Slitherine

I'm playing Allied Corps, and one of my bombers "neutralized" a German pillbox, i.e. full white flag.

On the same turn, I moved some of my ground units next to the pillbox, assuming that it was safe to do so at this point.

On the next German turn, the pillbox nearly wiped out a halftrack that was within range 0 of it. All the time the white neutral flag remained on the pillbox.

Am I misunderstanding the concept WRT pillboxes?

A bombardment will only neutralise the actual victory hex, which limits the use it may be put to. As pillboxes are units, rather than an integral part of the hex, they cannot be neutralised even though the hex they are in may be.

To clarify, the pillbox itself is actually just a unit, like a tank. If a unit is occupying a hex with a flag, and the bomber neutralizes the flag (turns it white), this has no further effect on the unit in the hex. The bomber will attack the unit as well, of course, but what happens with the flag has no effect on how well a unit fights.

What a white flag means is that the hex cannot be used to place purchased units for a while. It is similar to conquering a flag and changing it into your colors. You cannot use that flag right away to place units, you will have to wait an extra turn (or two?) for that.

So what happens is the flag turns white (neutral), and it will stay that way until it is (re)captured. But when it changes color again, the owner will still have to wait longer to place units. So it can be beneficial to bombard empty hexes (or those occupied by units that cannot capture flags) to deny the opponent good spots to purchase and place units for a while.

ThvN wrote:wait an extra turn (or two?) for that.

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- BNC