orca wrote:That's not how it works. You give the order, it takes some number of days, and you have a success rate equal to the power level of the stack assigned to destroy the rail.
I never bother to destroy rail unless I have 4 regiments of cavalry and so nearly 100% chance of sucess. For a single regiment you're just too unlikley to suceed and tying the regiment in place isn't a worthwhile risk IMHO.
So slow destruction, slow repair.
This does not appear to be the case. I had forgotten that the latest revisions include a probability of failure for the smallest forces attempting to destroy railroads, and that is at least a step in the right direction. But where destruction does occur, I have never seen any delay, so as for "takes some number of days" and "tying the regiment in place", no.
I have just finished verifying this with one of the tutorials, using I believe the 1.17a revision. Ran several variations, ordering forces of various sizes to destroy railroads and then conduct a full turn's movement. Results:
A. There is no effect on movement plotting. Order fifteen days' projected movement, select the "Destroy RR" option, and the projected movement remains unchanged.
B. As noted, railroad destruction is not automatic for forces smaller than a 100-point brigade. The success rate is approximately equal to the power level of the stack, as a percentage, whether the force is moving or not.
C. Railroad destruction, when it occurs, appears to be instantaneous. The destroyed-RR symbol appears on the map at the very start of movement, or not at all.
D. The moving force, whether it succeeded in destroying the railroad or not, completed its full fifteen days of plotted movement.
E. In one test case, another friendly unit ordered to move through a region with plotted RR destruction on day 2, was stopped in its tracks - or rather lack thereof.
F. When a force of cavalry in clear terrain was ordered to destroy RR and move out, entering the next region on day 2, RR destruction occurred (or not, if the force was small and unlucky) on day one, and the cavalry entered the next region on schedule on day 2.
If the intent was to impose a delay on railroad destruction in one of the latest revisions, then this was well-meant but does not appear to have been successfully implemented. And if the intent is that brigade-sized forces should be able to destroy railroads rather than simply disrupt them for a few days, then to match the historic results reported by Pratt and others the appropriate period for destruction should be a full turn or thereabouts. Which would seem easy enough to implement - simply have the "Destroy RR" button deselect any plotted movement, and vice versa.
What we have now does in fact seem to be instantaneous destruction and slow repair. Which ahistorically exaggerates the effect of raiding forces, something I do not think this game needs.