Moving targets

[Anton]

Hello, all

The game guide says the following about the enemy's moving units:

In this case, the unit is Ready, and moving at 7mph. This tells you the unit moved last turn (making it more vulnerable to your fire)

How so? Isn't maneuverability essential for a tank's survival, and isn't an immobilized tank a destroyed tank? Are moving targets more difficult to hit in SPWW2?

Is firing at the beginning of the turn the only way to imitate firing from short stops, which was standard for tanks during WW2?

[Mobhack]

Moving infantry and weapons teams (guns, mortars, MGs) are more vulnerable to all types of fire. So a rifle section that scoots 6 hexes up a road and gets mortared or machine-gunned is likely to be severely mauled, a section that moved 1 hex much less so. Its easier to hit, easier to suppress and will tend to suffer more casualties if hit than a halted or slow-moving section.

A dismounting element takes the hexes moved of its transport - so barrelling up 15-20 hexes inside a 'pig' and jumping out right in front of a live MG is somewhat suicidal.. Therefore dismounting of infantry, if it really has to be done so out in the open, is best to do so at the start of the APC's turn. Otherwise you get the 'bunched target' penalty for any movement the APC made as outlined above. Better yet - dismount in a covered area (in a dip, or screened by smoke or terrain) and later walk forward, with the empty APC following the skirmish line.

Moving vehicles are the converse - less easy to hit the faster they are travelling.

Moving units are less accurate - even stabilised vehicles - especially if the vehicle has exceeded more hexes than its stabiliser value (So if it has stab=2, try to keep movement to 2 or less if shooting). The more hexes travelled, the less accurate the element becomes.

The main advantage of the stabiliser is that it keeps target lock as the vehicle moves, provided it does not lose LOS. The vehicle therefore keeps its place on the ranging ladder and does not have to re-start the ranging sequence all over again post the move. The gun ranging ladder is usually 3 shots to full accuracy - 2 if it has high FC and a laser RF, so in MBT not WW2.

Firing at the short halt is really only possible to simulate, as you say, by firing and then doing any required moving afterwards, or perhaps more by just keeping to a slow movement rate, say 2-3 hexes travelled. Charging a unit its full move - especially down a road - and then popping off the couple of shots left, is more like 'spray and pray'.

cheers
Andy

[Anton]

Thanks for the explanations, Mobhack.

A dismounting element takes the hexes moved of its transport

Does that mean that an infantry platoon dismounting from a carrier unit that has spent half its motion points, will also have only half the initial motion points?

so barrelling up 15-20 hexes inside a 'pig' and jumping out right in front of a live MG is somewhat suicidal

What is a 'pig'?

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Anton

Thanks for the explanations, Mobhack.

Does that mean that an infantry platoon dismounting from a carrier unit that has spent half its motion points, will also have only half the initial motion points?

Nope - dismounting now costs several points, as does mounting so for full dismounted speed (minus cost of dismount) - unload before the APC has moved or fired, and both the APC and the grunts will only lose a few MP for the dismount operation.

Movement (or firing, which costs MP) of the APC will result in the dismounts being left with 0 movement left fairly quickly. But those dismounts will be deemed to have moved the APC's amount.

So dismounting at the start of the APC's turn is best for protection of the infantry, if you are expecting incoming fire (direct or indirect).

What is a 'pig'?

Pigs carry grunts. Its British Army (1970s?) slang for an APC, probably originating with the Humber "Pig" but applied to all tin taxis.

[Anton]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Pigs carry grunts. Its British Army (1970s?) slang for an APC, probably originating with the Humber "Pig" but applied to all tin taxis.

Also grunt is the sound a pig makes. Thanks you.

[Anton]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Moving units are less accurate - even stabilised vehicles - especially if the vehicle has exceeded more hexes than its stabiliser value (So if it has stab=2, try to keep movement to 2 or less if shooting). The more hexes travelled, the less accurate the element becomes.

The Game play notes describe it in finer detail:

If you want to hit, especially at long ranges (over 1500 to 2000 metres, 30 to 40 hexes) then you should fire from the short halt (having moved the move before, not this one), and if you really want to hit, fire from the full halt (having been stationary the entire previous move as well as being stationary in the current move). In WinSPWW2, you are considered fully stationary only if you neither moved this turn, nor the previous game turn (in technical terms, if you expend >= half your MP in a previous turn, a 'moving fast' flag is set, you need to spend a complete turn not having expended half or more MP to reset this flag). Movement will also break any fire control solution you have made on the target ('target lock') unless you have a tank with a stabiliser

As I understand movement affects the accuracy of non-stabilized tanks in several ways:

1. any movement immediately breaks the target lock,
2. the moving fast flag reduces accuracy and is set once a tank has spent more than half its MPs, and reset at the end of the first turn in which it uses less than half its MPs.

But I can't quite reconcile it with the preceding statement that a short halt is performed by moving in the previous turn but not in the current one, and that a full halt is performed by standing still through the full previous turn as well. This logic is different from #2—which one is correct? Or are both used to cumulative effect?