't seem to affect them. I see mines as an enemy unit and deal with it. The topic is "Searching for Mines". I just shared what I found the most effective method. Don't get your engineers exhausted if they need to assault combined with breaching operations. 

Edited March 7 by chuckdyke

[Brille]

1 hour ago, chuckdyke said:

I just shared what I found the most effective method.

So did I.

1 hour ago, chuckdyke said:

Like I said we all play it differently.

Agreed.