I have an issue with my infantry, primarily the german infantry in the 'Race to bastogne" mission, that has already infiltrated into the wooded areas past the river you have to build bridges over. For some reason when I order the individual battalions to form up in the woods the order will be moved to the edge of the wooded area as they for some reason can not move through it. I have seen walk through's of the same mission where the battalions can navigate through the woods with their support equipment still attached. it seems that the infantry guns that are attached to the battalions cant move through the woods but the mortars can? If I unattach the IG's from the battalion they can navigate the woods but in video's I have seen of the mission this should not have to be done. is this a bug with the game or am i missing something? any advice would be most welcome thanks.
Look at the wheeled movement rate for the terrain you wish to cross. If it is extremely low, or rated at "0," (100-would mean wheeled vehicles can move at their optimum speed) any wheeled equipment that is part of the force will be slowed or banned from it, and the force that contains the wheeled equipment will be slowed or stopped as well.
It's not specifically a bug (programming error) but the result of a conscious decision on how to calculate the movement capability of each unit icon (squad, platoon, company, etc.) that can be selected and ordered to perform a task by the player.
The programming doesn't compute movement capability down to an individual soldier or a single piece of equipment assigned to the unit receiving orders, but depicts movement as the Estab creator assigned it at the unit level. Options are "Mot" [motorized] vs. "Foot" with motorized including tracked and wheeled vehicles ranging from carts and trailers to tanks.
The issue has been discussed extensively, usually under the term "dismounted ops."
A desired programming fix is to allow troops which are assigned to "Mot" units to "dismount" from their conveyance to conduct foot operations after being transported to a "jump off point." The complication to implementing this is what to do with the conveyances once the troops have "dismounted" as the game doesn't automatically generate separately moveable unit icons to represent the broken out sub-slices of Estab-designed units once foot troops have "dismounted." Designing this capability would enhance the game's capability, but programming to account for all the variables that result from splitting a unit's capability into what is essentially two "new" units and allowing those two units to merge back into a single "motorized" unit later would result in rewriting most of the game code developed since December, 2003, when Airborne Assault was first released as a foundation for the current game.
