How to rip up rails?

[The Red Baron]

I can't seem to get CAV elements to rip up rails. Playing the Tanneberg scenario, I placed the 1 CAV division behind the Russian 2nd Army to cut the rails. Next turn, my special order has been cancelled and the rails remain intact. I tried again at the beginning of the following two turns but had the same result; special order cancelled, rails intact. Does anyone know what's going on?

I had the identical experience in CWII. Lone cavalry elements given special orders to destroy rails wouldn't perform the special order. The following turn the order is cancelled with no result. When I gave the special order to CAV brigades with 3 CAV elements and 1 HA, the unit finally destroyed the rails. Is there some kind of minimum number of elements necessary to destroy rails? I understand a lone element might take more than 1 turn to rip up the rails, but why is the game cancelling my special order w/o fulfilling it? Shouldn't the special order remain enabled until the unit executes its instructions?

[Merlin]

It probably works the same way it does in CW2, in that there's some hidden calculation where small elements have only a very small chance to tear up track, but it improves dramatically with more forces.

[DrPostman]

Right. I've been trying to find what that ratio is without success for the last
20 minutes. Your percentages of success go up with more troops, but a lone
division of Cavalry doesn't work all the time. Since we're talking about whole
divisions, that might be in need of fixing.

[Lynxyonok]

Do you ask them to move too? They need 5 days to finish. Thus far in eaw I have been successful each time... Save for moments I was attacked prior to day 5.

[Kensai]

Well, on the other hand, having a small brigade completely destroy the rail infrastructure of an entire region would be an overkill... We're talking about a lot of rail here! But do not despair, even if you fail to destroy rail, your rising MC in the region will eventually disallow the enemy from using that rail to move troops (and supplies), abstracting indirectly the same effect in a smaller scale.

[The Red Baron]

Do you ask them to move too? They need 5 days to finish. Thus far in eaw I have been successful each time... Save for moments I was attacked prior to day 5.

The first time, I gave the unit orders to move, but the manual reads as if the unit will execute the special order first then move. The unit moved but did not rip up the rails; so, the 2nd and 3rd times I just gave the special order to rip up the rails but that didn't work either.

[The Red Baron]

Well, on the other hand, having a small brigade completely destroy the rail infrastructure of an entire region would be an overkill... We're talking about a lot of rail here! But do not despair, even if you fail to destroy rail, your rising MC in the region will eventually disallow the enemy from using that rail to move troops (and supplies), abstracting indirectly the same effect in a smaller scale.

Yeah, I kinda figured that after thinking about it. It would be unrealistic to expect that a lone brigade could single-handedly disable the entire rail network of a region in 7 days' time, as the rail in a region could represent multiple lines of track.

[The Red Baron]

It probably works the same way it does in CW2, in that there's some hidden calculation where small elements have only a very small chance to tear up track, but it improves dramatically with more forces.

Right. I've been trying to find what that ratio is without success for the last
20 minutes. Your percentages of success go up with more troops, but a lone
division of Cavalry doesn't work all the time. Since we're talking about whole
divisions, that might be in need of fixing.

Thanks. I've read several posts alluding to cutting the supply lines, but no one mentioned having problems doing it. I was beginning to go crazy wondering what I was doing wrong!

[Lynxyonok]

Do consider that a small unit may try to escape a larger enemy detachment over sticking around to rip rails. I always use a corps at least.