"Scorched Earth or Scatter That Matters" Topic

WWII buffs,

Something that caught my attention recently, was a short passage from a wartime article on German field defenses, about preparing villages on the Eastern Front for defense (interesting too – see engagement ranges advised from these typical defensive positions).

link

What most caught my eye from the article was this sentence -

"In addition to putting up the usual field works the enemy turns all the houses, barns and other buildings he needs into firing-points; all remaining buildings blocking the field of fire are burnt down."

Having previously made for the game kit, some destroyed/burnt down foundations from Pendraken, just for scenic scatter, it's now an interesting proposition to think of allowing players to place (or replace) game buildings with open foundations – as part of their tactical defensive planning…..

Those look great, FlyXwire! The whole scene at the bottom is excellent. I love the snow effects.

Beautiful terrain!

Looks Great!

Well done!

I think it's a great idea to let the players decide on whether to burn down buildings.

Thank you Guys!

Oberlindes Sol LIC, I've linked my game buds to this thread here….so they'll be prepared to burn down some barns next time we play. :)))

"Brennt ihr die Häuser nieder, Jungs!"

Thought about this. Burning down buildings to clear fire arc's is all well and good but needs to be done with caution. Get it wrong, too few buildings in the village and the Recon will recognise the trick. This pinpoints the target with the better field of fire and you have a disaster on you hands as you have given a key position away to the artillery so you may never get to shoot effectively as you are suppressed by artille5ry.

Not sure even with our standard 15(ish) building village, one house burnt to the ground might be suspicious. With only 4 or 5 houses it may be too obvious what is going on.

Not too much of an issue if modelling battlefields on the Eastern Front (as we're speaking of here), as much of the ground and the villages had been fought over, had already suffered under artillery duels and counterattacks, some areas for months on end.

FlyXwire – Not sure that would be the case, If they were damaged, they would not neccessarily be in a state to clear a fire arc. Burnt to the ground, and in a specific position (reccy's job is to look for obvious routes to avoid, snd ones that look promising. Similary with lots of damaged buildingd many could be written off as no tactical use so the number of viable tactical positions would be limited. Again not a no no but proably in small villages it could be a give away.
Problem is typicaly wargames villages are small building count, perforce by lack od buildings or by design. We could make big villages 30+ houses butthey tend to creaqte a lot of repetative uninteresting play.

I think writing off damaged buildings as having none, or limited tactical use wasn't the case then, and still isn't the case now in warfare.

I'll argue that destroyed and damaged builti-up-areas can become more complex to reconnoiter.