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How do I blow bridges up ? (staf&testers Q)


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Hey guys !

I have a question for the beta testers and the staff :

I tried looking for an answer using the research mode, but didn't find anything interesting.

I am currently creating a mission in which I wanted to make an engineer platoon destroy a bridge.

They have demo charges, I set an "explode" order on the bridge, they lie down and do nothing.

So my question is : is it possible to destroy a bridge using infantry ?

Thanks a lot.

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Is this a joke? Everyone seems to be playing this game, except me!! arggghh

I've been playing the gold master OSX version for weeks now ... it was actually done long before the PC version but Steve told me to act impatient and whiny and keep complaining that the OSX version is "delayed" per usual ... so yes, we're all playing but you. :D

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Answer is you can't blow bridges. In real life this would take hours and a truck of explosives. Not something done under combat conditions.

Which raises an interesting question in my mind: is there provision in the game for preventing a bridge from being blown? Assuming that the bridge is already rigged for demolition at the start of the game, which given your statement above may be doubtful.

Michael

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Press version, no worries :D

Answer is you can't blow bridges. In real life this would take hours and a truck of explosives. Not something done under combat conditions.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Might it be possible in future revision of CMBN to include this as a scenario editor feature similar to a wire IED found in CMSF?

Chris

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You can't 'blow' bridge but you can knock them down with artillery... depending on which of the several bridge types you're targetting. I managed to knock down the largest heavy stone city bridge awhile ago. It took a battleship's 14 inch shell, but I did it! :)

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Which raises an interesting question in my mind: is there provision in the game for preventing a bridge from being blown?

Absolutely... you can't blow a bridge at all :D A bridge can be destroyed by HE fire, but that's a different thing.

Hi Steve,

Might it be possible in future revision of CMBN to include this as a scenario editor feature similar to a wire IED found in CMSF?

Possible, but not very likely. In real life the number of times a bridge was blown within the context of an ongoing tactical battle could probably be counted on one hand. And when the bridge was blown, if blown successfully, then the battle basically ended.

Deliberate destruction of a bridge is one of those features that sounds far better in abstract discussions than actually would be in terms of historical reality or an overall net positive impact on gameplay. Since all things take time to code, test, and tweak... we likely won't get around to this any time soon.

Steve

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Possible, but not very likely. In real life the number of times a bridge was blown within the context of an ongoing tactical battle could probably be counted on one hand. And when the bridge was blown, if blown successfully, then the battle basically ended.

Deliberate destruction of a bridge is one of those features that sounds far better in abstract discussions than actually would be in terms of historical reality or an overall net positive impact on gameplay. Since all things take time to code, test, and tweak... we likely won't get around to this any time soon.

Steve

Fair enough Steve and thanks for quickly answering my question. I had the examples of the Son bridge and Arnhem rail bridge in mind, but as Michael points out they are probably more relevant to an operational game.

Chris

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Thank you for the answer.

creating a night mission with proud paras sneaking across the bocage and then planting charges to blow a bridge was a fantasy... just fantasy :-)

I'll make them destroy something else now ^^

There's nothing to stop you from creating a mission like this. Put the paras on one end of the map, put the bridge near the other end. Put some German forces betwixt the paras and the bridge. Place an objective are around the bridge. You "win" the scenario if you can get your paras across the map, and secure the area around the bridge.

Since it would take some time for the combat engineers to properly set the charges and detonate them, this is a reasonable tactical depiction of the kind of situation you're talking about. The infiltrating force would have to take tactical control of the area around the bridge for some minutes before they could blow it.

The only thing you can't have is the actual eye candy of the bridge going kablooie and falling into the water. While this would certainly be a nice cherry to put on top of a scenario like this, it's tactically irrelevant since, as noted, once the charges are set and primed, the scenario is over and the paras have won.

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Deliberate destruction of a bridge is one of those features that sounds far better in abstract discussions than actually would be in terms of historical reality or an overall net positive impact on gameplay.

Steve

But think of the "Damn it" and Frustration factor. IE--"Damn it! That was a short scenario!!!"

Of course, that'd only be really fun if you were there to see the player's reaction.

:D

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I've just finished reading Mark Zuehlke's brilliant On To Victory that covers the Canadian campaign from late March through May 1945 liberating Holland.

Blown bridges were commonplace during those battles ... as the Germans retreated northward and westward they frequently blew up bridges across rivers and canals to slow the rapid advance of Canadian armour. Zuehlke records in the book many first-hand accounts (at least half-dozen instances) just in those few months alone of company sized units arriving within a few hundred metres of a bridge only to see it blow up in their face. That completely aside from the large large number of destroyed crossings. (He has a number of great images showing Canadian infantry fording rubble filled rivers and canals in the midst of firefights.)

There was one instance of a Canadian engineering unit arriving at a huge train bridge spanning a canal that had been raised and the lowering gears all buggered up by retreating Germans ... the Canucks simply placed charges really carefully and in a million-to-one controlled explosion (according to the unit's HQ diarist) blew the gearing apart so that the bridge fell with a giant roar and crash into the lowered position, allowing tank units and Wasps across.

That said, this low country action stressed canal and river crossings, and the need for control of roadways to advance forces over oft-times flooded terrain. I'm not suggesting BF implement it, but in that campaign it was the rule rather than the exception.

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