Bridge defense bonus?

[0t0]

Why bridge would give 50% defense bonus?
it should be other way round right?
I just tested on tutorial and as soon you demolish that hedgehog barricade and move next to city going over bridge and when you attack enemy unit will get massive 50% reduction of damage just because your unit is on the bridge tile!?
I hope it is bug as this make no sense.

[A Corsican Frog]

Hello!

In this game, the combat/fighting always takes place in the defender's hex
That's because the attacker is leaving its own hexagon, and attacking the defender on his hexagon

That is how every single rule for damage was designed (terrain modifiers, etc)

When it comes to bridges, since each hexagon is at least 5 kilometers in scale (patch of land), you can imagine that the bridge tile is not just a bridge. It's a river tile, with a crossing on it

Therefore, if the defender is holding the hex, it is obviously keeping its troops on the other side of the river, and thus, when being attacked, the attacker has quite the penalty when attacking, because the defenders are just waiting for them across the river

That is the reasoning behind it, and that is how it works in this game

----------------------------------

As to what you are experiencing, I understand you are playing as Germany?

I am never getting a -50% damage modifier for being on a bridge tile
I am always getting the modifier of the hex I am trying to attack, which follows the logic explained above
You would be getting the bridge tile's modifier if you were playing the soviet, and trying to attack the germans, by leaving your town

Soviet Heavy inf. in the town has entrenchment maxed (3) AND has a good defending position being into a town (-50% terrain modifier)

Few screenshots showing the german situation:
https://imgur.com/a/CWbtHcs
https://imgur.com/a/gmxzjZv

All of their terrain penalty modifiers come from the defender's hex
The unit (german, attacker) being on a bridge does not matter at all during the combat

[0t0]

Ah, I see it is coincidence that bridge and city have same defense bonus. Yes I was playing as Germany and like in your example I was surprised to see Soviet heavy infantry get terrain malus. you are right it is all what happening in defender hex, though some exceptions are there like attacking from river (engineers) or when tanks are in forest, or I'm again wrong. :)

But getting back to the example of infantry attacking from the bridge into city, I would expect that only attacking side get malus for pushing into city while defending side should have no malus for terrain. at the end defending is always easier unless you are encircled. But if defender soft attack is not reduced I guess it will be very hard to take any tile. Maybe in that case there shall be some damage reduction for defender soft attack but not due to terrain and for sure not like 50%.

[A Corsican Frog]

Originally posted by 0t0:

Ah, I see it is coincidence that bridge and city have same defense bonus. Yes I was playing as Germany and like in your example I was surprised to see Soviet heavy infantry get terrain malus. you are right it is all what happening in defender hex, though some exceptions are there like attacking from river (engineers) or when tanks are in forest, or I'm again wrong. :)

But getting back to the example of infantry attacking from the bridge into city, I would expect that only attacking side get malus for pushing into city while defending side should have no malus for terrain. at the end defending is always easier unless you are encircled. But if defender soft attack is not reduced I guess it will be very hard to take any tile. Maybe in that case there shall be some damage reduction for defender soft attack but not due to terrain and for sure not like 50%.

Yeah turned out to be a coincidence for the bridge, could have been any other tile, damage would have stayed the same :)

I am not getting any terrain penalty for being on a bridge for any of the above mentioned units (Tank, Engineers): https://imgur.com/a/hKRFBHv
I placed them on a bridge because units cannot move on river tiles, except engineers

I have done the same test with actual rivers: https://imgur.com/a/RYYFOzT
Same results, no damage penalty for the attacker

Where you are right is for the forest (https://imgur.com/a/COcqozP), which indeed was an exception, but I think for simplicity's sake I should remove that and only apply it for retaliation fire, in case the tank is attacked
Since the battle occurs on the defender's tile, it only makes sense to have the penalty there
So, if the tank is attacked while it's in a forest, then it'll get the penalty
But not while it attacks from it, into a clear tile

The defending side (soviet) indeed gets a full penalty, odd, I may need to change that, because it does not make sense, yes
I think I left it ON for defender to tune down received damage on the other end...

[jlowerre]

Hi Valentin,
Just me but this makes sense to me, easier to remember too,

'for simplicity's sake I should remove that [sic tank attack penalty when attacking from non-clear terrain] and only apply it for retaliation fire, in case the tank is attacked
Since the battle occurs on the defender's tile, it only makes sense to have the penalty there
So, if the tank is attacked while it's in a forest, then it'll get the penalty
But not while it attacks from it, into a clear tile'

[0t0]

my bad about engineers, I mixed up with info from manual stating that "fighting from the bridge" (not river) will get -5 damage. if this is applicable today as this I could not see either on your snapshots or in the game.
What is also strange on few of your snaps is that defending infantry is getting terrain malus while attacking engineer doesn't get any. both of them should have no bonsu/malus as defending hex is plain! https://imgur.com/a/hKRFBHv

For tanks yes if you can fix it as you proposed it will be much more logic.
Same for defender being penalized for defending from his own city make no sense. so maybe you add instead something like -25% to soft/hard attack. or increase encirclement penalty. this way isolated units will be easy pray but continuous line defense will be tough nut to crack. like it was in real life.

[A Corsican Frog]

Originally posted by 0t0:

my bad about engineers, I mixed up with info from manual stating that "fighting from the bridge" (not river) will get -5 damage. if this is applicable today as this I could not see either on your snapshots or in the game.
What is also strange on few of your snaps is that defending infantry is getting terrain malus while attacking engineer doesn't get any. both of them should have no bonsu/malus as defending hex is plain! https://imgur.com/a/hKRFBHv

For tanks yes if you can fix it as you proposed it will be much more logic.
Same for defender being penalized for defending from his own city make no sense. so maybe you add instead something like -25% to soft/hard attack. or increase encirclement penalty. this way isolated units will be easy pray but continuous line defense will be tough nut to crack. like it was in real life.

Manual has been updated, it had some wrong information, it will be coming out shortly...

As for the engineers, they ignore entrenchment
That is why they have no damage penalty on my screenshots
All is good :)

Defender being penalized for defending on its own tile is not happening, EXCEPT for tanks, if the tile is not suitable for armoured combat = forest/urban area