Units forgetting I told them to dig in?

[pelle]

This is probably a very stupid question, but playing against the AI this weekend (in preparing for playing my second PBEM opponent this week) I found that it seems I have to keep telling my units to dig in every turn. Just telling them to dig in on turn one and then not giving any new orders did not seem to make them continue digging in on subsequent turns even though they are still marked with a D for digging in. They are still dug in but do not increase entrenchement or go on to be E or F. Is this really the case?

[Heldenkaiser]

I thought "D" stands for "defending" rather than "digging" - it's a status, not a process. And yes, I believe the units needs to be told to increase its fortification level.

[Telumar]

I thought "D" stands for "defending" rather than "digging" - it's a status, not a process. And yes, I believe the units needs to be told to increase its fortification level.

This shouldn't be the case, the manual states clearly that units continue digging in in subsequent turns once they are ordered to. See 12.4 . As it was in ACoW.
If you order them to dig in in turn 1 they will immediatly dig in and their MPs are reduced to zero. On the beginning of turn 2 they have again their full MPs. If you don't move them and don't give them any other orders, like TR etc. they continue to dig in, BUT at the end of your turn, after you finished it AFAIK, so you will see the "effects" on your turn 3 and your opponent on his following turn if he is player 2.
It should be so, have you guys checked this? Further, units without squads, i.e. Artillery, seem to dig in much slower, so the progress in the following turns could be minimal, but that's only from experience, i could be wrong here.
Btw, Heldenkaiser is right, D stands for defending and is a status, just like E - entrenched, F - fortified.

[pelle]

OK. At least now I know.

Will engineers supporting units that dig in need to be ordered to defend for that turn first or can they move around from hex to hex supporting units digging in in all of the hexes the same turn?

EDIT: I wrote this before Telumar's reply. That sounds a lot better. I did not do any close studies and hope you are right. It just seemed like some units took forever to gain entrenchment but did so very fast once I told them to dig in again, but I could have imagined that.

[Telumar]

OK. At least now I know.

Will engineers supporting units that dig in need to be ordered to defend for that turn first or can they move around from hex to hex supporting units digging in in all of the hexes the same turn?

They can move from hex to hex and need not to dig in. Just move them to hex A, order unit 1 on hex A to dig in, move them to hex B and order unit 2 to dig in and so on..

[Heldenkaiser]

They can move from hex to hex and need not to dig in. Just move them to hex A, order unit 1 on hex A to dig in, move them to hex B and order unit 2 to dig in and so on..

THAT clearly works. I do it a lot. Really, really cute, that feature. In a crowded environment, mot Engineers can provide assistance to an immense number of units in a single turn in helping them dig in. :smoke: