In this thread I will give another peek "under the hood" and talk about unit posture. This is how the game system views a unit's disposition and how it affects combat, artillery and airstrikes. Players affect a unit's posture with the orders they issue, the ground they occupy and the length of time they occupy it . In other words, players do not explicity declare the posture of a given unit. There are 5 basic posture levels described below:
Attack-simply stated, any unit that enters combat while moving (whether it initiates combat or not) is considered to be in the 'attack' posture. Troops are moving and fully exposed.
Exposed-at this level troops are considered to have been at a halt and are better dispersed, however they have not dug-in. This represents troops that recently reached their movement objective, are recovering after an attack, and/or otherwise not had ample time to dig-in.
Hasty-this represents where troops have been in place to better establish a defensive position, dig foxholes and weapon pits, and maybe some trenches, maybe some wire, maybe an obstacle, but no mines.
Prepared-troops have been in place for several hours. Troops have had ample time to establish some minefields, wire, obstacles, and some overhead cover (maybe some wooden bunkers). Units located near engineer units can have prepared positions significantly quicker.
Fortified-troops that are occupying engineered positions with concrete structures and extensive earthworks. Belts of minefields, wire, and obstacles areexpected. The creation of fortified positions may only be accomplished by engineer units and will require at least a week. Many times these will be set up during scenario creation, but I anticipate allowing players to create fortifications.
Engineer units can create "empty" prepared and fortified positions for friendly units to occupy at a later time. On the attack, engineer units add bonuses to attacking units against prepared and fortified positions. They also add bonuses when attacking in bocage terrain.
I may create different levels of Prepared and Fortified defenses (e.g. Prepared Level I, II, and III), but I will wait till further in development and playtesting before making that final decision. As it stands now a unit in a prepared/fortified position assumes that posture until it is forced to withdraw the distance equal to it's footprint. E.g. an infantry company has a 300m diameter footprint. If that infantry company is forced to retreat 300m or more, it will no longer count being in a prepared/fortified position.
Feel free to give thoughts or ask questions!