A way to simulate "Bridge Demolition" in a CM scenario

[Spook]

In a separate topic thread, Madmatt explained how he was able to destroy "Land bridge" tiles with spotted 14-inch naval gun fire, with a target registration point (TRP) to help give a tight shelling pattern, when someone posted earlier that land bridges seemed completely impervious to shellfire. It got me wondering: could this be used to model a "bridge demolition"?

So, rolling up the sleeves, it was off to the scenario editor. I created three bridges first---a "tall bridge", a lower "hard" bridge, and wooden bridge as seen in the picture below:

And to get the maximum HE punch onto any of these bridges, I used 14-inch gun spotters as Matt did. You may also notice that each bridge has a TRP on it. NOW TAKE NOTE---I was able to place these ONLY where there was a ground tile under the bridge. You can NOT place TRP's onto bridge tiles over water.

I then set for three 14-inch spotters to dump onto one bridge at its TRP, with three more dropping shells onto the other low bridge. The results in one turn (four shells fired per spotter) are as below:

Now take further note at those oval "bubbles"---that's the explosion "shape" of a collapsing structure, whether bridge or building or whatever. These lower-level bridges went up pretty quickly in the first shelling (which was done with CM 1.05, BTW).

The taller bridge, however, proved a MUCH tougher customer. Even though all six 14-inch spotters dumped shells onto it instead of three, it still took two turns of shelling to drop at least one span. (This was repeated about five or six times.)

Of course, for simulating Germans to have a "bridge demo" option, the Germans don't get the luxury of 14-inch naval gun spotters. Their largest gun calibers are 170/210/240mm. So I decided to set up a new scenario with German spotters. The bridges were as before.

The settings were:

-six 170mm spotters with 60 rounds each

-six 210mm spotters with 40 rounds each

-six 240mm spotters with 40 rounds each

(all of regular experience)

The results:

The 170mm's fired all of their rounds (360 total, of which I don't know how many hit) and weren't able to destroy even one tall bridge tile. Neither could the 210mm's, after firing their 240 total rounds. The 240mm shells DID destroy a tile or two, but at an average of 25-30 shells per spotter, or about 150-180 rounds total.

But to the lower bridges, either the low wooden bridge or the low concrete bridge had sections destroyed after only one turn of shelling by the 170mm's AND with all six spotters firing. With only three 170mm spotters firing, the wooden bridge still lost a section, but the hard bridge held out for another turn.

So 170mm's CAN destroy the "low" bridges more easily than for the tall bridge, although if trying to simulate a "bridge demo", I would recommend at least six spotter units and/or larger-caliber guns, in combination with a TRP. For the Germans, time delay was about 45 seconds for the first fire on this TRP, while the Allies' time delay for the 14-inch guns were 25 seconds.

Some other added guidelines:

1) TRP's can only be set on non-water tiles, bridge or otherwise. So without ground tiles set "in" the river, you'll have to set a TRP either at one end of the bridge or the other. (And anyone close to that spot will likely be killed quickly if a 14-inch gun is used for the shelling!)

2) If you want some "delay" built into allowing the spotter to drop shells onto the bridge, create the spotters as later-turn reinforcements. And set reinforcement points in LOS of the bridge when you want the spotter to "activate".

3) Naval 14-inch guns are available only to the Allies, and only during the "Normandy" (June-July '44) timeframe. So you'll have to set to this time period in the scenario parameters to get the 14-inch guns. Or for either side, you can try using greater numbers of heavy land-based artillery spotters. But by & large, trying to set up a "bridge demo" of a tall bridge will probably not work in CM.

4) For multiplayer, make sure the side with the "demo" capability has it explained in the scenario notes that he's allowed certain "demo" spotters to be used ONLY against the bridge. And to limit possible further abuse, limit the number of rounds per spotter. The 14-inch spotter fires in salvos of four shells, so perhaps give each spotter only four rounds in that case or others.

5) And, of course, don't expect the AI to know what to do in single-player, if it is the side with the "bridge demo" need. Only a human player can pull this off.

[Juardis]

good post

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Jeff Abbott