Bridges

[unmerged(22082)]

I was just pondering what strategic aspect was missing from HOI, and bridges came into mind. Rivers have no strategic importance, other than as a good natural defense. It seems Bridges is what has been forgotten in all of this.

Perhaps river crossing brigades of sort, primarily consisting of rafts are required to be attached to a division to cross a river, without a bridge. Engineers are capable of destroying them, given adequate time. So infantry can cross, but a type of portable bridge should be able to be created by engineers in a few weeks time, for the crossing of armored divisions. Of course, a modern bridge should give no or little movement penalty, while a portable should require a significant one. Something that would definately make bridges a key aspect and possibly a serious of bottlenecks, requiring suprise to capture and get across them, which we've seen historically.

Unless something like this exists, it's to late now, but something to consider in the future.

 

[unmerged(15233)]

I don't really think that fits the scope of the game...a tactical level WWII game, perhaps, but not HoI.

Would add too much (unrealistic) micromanagement.

River penalties work as an abstract representation of bridge issues.

 

[Winkelried]

And the infra level represents the quality and quantity of bridges. IMO a nice abstraction for a grand strategy game.

 

[GrimReaper]

I don't really think that fits the scope of the game...a tactical level WWII game, perhaps, but not HoI.

Would add too much (unrealistic) micromanagement.

River penalties work as an abstract representation of bridge issues.

And the infra level represents the quality and quantity of bridges. IMO a nice abstraction for a grand strategy game.

Agreed.

If you want to manage bridges, Operational Art of War might do the trick. Not the Grand Strategy genre, though.

 

[Spruce]

In fact it's very important - even for a strategic game.

In 1940 the Germans captured a lot of bridges in Belgium making them so fast (surprise) they fooled a lot of allied commanders to effectively make a stand. During the Ardennes offensive in 1944 they failed to take the bridges (no overall surprise) making it very hard to continue the assault.

Recently there was a detailed documentary about the Ardennesoffensive and one of the German spearheads had to turn North because an important bridge was failed to be captured. This delayed the offense, exposed the spearhead to allied fighter bombers and that was the beginning of the end.

and it's not modeled by infrastructure level or whatever.

I do agree with the thread starter, but I'm afraid I have to agree that's hard to find it in the scope.

Perhaps we can argue that an assault to a province separated by a river get's a bonus when they have a surprise (that is a bonus compared to the standard assault without a suprise),

 

[unmerged(36280)]

In fact it's very important - even for a strategic game.

In 1940 the Germans captured a lot of bridges in Belgium making them so fast (surprise) they fooled a lot of allied commanders to effectively make a stand. During the Ardennes offensive in 1944 they failed to take the bridges (no overall surprise) making it very hard to continue the assault.

Recently there was a detailed documentary about the Ardennesoffensive and one of the German spearheads had to turn North because an important bridge was failed to be captured. This delayed the offense, exposed the spearhead to allied fighter bombers and that was the beginning of the end.

and it's not modeled by infrastructure level or whatever.

I do agree with the thread starter, but I'm afraid I have to agree that's hard to find it in the scope.

Perhaps we can argue that an assault to a province separated by a river get's a bonus when they have a surprise (that is a bonus compared to the standard assault without a suprise),

i completely agree .bridges play an important role in the war.When an army retreats one of the first thing is to destruy bridges so good thread.

 

[unmerged(8319)]

Actually bridges (small black lines between two provinces otherwise divided by a river) is present in HOI1. They have no effect on combat though. Only on logistics.

 

[unmerged(15233)]

i completely agree .bridges play an important role in the war.When an army retreats one of the first thing is to destruy bridges so good thread.

Of course bridges play an important role in war, but then again, so does the successful delivery of supplies to troops, but do you want to actually control the flow of supplies from factories to the front lines? It's all just a question of scope, and as mentioned above, I (and I'm sure others will agree) dont think it fits the scope of HoI.