blowing the bridge (get out of the gutter)

[Cabe Booth]

I have seen some threads about bridge destruction, using satchels and such.

ALso that some bridges cannot be blown down (ahem)

I was wondering since I have heard in thread a guy destroying one using several 150 guns and I saw one explode from an off map rocket hit.

What is the ratio?

I am sure just about any amount of HE will take down a bridge.

WHa about oh say um.... a small stone bridge about 100 yards long. How many shots from let's say... oh an elefant, would it take to knock out a bridge? Would the elefant run out of shells first? Also is it absolutely essential to hit the same area of the span or is the bridge as whole considered to be damaged?. Meaning do I have to hit the same spot over and over or can the bridge be targeted at ll spots until a cumulative damage causes collapse?

Of course, this is all hypothetical. I am NOT currently playing a map with small stone bridge that currently has an Elefant blasting it.

And I wouldn't try to destroy a bridge anyway, what would be the point? So If you are playing me in a game right now, don't worry. I am NOT destroying the ridge directly across from the elefant.

It is just tall there for reasons of comparison and such.

But anyway, how long until this dang bridge goes in the drink?

[TheVulture]

To quote a random post from 2003 I dredged up:

I did a bridge demo test with 150mm inf guns. Light and Medium bridges each took about ten 150 shells to destroy a section. It took about 87 to destroy a heavy bridge, and each shell has 303 blast! So nothing short of a Sturmtiger can effectively kill a heavy bridge.

(not me doing the tests, obviously).

This is in CMBB, but I've not heard of any changes in CMAK. But it should give you a ballpark figure.

An Elefant has a blast rating of 73, I believe. While I doubt that the bridge destroying algorithm is as simple as (need to get to ~3000 units of blast damage before it fails), it might give a ballpark figure. Which suggests you'd be looking at 40-odd shells before a light/medium bridge collapses. Although I'd guess that a blast twice as big does more than twice the damage, so you will probably need a few more than 40.

Of course, if you are looking at a heavy bridge, think 400 or more Elefant shells to take it down.

No idea if each individual section of bridge has seperate integrity, or whether the whole thing fall as one.

But basically you are looking at a long job with a 71mm gun rather than 150mm+ or pioneer demolition charges, and given that the Elefant only holds around 50 shells, I'd say you are certain to run out of HE shells before the bridge goes.

[Cabe Booth]

Ok,

I know it is an easy lookup, but just for reference on this thread.

Demo satchels and charges have blast of???...

I read someone said 2 of them does it. Seems to sound right with reality, of course that is assuming you placed the charges. I know I had my AVRE hit a stone bridge several times and the blast of that mother is pretty huge and the bridge stayed up. Of course it was a tall bridge for a train tressle and another thread said those don't go down...

[Kingfish]

Originally posted by Cabe Booth:

Also is it absolutely essential to hit the same area of the span or is the bridge as whole considered to be damaged?. Meaning do I have to hit the same spot over and over or can the bridge be targeted at ll spots until a cumulative damage causes collapse?

You have to hit the same tile

[Cabe Booth]

Ok,

then I guess while on the topic of tiles and structural damage.

Building id considered one tile? I Have never had issue with destroying a damaged building not matter which part I hit but,

On the large CMBB red factory type buildings.... do they collapse in sections? I have yet to really ge to into a map where the fighting is bad enough to warrant destruction of 30 some odd hexes of factory tile, but I have just started Ponyari station H2H against Lyzaplys a fellow BoB member/recruit. It appears that there is going to be some remodeling going one in and around the track which has these huge red factory building, they do collapse in sections right? I mean they get slowly eaten away?

I have 8 Ferdinand's and scads of hvy arty spotters with sturmtigers OTW in a few. Can I expect these to fall in sections or are they so massive that they stand up as a whole?

I am pretty sure I will see sectional collapse, barring we even get to play as my opponent is having serious lag issues while trying to even exit the map. He said a 5 minute wait....sheesh.

I guess some tips on how he can help that would be appreciated as well.

My PC lags only when panning just a tad, but I am sure as soon as more units show and fires get burning I am going to see some performance issues. I know it is off topic but Is there something he can do? I know about the hot keys to remove trees and stuff, but would change to lower resolution help at all or is the graphical hit just too large?

So.... a two part question wandering all over the place at 5am. wonderful

[Kingfish]

CM, regardless of which game, is based on tiles, and each one is independent of the others. Pounding a corner tile of a 4-tile factory will only destroy that tile. The other parts remain standing and totally unaffected by the loss of the one section.

With regards to helping your opponent, you can turn off trees, smoke, reduce squad representation to 2 figures. Having said all that, it really won't make much of a difference with Ponyari station. Once the two sides lock horns anything short of a Cray-II will struggle.

[Bannon DC]

Here is a test done by some Unfortunate Aged Crank. Might have been the same thread you saw, Cabe. Most likely cross posted on other forums.

POS's Bridge Destruction Tests

Lesson I take -- heavy bridges are virtually indestructable in the scale of a CM scenario.

And --

Very little difference in the sturdiness between medium and light bridges. Both are very fragile.

In terms of play -- I say it is "all fair" to destroy a bridge in any scenario... unless crossing the bridge is instrumental to the play value of the scenario. (IE, if the designer didn't count on the bridge getting destroyed and it is the ONLY way to cross a river in order to exit units, etc.). In this case, players should have house rules where it is agreed the bridge should not be destroyed on purpose.