Reply To: Russian dragon’s teeth

[Brian Handley]

Not Connard Sage – The ” passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously” is here sorry I’m late, we will proably get on as you are at least as bad as you claim I am.  However I am always happy to learn from the experts.  So to reiterate the questions not yet answered in the other oplace, I look forward to your answeres.  Please note waffle is not an answer.

One of the key issues in defence is the cost of those defences.  So which is the most COST EFFECTIVE of the three, antitank ditch,  hedgehogs or Russian Dragons teeth.   Note the video from “the other Place” shows some effectiveness of Russian Dragons teeth that are not dug in and can be laid by civiilian contractors.

Anti tank ditches can be dug very swiftly in the right terrain by specialist equipment, I suspect its more difficult and slower by civilian contractoies but as an expert on such things you can educate me.   Hedgehogs seem a bit problematic, the material at least currently (steel) is expensive and I’m not sure whether it’s cheaper to move the material and have specialists on site assemble them, or have them pre-made andytransported, as the expert you will know this answer in detail.

You can also enlighten me why say 3 anti tank ditches are not as good as 1 ditch, 1 hedgehog line and 1 line dragons theet,  all with or without associated minefields.  In theory 3 say anti tank ditches may be better, it puts a higher demand on a single resource so could be far harder to field than some of diffrent types.   General purpose Engineering vehicles like the Buffel could do all three agreed but a dedicated buldoser would be faster on an anti tank ditch.  Plus with 3 anti tank ditches the timescales may be too long and so very valuable Bridge layers may be needed and excelent issue to consider.

While any obsticle is best covered like many manuals and Russian over optimism, with hundreds of killometer of front, covering it all with limited resources would be impossible.  Hence the debate, is some limited delay by a cheap obsticle un covered by fire worth is as a slowing device and one wher its easy to spot enemy movement.

I look forward to your respoce given you stated expertise in these matters.

In case you are woundering why, well in any campaign resource is a critical issue so the cost, manpower and time are critical factors.   Even toy sooldier games need to have some credibity or else to me, its a huge waste of money on toys that give you no fun.