Could we please have the option to discard transports

[soldier]

I've been playing some African scenario's online and find it frustrating that transports are needed for long distance travel but then stop your army from entering some terrain at the crucial battlefield. Arrive at a rough hex with a shiny mechanized force and no one can take the position except for some poor Italian foot sloggers who arrive 3 turns later. This issue has long troubled my gerbirgsjaeger troop in the glory days of my Russian blitzkrieg. Sure he can move fast through mountains but he cannot get there in time. Same issue with deep forest.
Equipment was often left behind on the battlefield and shouldn't be some upgrade (or downgrade) option only available in cities. The trade off is you pay for the luxury of the transport but lose the money if the situation is desperate and your guys need to advance on foot.
How about it ?

[brettz123]

I have only played through the scenario after Suez Canal but I have never had this issue. Where do you run into this problem?

I think it would be a good idea to make the transports a separate unit or allow you to leave it behind when deploying without having to buy it again later. This would be useful for paratroopers and mountain troops specifically.

[soldier]

I have only played through the scenario after Suez Canal but I have never had this issue. Where do you run into this problem?

I run into this problem in every scenario where there is rough desert, deep forest or mountains. I don't see why i can't drive up to a mountain range, dump the trucks and then take to the hills.
The problem is noticable in "blood and sand" especially where the objectives are surrounded by rough sand and essentially remain vacant unless you spend 5 turns walking guys up through the sand

[robman]

I agree that this would be a nice feature. Perhaps:

(1) In any hex, anywhere on the map, it should be possible to "send to the rear" a unit's attached transport. It should also be possible to discard transport at deployment without disbanding it entirely. In terms of the UI, it would "go back" to the equipment roster. Maybe the transport icon could turn red. Exception: surrounded units (more than "n" adjacent enemy units) cannot send back transport.

(2) A unit that has "sent back" its transport can "order it back to the front" in a resupply turn. Perhaps only in a town hex.

"1" is more important than "2": I'd like to be able to discard transport even if it cannot be recovered for the rest of scenario.

[brettz123]

I have only played through the scenario after Suez Canal but I have never had this issue. Where do you run into this problem?

I run into this problem in every scenario where there is rough desert, deep forest or mountains. I don't see why i can't drive up to a mountain range, dump the trucks and then take to the hills.
The problem is noticable in "blood and sand" especially where the objectives are surrounded by rough sand and essentially remain vacant unless you spend 5 turns walking guys up through the sand

Ok I understand you better now. When you said you were stopped from entering certain terrain you needed I thought you actually meant you couldn't get into it but now I understand what you are saying better.

[soldier]

I agree that this would be a nice feature. Perhaps:

(1) In any hex, anywhere on the map, it should be possible to "send to the rear" a unit's attached transport. It should also be possible to discard transport at deployment without disbanding it entirely. In terms of the UI, it would "go back" to the equipment roster. Maybe the transport icon could turn red. Exception: surrounded units (more than "n" adjacent enemy units) cannot send back transport.

(2) A unit that has "sent back" its transport can "order it back to the front" in a resupply turn. Perhaps only in a town hex.

"1" is more important than "2": I'd like to be able to discard transport even if it cannot be recovered for the rest of scenario.

I agree units with enemies adjacent cannot do this and it might be ok to recoup the transports in the campaign, perhaps for a cost or if you win a major and control the battlefield at the end but for online and and individual scenarios I'd be happy just to be able to lose them.

[Zhivago]

It would be nice to be able to "park" transport for some units and allow them to operate unmounted without discarding it altogether and wasting the prestige points.

[El_Condoro]

There wouldn't be any need to leave transports behind if the game checked both the transport and the unit speed and movement type across the terrain and showed the dot and transport icon accordingly. Currently, two mountain infantry units, one with transport and one without, will move 1 and 3 hexes respectively across mountain terrain. If the game checked both and allowed the best, i.e. 3 hex movement range (not in transport), that would work fine and be consistent with the way movement is shown and executed now. Since the transports are not used in combat anyway, they can be imagined to be winding their way through narrow mountain tracks to eventually catch up with the unit.

[brettz123]

There wouldn't be any need to leave transports behind if the game checked both the transport and the unit speed and movement type across the terrain and showed the dot and transport icon accordingly. Currently, two mountain infantry units, one with transport and one without, will move 1 and 3 hexes respectively across mountain terrain. If the game checked both and allowed the best, i.e. 3 hex movement range (not in transport), that would work fine and be consistent with the way movement is shown and executed now. Since the transports are not used in combat anyway, they can be imagined to be winding their way through narrow mountain tracks to eventually catch up with the unit.

Very good points!

[robman]

There wouldn't be any need to leave transports behind if the game checked both the transport and the unit speed and movement type across the terrain and showed the dot and transport icon accordingly. Currently, two mountain infantry units, one with transport and one without, will move 1 and 3 hexes respectively across mountain terrain. If the game checked both and allowed the best, i.e. 3 hex movement range (not in transport), that would work fine and be consistent with the way movement is shown and executed now. Since the transports are not used in combat anyway, they can be imagined to be winding their way through narrow mountain tracks to eventually catch up with the unit.

Yes, this is a simple and elegant solution to the rough terrain problem. I like it. The problem of paratroopers and transport still remains--it would be nice to switch from ground to air transport without permanently losing the transport (for campaign play, that is).

[El_Condoro]

There wouldn't be any need to leave transports behind if the game checked both the transport and the unit speed and movement type across the terrain and showed the dot and transport icon accordingly. Currently, two mountain infantry units, one with transport and one without, will move 1 and 3 hexes respectively across mountain terrain. If the game checked both and allowed the best, i.e. 3 hex movement range (not in transport), that would work fine and be consistent with the way movement is shown and executed now. Since the transports are not used in combat anyway, they can be imagined to be winding their way through narrow mountain tracks to eventually catch up with the unit.

Yes, this is a simple and elegant solution to the rough terrain problem. I like it. The problem of paratroopers and transport still remains--it would be nice to switch from ground to air transport without permanently losing the transport (for campaign play, that is).

Any unit with organic transport that makes an air drop loses its organic transport for the duration of that scenario (and gets it back in the deployment phase of the next)?

[robman]

Any unit with organic transport that makes an air drop loses its organic transport for the duration of that scenario (and gets it back in the deployment phase of the next)?

Again, simple and elegant. The only other change (in the same spirit) would be to provide an option to deploy in the air or on the ground at the beginning of scenarios where air transport is available. This could be as simple as a radio button popup, like the one you get when embarking from hexes that are both ports and railheads.

[billmv44]

Any unit with organic transport that makes an air drop loses its organic transport for the duration of that scenario (and gets it back in the deployment phase of the next)?

Again, simple and elegant. The only other change (in the same spirit) would be to provide an option to deploy in the air or on the ground at the beginning of scenarios where air transport is available. This could be as simple as a radio button popup, like the one you get when embarking from hexes that are both ports and railheads.

Agreed. Hopefully, this can be in the next release.

[MartyWard]

There wouldn't be any need to leave transports behind if the game checked both the transport and the unit speed and movement type across the terrain and showed the dot and transport icon accordingly. Currently, two mountain infantry units, one with transport and one without, will move 1 and 3 hexes respectively across mountain terrain. If the game checked both and allowed the best, i.e. 3 hex movement range (not in transport), that would work fine and be consistent with the way movement is shown and executed now. Since the transports are not used in combat anyway, they can be imagined to be winding their way through narrow mountain tracks to eventually catch up with the unit.

Yes, this is a simple and elegant solution to the rough terrain problem. I like it. The problem of paratroopers and transport still remains--it would be nice to switch from ground to air transport without permanently losing the transport (for campaign play, that is).

Any unit with organic transport that makes an air drop loses its organic transport for the duration of that scenario (and gets it back in the deployment phase of the next)?

I don't understand why you can't get a 'refund' during the deployment screen if you want to get rid of the transport, or even if you for some reason wanted to downgrade a unit to get some prestige back.

[El_Condoro]

I guess that goes to the heart of what prestige is. The unit is essentially being downgraded by removing its transport. AFAIK all commanders on both sides scrambled for transportation so giving it away might not be seen as being a good commander (I understand why someone might want to do it in PzC). If the transport was transferred that would be a different case but there is no way to ensure a player uses his 50 or 100 prestige to buy another transport.

In any case, a unit can be downgraded in the deployment phase by selecting it and taking off the transport - there will not be a 'refund'. As to why is a developers' response...

[Kamerer]

I agree with this and have whined about it in the past in the forum. The idea that a mountain unit cannot simply get out of it's trucks and walk is a bit silly. Then they can meet up with their transport later.

I can understand if you aren't allowed to "reunite" with the transport until the next deployment/end of scenario. But not being able to shake them at all during the scenario is odd. I'm playing the GC now and with reduced prestige (Rommel), so I've actually been just using trucks instead of half-tracks in case I want to dismount a unit for certain rough terrain scenarios. Silly.

Another reason for doing this is if playing with reduced prestige, the cost of the half-tracks vastly increases the cost of reinforcing a unit. The game assumes any damage done to an infantry unit equally affects the transport. So if you have them in 250/1's, you are paying more than double the value of the unit for reinforcing (200 transport, 150~, so you pay a fraction of 350 to reinforce). Keeping them in trucks or dismounted makes reinforcing much more affordable. Which, again, is a bit silly . Sure, sometimes transports are shot up, but not because of being used directly in combat. So there's some real theoretical problems with the way prestige and transport work in regards to infantry units, and not just limited to the way the game currently presumes infantry is unable to walk away from their transport.