Section Leaders:
Fionn Kelly & Madmatt

Fog of War & Anti-Tank Guns
Pages 1-5

Well, I noticed some posts on the Combat Mission forum about anti-tank guns and fog of war issues and decided that the best way to try to explain them was to actually set up a simple scenario myself to illustrate how anti-tank guns are virtually invisible until they start firing (unless, of course, you site them in the open or something equally insane).

So, what I did was make a quick map which features woods on either side of a road. The map has a hill in the centre to act as a LOS obstructor but apart from that is very simple.. It took me approximately 40 minutes to make the 1km by 1km map, set the elevations, choose and place the units etc..

So that's 14 tanks versus 3 AT guns and 1 King Tiger. In this scenario I've placed the AT guns within 200 metres to 400 metres of the road to demonstrate that they can't be spotted. It should be noted that doing so ensures that once they are spotted they will be quickly knocked out by massed HE fire but this is a LOS, FOW example and not intended to explore optimal ambush dispositions.

I have played both sides of this scenario via hotseating so that I could ensure getting the exact shots I wanted of the various views to illustrate the nature of FOW in CM.

 In the picture you can see the red circles around two 88s which are sited to cover the hill and the road leading from it. One more 88 and the King Tiger are sited "in reserve" to cover the kink in the road.

I've placed some boresight markers on the map in likely ambush zones to represent "zeroed in" ambush locations which should help increase my first round accuracy and placed a few mines to kill Americans if they should try to venture off the roads. I've also ordered my AT teams to "hide" to reduce the chances of them being spotted AND to ensure they don't fire until I want them to.

This shot is taken during the German Perspective Action Phase Replay. During the first action phase I hear the sound of oncoming armoured vehicles and an unidentified light armoured vehicle is heard and located somewhere in the forest to my left (circled in blue).

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. What I actually identified as a half-trackish sound during the German action phase was actually a Stuart which is moving slowly through the scattered trees in an attempt to gain recon information whilst still remaining out of sight of the Germans.

The blue lines denote American concentrations and for the duration of this article blue circles will denote American units whilst red will denote German units.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. As my 88s remain hidden the American vanguard advances over the hilltop. Here my 88 team has made contact with what is vaguely identified as a half-track. Since I've designed the scenario I know this is most probably a Stuart. Light tanks are often mistaken for half-tracks and vice versa. Note that the locations of mines etc remain known to the Germans throughout the whole game as they are the people who set the mines etc.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. This is the reverse of the view above. Here, I have taken a shot from the location of the Stuart of the woods the 88 is in (its location is circled in red) to show that, during the Allied Action Phase the German gun is still invisible.

This shot is taken during an American Order Phase. In this shot you can see the movement order I am giving the Stuart. As you can appreciate it is very easy to estimate LOS visually using the 3 dimensional nature of CM's engine. Since I would generally try not to be exposed to LOS from units arranged on that long straight line in the north I have stopped the Stuart in such a location that it can't be spotted from that road. As you can see simply drawing a line down the road shows exactly where the LOS cut-off is. There's no more counting of hexes or intervening terrain. Pretty much the 3D engine removes all the arcane rules from a commander's decision-making process. If it LOOKS like the enemy can get LOS to a position from the road then they can. If it LOOKS like they can't then they can't. CM lends itself much more to "instinctive generalship" by doing this which is a good thing in my book.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. The 88 unit in the woods to the south of the main road is doing a good job spotting all these enemy tanks. It can now see two possible tanks and two possible half-tracks (in actuality these are the two Stuarts). The Stuarts are the units at the extreme left and right of the picture.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. This shot is taken from the perspective of the US southern flank. I have drawn LOS from the Stuart to the location of the German AT gun in the woods to the east BUT as you can see, even though it can see into the woods it can't see the AT gun since it is still camouflaged and hidden.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. It shows my KoenigsTiger (and yes, the game differentiates between the Porsche turret and Henschel turrets) spotting the enemy recon Stuart.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. The two yellow lines denote that my 88 AND my KoenigsTiger there have both targeted the Stuart. The KoenigsTiger fires a shell but misses. The Stuart stays where it is, neither reversing or advancing and I was actually taking this down as a bug report when I, later, found the explanation for it which I give below.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. Tracer rounds rip into the hull of the little Stuart forcing its commander to button. He hasn't yet but in about a second he definitely does.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. I have repositioned the camera over the 88mm crew in the woods beside the KoenigsTiger to give you a good view of the explosion and destruction of the Stuart. This PaK 88 crew can paint its first kill ring on its gun.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. It is the reverse of the shot above. I have zoomed this a little so that you can make out the far treeline more easily. Note that the PaK88 has not been spotted even though it fired the shot which killed the Stuart.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. A little perturbed by their meeting with a tank weighing roughly three times as much as their own the survivors of Olson's crew run like hell deeper into the forest. Armed with pistols they're pretty much out of the battle.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. This is from the perspective of the other Stuart which is still hiding in the trees. I have ordered it to advance a little and it shows off some of the tactical AI to good account later. In this shot we can see the other Stuart being hit and knocked out. Note that there is NO yellow line linking to the vehicle. The King Tiger had not just fired so something else must have killed the Stuart but I, as the American player, would have no idea what this something is. Excellent Fog of War. If I was playing smart I'd know that there is something else there BUT if I wasn't playing smart and just assumed it MUST be the KoenigsTiger then I'd get a rude shock when I finally did round that corner.

Bear in mind the location of the Stuart in the above picture. Now look at the bottom picture.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. The Stuart has pulled back deeper into the forest. Why? Well, quite simply in its previous location the King Tiger was able to see it AND shoot at it. Obviously this is an extremely BAD thing to have happen for a Stuart so the tactical AI intervened and pulled my Stuart into the woods all of its own volition without any input from me. Units really do look like they have a survival instinct and act intelligently to get out of bad situations.

Now, I can imagine some of you are wondering why the other Stuart didn't pull back after it had been near-missed by the King Tiger eh? Well, that HUGE 88mm shell landing so close to the feeble little Stuart had immobilized it so the poor Stuart crew couldn't do anything. They did, in fact, try to fire back at the King Tiger but that little 37mm popgun didn't do much damage ;-).

And here's the proof. Note that the first King Tiger shell landed and immobilized the Stuart before it even spotted the King Tiger. Seconds after the shell immobilized them the crew did spot the King Tiger though and thus it is viewable in the above shots.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. A platoon or so of medium tanks is coming down the main road. You get extra points if you can spot the identified Stuart in the picture.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. This is the reverse shot of the above shot. What are, to the Germans, unidentified German tanks are, to the Americans a platoon of Shermans advancing in wedge formation.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. More and more American tanks appear. If I was playing this for real now I'd really be sweating it out as I can tell that this is going to be a massacre. To make it a little fairer and make it more of a tank/ anti-tank battle I decide to withdraw my KoenigsTiger from the field of battle by exiting it off the map. I think my AT guns will give a good account of themselves.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. This is something EVERY American player will learn to dread. It's a King Tiger in the sort of ambush position where you HAVE to head straight for him and you don't have any artillery on call. GULP !

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. This is a good fun little shot. As more and more American tanks deploy into my killzone they decide to leave the roads as they are obviously covered by enemy fire and deploy into the scattered trees to the north. Seconds later one of their tanks is immobilized by the blast of an anti-tank mine. 2 down.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. It is the reverse of the shot above. As the Sherman advances it runs into a mine and the German minefield in that area is "marked on the map". It's an expensive way to check for mines though.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. Two American platoons are now in place to advance and meet any adversaries. They also just happen to form a great target.

Choosing targets ;-). When you choose to target all you have to do is move the mouse to the enemy unit you wish to target and all the pertinent information comes up. E.g. In this case I have a 72% chance of hitting the unidentified enemy tank 168 metres away and if I hit it I stand an excellent chance of destroying it.

Hull-down is relative to target and firer position. Here's an unusual case of hull-down which is missed in most computer games (I hadn't intended to create an example of this but I'm glad it happened since it shows how good the LOS and related equations are. This enemy tank is actually hull-down because, due to the slope of the hill and its distance from the "edge" of that slope and the fact that it is HIGHER than me the hillside actually obscures the hull from view. To any of my units directly in front of it this unit is not hull-down however. This, to my mind, is a good example of how the 3D engine allows elevation and slopes to interact to create more realistic LOS, spotting and targeting than is present in many other games.

I decide to order the Pak 88 directly in front of the tanks and the one which was co-located with the King Tiger to open fire but to keep this one in reserve a short time longer.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. One minute after I give the order to open fire the American formation is wracked with dead and confused tanks. Three more enemy tanks have brewed up and at least one more has been knocked out but hasn't brewed up. At least four of the ten enemy tanks in view have been knocked out in the first minute of fire from two Pak88s.

Note the amount of SMOKE that was fired by the tanks upon being engaged by the 88 directly in front of them. When they realised they were being ambushed several tanks fired smoke and withdrew behind their own smokescreen. Did I order this? No, the tactical AI did. Would I have done the same in their shoes? You bet. Anything else would have been suicide.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. This zoomed in shot (so forget the apparently skewed perspective) shows a lovely scene for any German commander. An entire plain full of Shermans is on fire. Friendly and, as yet, undetected minefields lie in between their positions and yours and you still have one AT gun in reserve. Note the shellholes in front of the PaK88. After it had fired several rounds it was spotted and the Shermans are actively shelling it now with a view to suppressing it.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. I feel it is time to activate my flanking fire PaK88. Here we can see its first shell on its way to its target. You can actually see the sell dip slightly over the course of its flight which is a nice touch.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. At this range Pak88s don't miss and another Sherman crew meets its maker. As you can see only two of the tanks on-screen are positively identified as Shermans but I'm being jubilant here. This AT ambush has already claimed close to 2 platoons of tanks which is pretty good for an unsupported ambush.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. This is the reverse view of the above shot. The red circle shows the location of the German PaK88. Of course, the panicked American tankers haven't spotted it yet so its free to go about its work in peace and quiet for another shot or two at least.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. Under his own authority Gojowy aligns his gun with another Sherman and prepares to dispatch it also.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. As Gojowy's next shot misses the Shermans spot his position and begin to engage him.

This shot is taken during a German Perspective Action Phase Replay. An entire platoon seems to have stopped to shell him. Mere seconds later his AT gun is knocked out and for the loss of only one more tank my PaK88 is knocked out.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. Of the eleven American tanks in this shot only four are still functional. It is notable that three of those four have taken the opportunity to hide behind self-generated smokescreen or burning comrades. They did this under the control of tactical AIs . I have selected Gojowy's PaK88 and, as you can see at the bottom of the screen, it has just been knocked out. If you look into the far left of the picture you can see yet more explosions around the location of the other active PaK88.

This shot is taken during an American Perspective Action Phase Replay. Once both the visible AT guns have been despatched by HE shells the 5 surviving American tanks begin the advance again. As they emerge from behind the smokescreens that used to be their fellow tankers the last German PaK88 opens up on them. As the tactical AI is wont to do when faced with far superior firepower it plots a withdrawal route for the endangered Sherman whilst laying down covering fire.. What was great for me on this occasion was that since the Sherman wasn't able to conduct its reverse before the turn ended I was able to see the Tac AI's waypoints.

Note: To everyone who has ever been annoyed by tanks which turn their backs to the enemy when they try to get out of trouble instead of reversing out of trouble note that the AI has chosen to REVERSE to safety in order to keep its frontal armour facing the enemy gun at all times.

Before the American tank can reverse fully this last German AT gun is knocked out of action. AT guns are terribly vulnerable if the enemy is able to put a nice bombardment or bring direct fire to bear on them as is shown nicely by this scenario. This last shot is an attempt to show the aftermath of battle.

Four Shermans (one of them immobilized) and one Stuart survived the battle. Very few crew escaped the knocked out Shermans as an 88mm shell at those short ranges penetrates with such excess kinetic energy that most were killed in their tanks where they sat.. Eight Shermans and one Stuart lie destroyed on the field of battle and over forty allied soldiers just died.

German losses amounted to three Pak88s and 4 men.. Not at all a bad trade. AT guns are deadly in Combat Mission and if I had set these up at a longer distance from the kill zone I would have been far more immune to return fire and would have probably destroyed the entire American force BUT the requirement to have firer and target relatively close for screenshot purposes forced this deployment on me..

I hope you enjoyed this little set piece battle and learnt about the modeling of Fog of War and AT guns in Combat Mission.

Yours,
Fionn Kelly,
Manager of Historical Research,
The Gamer's Net.