How does Opportunity Fire really work? (Full Version)

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Tommi -> How does Opportunity Fire really work? (7/24/2001 2:48:00 AM)

Just wondering how can I set a unit to "overwatch mode" i.e. cover another unit while it advances? The OpFire seems very unreliable for this as it is uncertain whether the covering unit will get to OpFire at all. An example to illustrate my point: I was trying to move two of my tanks towards an enemy position cautiously. I moved one of them a fex hexes while the other one was not moving, covering the first tank as it moved. My idea was to "leap-frog" forward so that if the enemy raises its head the covering tank will fire at it. Sure enough the enemy tank comes from behind a building and gets to fire first knocking out the closer tank. The covering tank does not get to fire. On my turn I fire on the enemy tank missing my shot, lo and behold, the enemy tank gets to OpFire and destroys my other tank. Thank you very much. What are the opportunity fire rules? It seems I'm doing something wrong as the computer seems to get its OpFire shots when they count, while I seem to have the wrong unit get the OpFire shots, if at all... Okay, I'm exaggerating, but this has caused more hair-pulling than any other part of the game. And please don't get me wrong, I love SPWAW, I just seem to be having some communication problems with it :). Suggestions? BTW I'm running v 5.01 if that has any relevance to this.




MacCready -> (7/24/2001 3:35:00 AM)

I think what your looking for is just too damn complicated for the five year old Steel Panthers game engine. Why not mention your idea's for the upcoming Combat Leader game,which by the way will be superior to Steel Panthers in every way.




Tommi -> (7/24/2001 4:17:00 AM)

Well, I kinda thought that was the case. The game may be old, but the Matrix guys have surely taught that old dog some new tricks. I should have known that the culprit for my OpFire results was my bad luck (again). Thanks for the info!




MacCready -> (7/24/2001 4:20:00 AM)

Yes they have done a fine job with SPWAW!! But we as wargamers ask for more and more and the old engine just can't handle it. I'm really looking forward to Combat Leader.




Warrior -> (7/24/2001 5:12:00 AM)

You can adjust Op Fire in Preferences, or even turn it off.




Tomanbeg -> (7/24/2001 5:14:00 AM)

quote:

Originally posted by Tommi: Just wondering how can I set a unit to "overwatch mode" i.e. cover another unit while it advances? The OpFire seems very unreliable for this as it is uncertain whether the covering unit will get to OpFire at all. An example to illustrate my point: I was trying to move two of my tanks towards an enemy position cautiously. I moved one of them a fex hexes while the other one was not moving, covering the first tank as it moved. My idea was to "leap-frog" forward so that if the enemy raises its head the covering tank will fire at it. Sure enough the enemy tank comes from behind a building and gets to fire first knocking out the closer tank. The covering tank does not get to fire. On my turn I fire on the enemy tank missing my shot, lo and behold, the enemy tank gets to OpFire and destroys my other tank. Thank you very much. What are the opportunity fire rules? It seems I'm doing something wrong as the computer seems to get its OpFire shots when they count, while I seem to have the wrong unit get the OpFire shots, if at all... Okay, I'm exaggerating, but this has caused more hair-pulling than any other part of the game. And please don't get me wrong, I love SPWAW, I just seem to be having some communication problems with it :). Suggestions? BTW I'm running v 5.01 if that has any relevance to this.
Split your bound up over 3 turns. Set your 'overwatcher' to zero, or better yet, turn the main gun off. If possible put down some arty in the area you are scouting. (this will open up the range on any units in ambush.)move your 'bounder' one hex at a time until it's fired upon. If you are lucky and the bushwacker misses, you have several options. A) take a shot with the overwatcher. If you were careful where you put the overwatcher and how you moved the bounder, you might get a cheap kill. B)fire smoke from the overwatcher to block LOS between ambusher and bounder. C)Move a third unit out to draw a shot from the ambusher. D) fire(or pop) smoke from the Bounder. E) Check LOS to see if you can move the Bounder out of LOS from the Ambusher. What you DO NOT want to do is give the Ambusher a 2nd, unsuppressed shot. This approach takes time, you can't do this in a 12 turn game. If what you are doing is moving a unit a few hexes and then moving another unit past it a few hexes, then moving the first unit again, that is NOT bounding overwatch. That is providing Targets. A 'Bound' in a I-go U-go game system takes 3 turns to do right. first turn the overwatcher(s) gets into position, this move should never be more then 1 hex.(otherwise the overwatcher can be spotted. Sometimes 1 hex is to much. Fortunes of War) Second turn the bounder moves out. Plan ahead, count hexes,and never end the turn in the open. If you have to end the turn in the open, don't. Blow smoke burn a villa, do something to provide some concelment. 3rd turn you move your next Over watcher adjacent to it's next position and bring up the rest of your force. The size of a bound is determined by the terrain and range of the overwatcher. By range I mean Effective range of the main gun, not the maximum range. During your opponents turn, Use the range control and where you position your units to determine who op fires and who doesn't. Turning off your main gun can be a good Idea sometimes, It can be a diaster other times. In your example if you had been sitting taking a shot at a moving target your Hit% is a lot better then when you are moving, shooting at any target. Moving shooter at a moving target is a waste of a round. Sitting shooter at moving taget, advantage sitter, especialy if the sitter gets a second shot. Moving shooter at sitting target. Op fire (sitting target) has the edge, Unless the shooter gets some suppression on the target. Sitting shooter sitting target, unit with higher experience has the edge. Unless one of the units is a King Tiger, In which case you run, and try later with a flank shot. The all time master at this was Beau Morlan, an Auzzie. Beau was world champion back in '97 or '98. I lost track of Beau over the years but If you can find him, he would be the one to ask. He used to be on @blue dog.net or maybe bluedingo.net. T.




Larry Holt -> (7/25/2001 2:17:00 AM)

Excellent tactics Tomanbeg! If I can elaborate, -I use the 50% hit range as the max effective range in this situation. Look at the accuracy value and divide this by 4 to get the range in hexes that you have a 50% first round hit, unmodified. (SPIII was a 200m per hex game and SPWaW is derived from it). -You can't help going out in the open but you don't want to end your turn there. Before you venture out into a potential kill zone, have enough MPs to get into cover (back, sideways or forwards) & consider that when you are shot at, you lose some MPs if you haven't been shot at lately. This means you might need to move to the edge of the open area, then not venture into it until your next turn when you have full MPs. -If you have multiple bounding units, you can alternate them so the defender using OPfire loses target lock (& its increased % to hit) by firing on them each in turn.




Paul Vebber -> (7/25/2001 3:36:00 AM)

OPfire is a very random thing, when an enemy moves or shoots, then all friendly units have a chance to have "balls put in" to use teh NBA lottery analogy. The closer you are the "more balls put in" so to speak, but anybody can be selected for OPFIRE. SO as is alluded to above, using the range selecion to limit the number of units that "have balls in" will limit the potential shooters to those that you want. IF you are shot at though, there is a good chance that the range will be reset automatically to allow you to fire back.




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