Trenches

[HazieDaVampire]

to WW1 style things. Infantry and Mech infantry should be able to build trenches, which act like fortifications when any unit is in them. So you can have long lines of trenches along a front line! (This would be a button you press and it takes 2 or 3 turns to complete! And look a little like roads.)
That would be cool, cuz you'd have a line line of trenches from 1 side of a continent to the other!

[zulu9812]

presumably it would also carry some sort of defense bonus, albeit less than a fortress. However, it should be workers who build them, not troops, regardless of realism aspects - "oh, infantry could dig a trench". Workers build, trops fight. That's the way it should stay.

Good idea though

[HazieDaVampire]

i just think it would be easyer! just move the men up to the front line and get them digging! getting a load of workers to follow your men would be a bit annoying, and they'll probubly be behind your troops while the fighting is going on, so you end up having a laod of trenches in the wrong place, sticking a long line of infantry with another infantry unit under them digging the trech would be better.

[zulu9812]

you'd need to up the cost of infantry, though - substantially since they could keep advancing and digging trenches without support from vulnerable workers.

[HazieDaVampire]

seems reasonable

[Andrew_Jay]

Perhaps make a new, trench and road only worker unit. Just use the industrial icon, and keep it with zero defense, but perhaps cut out the pop cost.

[ThePlagueRat]

When they fortify, they are presumed to dig in and guard the hole. Should be some cooler animations then ( like forified inf. dug in w/ sandbags) Instead of standing upright, as on a shooting range... like they do now!

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by ThePlagueRat
When they fortify, they are presumed to dig in and guard the hole.

I agree. The fortify command means exactly that.

Should be some cooler animations then ( like forified inf. dug in w/ sandbags) Instead of standing upright, as on a shooting range... like they do now!

The trouble here is to keep entrenched (fortified) units not too different from units in "wait", because you need to know them at a glance, and a unit half hidden in a trench is not easy to recon.

[Andrew_Jay]

I noticed that missing from Civ3, in Civ2 didn't a little wal thing form around a fortified unit, kind of like a regular fort, but brown, not grey?

[statusperfect]

HazieDaVampire: Lets first see what outposts and radar towers are good for before we ask for more
If they made roads editable some modder could make aroad layer that looks like trenches and give defense bonus.

[ThePlagueRat]

Originally posted by Adm.Naismith

A unit half hidden in a trench is not easy to recon.

Just as in Close Combat 4... (realtime stategy)
Hmmm... not extremely hard to recon either.
Adds realism, though!

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by ThePlagueRat
Just as in Close Combat 4... (realtime stategy)
Hmmm... not extremely hard to recon either.
Adds realism, though!

Sure, I want to see a realistic entrenched War Elephant!

[Killerdaffy]

Pioneer / Engineer unit

Originally posted by zulu9812
you'd need to up the cost of infantry, though - substantially since they could keep advancing and digging trenches without support from vulnerable workers.

How about a Pioneer / Engineer unit? That seems to be the standard solution to military construtcion problems. Strong infantry with extra abilities that's REALLY expensive, so you'd hate to lose them.

[Jethro83]

I always imagined that the units would be digging their own trenches when they fortify. Particularly the Roman Legions (when they set up camp, they dug a trench and built a palisade to fortify their encampment, improving on them the longer they stayed).

Perhaps after a turn of fortification, a palisade could appear around the fortified unit (like in Civ II) in ancient and medieval. Sandbags and/or barbed wire could take the place of palisades in modern.

[Dimorier Maximus]

Trenches might be a good idea for a WWI scenario, but I see no point in having them in the regular game. How much trench warfare do you see today?