Recovering Abandoned Vehicles

[joethejet]

I read the documentation on this, but it's a little confusing. When a crew abandons a vehicle in an operation, what's the trick to getting the vehicle back for a later battle in the operation?

Does the crew need to leave the battle field (the doc seems to indicate this *might* be the case) or does it matter? I know you don't want to let them get shot up, but what happens if one is killed during the battle?

In one case, the crew abandoned a Priest in the "Rock the Kasbah" Operation with a simple anti-tank rifle shot through the copula, not even a "real" damage to the gun or the base of the weapon. Seems like it would be pretty simple for the crew, all survived, to craw back into the vehicle before the next battle starts.

In any case, what should be expected here and are there any tips to making it more like you'll recover a vehicle or gun that has been abandonded?

Thanks,

Jet

[Joachim]

Make sure you win the field

Apart from that:

There is a setting in the parameters.

IIRC vehicles re-appear in the morning - if they re-appear at all.

[joethejet]

Yeah, I have the field where they were abandoned and the settings seem to indicate decent recovery chances for the Americans. But, there is no night in this scenario so maybe they can't be recovered in the "Rock the Kasbah" Scenario?

Thanks for your reply. Anyone else have advice on this topic? Experience on what makes it more likely to be recovered?

Thanks,

Jet

[Kingfish]

Vehicles are recovered during night turns and returned to front line service the next day, assuming of course the crew survived and the parameters are set for recovery of vehicles.

The exception to this rule is if the vehicle catches fire. Nothing will bring these back. That's a good trick to remember during your next Op game. If you knock out an opponent's AFV, but it didn't catch fire, continue to fire at it until it does. This isn't a gamey bug but a historical fact. Fire creates so much damage to the internals of a vehicle that both sides would simply write it off rather than attempt recovery.

BTW, DO NOT exit your crew from the map edge. Find a safe place and have them hunker down until the battle ends. Even if your crew has taken casualties they will return (again, assuming the vehicle returns) at full strength.

[joethejet]

Thanks Kingfish!

So, it sounds like you have to have a night turn. I guess that means short ops aren't going to return anything even if you save the crew.

Thanks for the info. It's much appreciated.

Jet

[Kingfish]

Makes sense if you think about it. Even though Ops are broken up into individual battles, with clear starts and stops, the reality is that both sides would be in constant contact and even combat. Only when night came around would most battles taper off, and that is when both side's recovery teams would venture out to drag what they could back to the depot.

[joethejet]

yeah, i guess so. My thought is that, at least sometimes, the crew bails out due to non damaging (or minor damage) hits. They just lose their nerve. You'd think that between battles, they would have time to regroup and crawl back into a still functioning machine. Maybe that's too much to ask of the game engine. Probably hard to differentiate between the two.

Say, what about abandoned guns? Sometimes the crew hightails it, but the gun is just fine. Is it the same thing? Overnight?

Thanks,

Jet

[Kingfish]

Guns I'm not too sure about. I do know that the game treats the gun as inoperable once the crew leaves, even if they were only scared off by a sharpshooter. If there is a recovery feature for guns built into the game (and to be honest i've never noticed) then I would assume it functions the same way as vehicles.

BTW, 9-1/2 years and only 24 posts!

[joethejet]

Thanks Kingfish.

Yeah, I must have had a question a long time ago and then just haven't had the time I'd like to play the game. My kids are finally getting old enough to enjoy playing this game with me so I can justify the time spent on it to my wife!

Jet

[Oberscharf]

This is a neat game feature. Despite saving the crew and preventing them from exiting, the repaired vehicle arrives with a full new independent crew (not subordinate to the original platoon for command).

An easy way to familiarize your self with the workings of this feature, design a basic test operation setting parameters

"night falls -- every other battle"

"vehicle recovery & repair -- excellent"

Recommend selecting a low number of turns per battle and more than 10 battles. You'll soon have a good feel for which equipment comes back, which doesn't. Don't expect to see original crews returning to their original crews.