Gary Tatro
Posts: 1213
Joined: 2/1/2002
From: MA, US
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Buzzard45
[B]I understabd the penetration ratings. i.e. up to 10 hexes this , up to 20 hexes that. But what do accuracy ratings really mean and kill ratings? Also at what point does war head size come into play.
What is the difference between targeting and fire control? What does the number mean? How is it used to calculate hit chance?
Why is there dual rating for range in the encyclopedia and a single range for the same weapon when you right click a unit? [/B][/QUOTE]
Too many questions (the answers are very lengthy) so I went to manual. It is quiet long but I hope it helps.
Accuracy
When you move the cursor over an enemy unit that’s within range of friendly forces, or use the
Target key to cycle through enemy units, a pop-up box will display the percentage chance of a hit.
At long range, weapons will tend to have poor accuracy (no fire control computers in 1939), with
hit probabilities of 2 percent or so. If you’re playing with limited ammunition rules, you can take a
lot of low-odds shots and run out of ammo quickly. Close-range shots mean letting the enemy
come dangerously close, but hit probabilities can exceed 90 percent. There is always a 1%
chance to hit or miss in any shot.
A unit’s experience and the skill of its leader a unit’s leader are crucial. Those numbers are 62
checked every time a unit fires. If the firer passes both the experience check and the leader skill
check, it gets a big bonus to its accuracy. If it passes the experience check but fails the
leadership skill check, its hit probability is normal, while failing the leader skill check results in a
penalty. Thus fire from veteran troops is deadly, while green units will be much less effective.
The hit probabilities shown are very rough. Range, suppression, movement, terrain, and weather
will all affect the final number. For example, against entrenched infantry, hit probabilities won’t be
much higher than 30% unless the firing units are elite. In general, a unit’s accuracy is based on its
accuracy rating. This represents the range at which the unit has a 50% chance to hit. This is
adjusted based on the range of the target, the maximum range of the weapon and whether it is
small arms fire or not. Other modifiers include
• Target size. This affects hit probablities, with larger targets more like likely to be hit.
Terrain offers protection by reducing the effective size of a target. Target size modifers
range from 240 for a big size 5 target, to an adjusted size of –4 for a small target. The
formula is modifers/100, multiplied by base accuracy.
• Suppression. Accuracy is affected by the suppression level of the firing unit. Accuracy is
reduced by Suppression/2.
• Movement. A firing unit that has previously moved will be much less accurate, while a
target that is moving is harder to hit. The modifier for moving targets is hexes moved
times 3, added to 3 times the firing unit’s fire control rating, and then subtracted from a
base of 70. For a firing unit, it’s 6 times the number of hexes it has moved, added to 8
times its targeting (formerly stabilizer) rating, and then subtracted from a base of 66. Put
simply, a good fire control rating is needed to hit moving targets, while the ability to
coordinate movement, turret traverse and crew activities (and an actual gun stabilizer -rare
in World War II) are essential for accurate shooting when the firing unit is moving.
Note that in the "several minutes" a turn represents, it is rare for units to actually be
shooting while travelling forward at any great speed. The assumption is that for most part
units are shooting form the "short halt". Russians tended to be poor at this and are
typically penalized one targeting rating because of this.
These are the targeting ratings in the game (they use the OOB editor "stab"
characteristic)
Stab 0 = SP AT guns like Archer and Marder that were not very good at shooting from
the "march".
Stab 1 = SP guns and tanks with slow 2 man turrets or 1 man turrets
Stab 2 = tanks with 2 man turrets or slow turrets
Stab 3 = "normal" tanks with 3 man turret crews.
Stab 4 = a very few late war weapons
• Experience. Hit probability is multiplied by experience/65.
• Rangefinders. A high rangefinder value is vital for long-range shots. This value +1 is
multiplied times 6, 8, 10 and 12 for a series of “range bands” where a penalty of times
.67, .5, .33 and .25 kick in. For instance a tank with a rangefinder value of 2 (effectively 3)
has a normal hit chance out to 18 hexes (900yrds). At 900-1200 yards, it’s times .67, at
1200 – 1500 times .5, at 1500-1800 times .33 and beyond 1800 yards, .25. If thePlayers Manual v5.0
© 2001 by Matrix Games. All Rights Reserved. 62
checked every time a unit fires. If the firer passes both the experience check and the leader skill
check, it gets a big bonus to its accuracy. If it passes the experience check but fails the
leadership skill check, its hit probability is normal, while failing the leader skill check results in a
penalty. Thus fire from veteran troops is deadly, while green units will be much less effective.
The hit probabilities shown are very rough. Range, suppression, movement, terrain, and weather
will all affect the final number. For example, against entrenched infantry, hit probabilities won’t be
much higher than 30% unless the firing units are elite. In general, a unit’s accuracy is based on its
accuracy rating. This represents the range at which the unit has a 50% chance to hit. This is
adjusted based on the range of the target, the maximum range of the weapon and whether it is
small arms fire or not. Other modifiers include
• Target size. This affects hit probablities, with larger targets more like likely to be hit.
Terrain offers protection by reducing the effective size of a target. Target size modifers
range from 240 for a big size 5 target, to an adjusted size of –4 for a small target. The
formula is modifers/100, multiplied by base accuracy.
• Suppression. Accuracy is affected by the suppression level of the firing unit. Accuracy is
reduced by Suppression/2.
• Movement. A firing unit that has previously moved will be much less accurate, while a
target that is moving is harder to hit. The modifier for moving targets is hexes moved
times 3, added to 3 times the firing unit’s fire control rating, and then subtracted from a
base of 70. For a firing unit, it’s 6 times the number of hexes it has moved, added to 8
times its targeting (formerly stabilizer) rating, and then subtracted from a base of 66. Put
simply, a good fire control rating is needed to hit moving targets, while the ability to
coordinate movement, turret traverse and crew activities (and an actual gun stabilizer -rare
in World War II) are essential for accurate shooting when the firing unit is moving.
Note that in the "several minutes" a turn represents, it is rare for units to actually be
shooting while travelling forward at any great speed. The assumption is that for most part
units are shooting form the "short halt". Russians tended to be poor at this and are
typically penalized one targeting rating because of this.
These are the targeting ratings in the game (they use the OOB editor "stab"
characteristic)
Stab 0 = SP AT guns like Archer and Marder that were not very good at shooting from
the "march".
Stab 1 = SP guns and tanks with slow 2 man turrets or 1 man turrets
Stab 2 = tanks with 2 man turrets or slow turrets
Stab 3 = "normal" tanks with 3 man turret crews.
Stab 4 = a very few late war weapons
• Experience. Hit probability is multiplied by experience/65.
• Rangefinders. A high rangefinder value is vital for long-range shots. This value +1 is
multiplied times 6, 8, 10 and 12 for a series of “range bands” where a penalty of times
.67, .5, .33 and .25 kick in. For instance a tank with a rangefinder value of 2 (effectively 3)
has a normal hit chance out to 18 hexes (900yrds). At 900-1200 yards, it’s times .67, at
1200 – 1500 times .5, at 1500-1800 times .33 and beyond 1800 yards, .25. If the3
rangefinder value is greater than 12, it actually improves the accuracy of the first shot (or
rather mitigates the penalty against initial shots).
Target Acquisition
Accuracy will vary greatly because of a multitude of factors, such as whether the firing unit or
target is moving. But repeated fire at a target improves the chances of a hit. The first shot that a
unit fires at a target suffers a 40% penalty on the percentage chance to hit. The second shot
receives a 20% penalty, while the hit probability is normal for the third shot. Infantry weapons
“range in” faster, so the 1 st shot penalty is 80% if a “primary infantry” weapon.
Movement and Shooting
A unit that moves will lose shots, and any shots it does fire will be much less accurate. Similarly,
a unit that fires loses movement points. Having a stabilizer on a gun will keep it from losing as
many shots when moving.
Opportunity Fire (OpFire)
An IGO-UGO system has the problem of “turns” that do not exist on a real battlefield. Games tend
to two extremes. Plotted movement with simultaneous execution is at one extreme assuming
near perfect synchronization of forces in time and space – all units moving proportionally
according to speed to the stroke of a master metronome. IGO-UGO goes to the other extreme of
perfectly asynchronous movement, each unit moves in series, often completing its turn before
any other units move. Reality is in the middle and both systems have their troubles. To deal with
the problem of the enemy being “frozen” when its not their turn, IGO_UGO systems usually use
the concept of opportunity fire, or allowing certain trigger actions to allow the “frozen” player’s
units to shoot when its not their turn. In SP:WaW these triggers are:
• Moving in the LOS of the enemy
• Shooting at him
• Moving within 2 hexes of the enemy
When these events occur there is a chance based on experience, ROF and range that an
Opportunity fire will be triggered. We have broken down Op-Fire to three levels.
Point Blank Op-Fire is triggered when ever a moving unit moves moves next. If the unit is in a
defense stance it will be triggered from 1 - 3 hexes away.
Special Op-Fire: It will now considered the units suppression level and will also add a small
amount of suppression every time you Special Op-Fire. So the more you shoot the more
suppression the unit receives.
Return OP-Fire will happen when one of your units gets shot at. There is a chance it will fire back
even if it has used all of its shots.
Now the concept of “shots” regulating the number of times the player can fire compounds this
problem of “asynchronization” because enemy units can “sucker” a defender into expending all
their shots early in the turn, leaving it defenseless. Now in SP:WaW we assume that even if a unit
completes its turn and causes an enemy to expend all its opfire shots additional friendly actions
often “should have” occurred very closely in time with it. So we have put “special opfire” into the
game. Special OpFire is opfire triggered when an enemy has no shots remaining – in effect
“bonus fire”. Since each turn represents several minutes, even heavy tanks with rates of fire of 6
or 8 rounds per minute are capable of 12 or 18 shots in a turn if the enemy provides a “target rich
environment”.
So if you are in a situation where you bump into the enemy close up, the game assumes some
simultaneity where you are not necessarily "really" moving your units one at a time. So just
becasue the first unit moves up and makes the defender opfire his "wad", that doesn't mean that
you are free to waltze all his platoon mates up and do the defender in! Since the defender doesn't
get a chance to rally during the turn, the key is to shoot a lot to suppress him and make those
opfire shoots a nuisance (and waste of his ammo). It also forces better combined arms
interaction. Couple this with the Opfire Confirm option and both players will find themselves fully
engaged throughout both halves of the turn!
The idea is that you are likely to get shot at, at least as often as you shoot if you close with the
enemy at short range. If you have supporting troops (direct fire HE or MGs in particular)
softening up the position before you assault, you will do much better becasue those opfire shots
will be quite poor (half the units suppression/100 is mutiplied time the hit chance).
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