Units destroy everything!

[Cyth Lord]

I'm playing the Human Shrine Wars campaign #4 and I cannot beat it for the worst reason... my military units either destroy everything or get destroyed themselves. If I select 'attack units only' they are destroyed by mines. And I cannot have them 'avoid mines' because then they destroy everything in the territory that I need in order to pay for their upkeep! And scouts have a 100% failure rate in disarming mines. There are no solutions!

How do you accomplish this campaign mission when everything is against you? How do you order units to avoid mines AND NOT DESTROY EVERYTHING in the process? Do I really need to disband all my units at the start, spend dozens of turns researching and rebuilding my military all over again?!

[Cyth Lord]

My god... it finally happened! I actually disabled a mine field! It took an ungodly number of tries, but it finally happened.

Having taken ChCh-t research facility #1, I easily went on to take down the remaining two territories w/out much effort. Wow. I'm surprised at how much difference the absence of just one mine field had on winning a game.

Still I'm greatly frustrated that units continue to get destroyed by mines or stupidly destroy all the buildings. How much I wish we could edit individual scenarios and remove those overly absurd mines.

[MaugTheInfirm]

Do minefields get used up? Meaning, if you send in a laser trooper every turn, will they eventually detonate so many times that the mine field is gone?

Oh no - I just realized I'm about to do this experiment... I'm on the Human Campaign (Shrine Wars) #3... I own most of the map, and am about to research disruptor cannon. (I can't build fusion cannon since I never learned or stole metallurgy). So within days or weeks, I'll probably hit the situation you describe...

[Cyth Lord]

The short answer is no. The only way to get rid of the minefield is to conquer the territory or successfully disarm the mines with a scout.

Edit: Actually there have been a few times where enemy minefields still remain active even after conquering the territory. They bring down that territory's morale and will harm your own units if the enemy attacks. I hate mines!!!

[Ubergeneral Grunt]

Once you take over a territory and they remain enemy mines, can you not click on the mine icon in the world view to blow them away?

[MaugTheInfirm]

I've clicked on my own mines before to remove them, but I am not able to see enemy mines... so for me, there's nothing to click.

So if sending units doesn't blow up mines, computer opponents must be disarming my minefields with spies. I guess I assumed the visible units that encounter a minefield (aka "shrapnel") had an effect, without considering the unseen spies. Good to know.

I've already restarted Human mission #4 one time, since my forces were stretched too thin. I let an enemy force put me in an awkward defensive position. This time I pushed all the way next to Chcht landing, and am disarming mines wherever I can. It's annoying figuring out when that's successful - sometimes messages are lost (like upkeep reporting unit cost but not tanks), sometimes there's too many to read them all. Hopefully I'll think of a way to know when a minefield is gone. Hey, maybe those laser squads will come in handy...

[Ubergeneral Grunt]

Sounds like a bug then, if enemy mines exist in your territory.