Fortress Problem

[unmerged(19122)]

I'm playing as France, on the hardest difficulties.

In October of 1940, 20-30 German divisions under Himmler invade Sedan from Bruxelles.

I'd decided very early on that I couldn't hold Belgium on that difficulty, so I extended the Maginot up to the Channel. Sedan had five levels of land fortress.

When the Germans arrived, I watched the battle meter, but didn't see any emblem indicating fortress bonus. I looked at the province itself, and found that while the industry, infrastructure, AA, etc. hadn't changed, it no longer possessed any degree of fortification whatsoever.

The province was defended by seven divisions of French troops, and two corps of Belgians totalling three divisions. I understood there to be a bug involving fighters and land fortresses, so there were no air units defending the province.

I reloaded the game, in the hopes that it wouldn't happen again, but it did.

I watched carefully this time; no air raids of any kind were run on the province prior to or during the attack. Everything was normal until the exact hour the Germans arrived, whereupon the fortresses instantly vanished from the province display.

My question, therefore, is this:

Is this WAD? Do the Germans have some sort of terrible anti-fort ray I don't know about?

If it's not WAD, is there some kind of workaround I can invoke to prevent this from happening? There's no way I can win this game without the aid of the fortress line. (There's probably no way I can win with it either, but that's a seperate thing.)

I have a save from roughly one week before Himmler's invasion, if that would be helpful.

 

[unmerged(19122)]

I'm running a completely unmodified 1.05b, by the way. Patched it straight after the install, haven't made a single modification or tweak of any sort.

 

[unmerged(19122)]

That was my first thought, too, but there were no aircraft anywhere around the province.

Neither the Germans, nor the Belgians, nor I had anything with a propeller in the region.

1936 scenario, by the by.

[EDIT: Typo]

 

[unmerged(15618)]

you say there was no air raid prior to the attack , but when they attacked was there a dogfight over the fortress then ??

 

[unmerged(19122)]

Nope. No aircraft were involved in any way, least of all a dogfight.

France doesn't even have an airforce; I disbanded every squadron to save supplies.

 

[unmerged(15618)]

allied aircrafts??

 

[unmerged(19122)]

Nope. No planes involved in any way, shape, or form.

The fortresses disappear the same hour as Germany's land forces arrive.

 

[unmerged(14078)]

Land battles can destroy the forts. Within hours. You write 20-30 German divisions, that should be enough to raze the forts.

The only somewhat safe place for forts is mountains.

Regards/
Klaus

 

[unmerged(19122)]

So you think this represents natural attrition of fortifications during battle?

I haven't played enough to have a good grasp on how that works in HoI. This is only my third play-through.

It seems rather odd to me that the Germans would be able to take out four years of concerted fortification effort within seconds of their arrival with no loss to themselves. The arrival of the Germans and the disappearance of the Line were simultaneous, both occuring on the same tick.

Any attrition of manned fortifications should take time. If the Germans are stopping to bombard the forts from range, then their disappearance should not be instant. If the Germans are assaulting the forts directly, then the forts should still provide their bonuses.

What I'm saying here is that however overwhelming the German forces, that degree of fortification should not be destroyed without any effect on the battle.

I cannot think of any logical explanation which would indicate this is WAD.

[EDIT: Typo again. It's late, I'm tired.]

 

[unmerged(15618)]

Originally posted by S. Klaus
Land battles can destroy the forts.

really , never seen that !? have played alot...

Originally posted by Fedora
[EDIT: Typo again. It's late, I'm tired.]

its early , im tired too