Section Leaders:
Fionn Kelly  & Madmatt

Fog of War & Anti-Tank Guns
Page 3 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. 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.