Digging a new line
Your side only digs forward where you have made it safe. How a dig operation runs, from the officer's mark to the new fire trench.
The Hearthguard can only dig forward where you have made it safe to dig. A new trench line is earned with careful shelling: you blind the enemy, keep their heads down and buy the sappers a few quiet minutes. You cannot win the war alone, but every careful shot lets your side dig a little further forward.
The request
A dig comes as a story operation or as an officer's request. It appears on the map as a pin with its distance by rail, and you take it on by driving Old Marta within range.
Cover our dig at grid C4.
Officer requests earn goodwill with that sector. If the sector falls while you are elsewhere, the request expires quietly and new ones appear wherever the front is active. See Operations and requests.
The dig, step by step
- Mark the dig site. The officer marks a strip of no-man's-land 40 to 80 m ahead of your fire trench.
- Clear the threats. Destroy or suppress whatever overlooks the strip: enemy MG nests, snipers in ruins, and the facing enemy fire-trench sector. Bring that sector's strength under about 40%.
- Lay a smoke screen. Smoke shells across the strip hide the diggers from the enemy for 45 to 60 s per screen.
- Keep them down. While the sappers dig, put shrapnel on the enemy trench every so often. If enemy fire picks up, the diggers stop and wait.
- Hold. After 2 to 4 minutes of digging, the new fire trench connects.
The dig only moves forward while the smoke holds and the enemy trench stays suppressed. Your shells take 25 to 60 s to arrive, so fire the next smoke screen before the last one thins. See Shells for smoke and shrapnel, and The shot for flight times.
When it works
The new trench joins up, and the old fire trench becomes your support line. Control of the ground shifts forward with it. The front has moved, a little, because of you. See Trenches.
When it fails
A dig fails if the diggers take too many casualties. Nothing is lost for good: the half-dug trench stays where it is, and you can pick the dig up again later.
When you learn it
In the campaign, digs arrive in winter, in the second chapter, "The Long Line", together with supply, depots, smoke and recon planes. See The campaign: four seasons.
To practise a dig from the first mark to the last shovel, follow Covering a dig with smoke.