Section Leaders:
Fionn Kelly & Madmatt

Fog of War & Anti-Tank Guns
Page 2 of 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.

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.