Bogged In - Immobilized

[Tropic Fury]

I'm an FNG at this game and have been playing with OJT the entire time. I cringe every time I see "Bogged In" because it eventually becomes "Immobilized", especially for the heavily-tracked vehicles (well duh).

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what types of vehicles are more suited to damp-muddy terrain? I've noticed that the Puma is the only one that can get Bogged In and move on by the next turn.

[Redwolf]

Use stuff like Panzer IV, StuG IV (but not StuG III), Hetzer, Axis halftracks (but not Allied halftracks), Easy-Eight Shermans and Cromwells (but not normal Shermans or Churchills). MMG carrier, Wasp and Stuart are cool, white scout car, jeeps, trucks are not. Buy gun tractors as Germans to tow guns.

I think the risk is biggest in scattered trees, while many people assume the opposite. No real testing, though.

In historical scenarios, you can be scewed big time if you sit on old Shermans and must stick to the roads, where is opponent has all his mines and AT guns facing the only road. But the Sherman doesn't allow anything else - sadfully realistic.

[109 Gustav]

Look at the ground pressure rating at the top of the unit info window. The higher the pressure, the higher the chance of bogging.

In wet, muddy, or snowy terrain (but not light snow) you should always stick to roads. In damp terrain, make sure you avoid brush and scattered trees and you should be ok. In dry terrain you can't get bogged down, so knock yourself out.

[Michael Emrys]

I haven't played a lot on muddy ground, so somebody correct me if I have this wrong, but it seemed to me that bogging was also more likely on low-lying ground and on ground near to a water obstacle or wooded area.

Michael

[Soddball]

Scattered trees, and slopes (particularly in combination) will give you a significant percentage of immobilised vehicles in 'damp' or 'wet' conditions (my 2p worth).

Just got a StuG immobilised in damp conditions on a hill, turn 1 of a PBEM. There goes 50% of my armour.

[Monty's Double]

There have been previous threads about this, and I'm fairly sure that vehicles reversing are less likely to bog. Whether a bogged vehicle is more likely to unbog if you change its orders to reverse is the bit I can't remember and is, by some tragic coincidence, the only piece of information that would be useful to you. Oh well, I tried.

PS Tropic, this is a civilized board, we don't have FNGs here, just SSNs.

PPS Someday, probably in the dark small hours of the morning, tired, bored and staring into the abyss of existential angst, you might feel the urge to visit, albeit for purposes of purely scientific interest, a Peng thread. Just don't alright?

[jjelinek]

From what the other threads that I've read say becoming unbogged is random. It doesn't matter what you try. Just try something and keep your fingers crossed.

[Dschugaschwili]

In previous versions of CM there was a bug that prevented any vehicle that was driving backwards from ever bogging in or triggering a mine. It is fixed now though.

For more info on bogging see this thread. Be warned though, it's rather old, so some things may have changed since then, especially the reverse bug.

Dschugaschwili

[Olle Petersson]

One factor not mentioned in this thread is crew quality.

High quality troops are less likely to bog and more likey to get out of a bog, should it happen.

Cheers

Olle

[Mustang]

HA!

Remember Chance Encounter in the demo? That has wet ground conditions. After the first game, I never have had a sherman bog up in the dirt yet. The trick is NOT to take it into trees of any sort, and to just use MOVE. If you use fast move, you will get sucked under. In my expericnce just using move in dirt in boggy conditions is the secret to almost never bogging. Just use your head. (DUH!) Better to get there late than never get there at all.

[sturner]

I have had very good luck by reversing as soon as I notice a vechicle bogged. So far only 1 in five has remained bogged. Usually in a spot where it cann't see or fire.

[xerxes]

Someone did some extensive bog tests a good while back. Summary of Findings:

1. reverse doesn't affect bogging.

2. in bad weather (mud/snow) sparse trees are BETTER than clear. In dry conditions, just the opposite is true.

3. the type of move order doesn't matter.

4. high PSI is worse for bogability.

5. Unbogging is random and the player has no control over it.

-marc s

[Tropic Fury]

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I have to do my homework on vehicle characteristics more often. I admit that I have been a little lazy lately with my Detailed Map Reconnaissance.

One can always overlook those finer details. Kudos again to the realism of this game.

[Lanzfeld]

Maybe it is easier to stay unbogged in light trees in bad weather (mud, snow, ect...) because the crew can use fallen branches in the mud for traction. Works in real life.

[ May 16, 2002, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: Lanzfeld ]

[Redwolf]

Can anybody confirm or deny that in muddy conditions it is better to go by scattered trees?

[xerxes]

SCATTERED TREES ARE BETTER IN BAD GROUND CONDITIONS!!!

There.

Actually if you search (and are successful) there was quite the thread on this a ways back with enough testing to convince me. Probably best to retest yourself, should be pretty straightforward. I'm not inclined to bother but I'd be interested in the results.

-marc s

[apex]

Currently in a game with muddy ground and lots of heavy armor, so I took the time to investigate. Ran four series of a test scenario, using StuG IV and running them through lanes of clear (8), sparse trees (6) and brush (3), total of 17 StuGs. I disregarded bogging and concentrated on immoblizations, i.e. which vehicles didn't make it. Result:

46% chance in open ground

33% chance in scattered trees

41% chance in brush

It seemed though that bogging was more frequent in the trees, but if something gets bogged there it has a better chance of recovering than in open ground. Overall, moving in trees was very slow (the trees stugs took more than 20 turns, the open ones made it in 5 or 6) though, so the tactical value of using trees to move in to prevent bogging seems dubious to me.

apex