Bending WinSPMBTs rules

[Suhiir]

I wanted to throw this out for Andy and Don (mostly) and anyone else that cares to comment.

In the course of my many quests to get WinSPMBT to do what I want rather then what's it programmed and intended to do I came up with this.

Most OOBs do not make use of Unit Class #215 (Gunship Aircraft) so I copied a "cheap" UAV (Crew=1, Size=0, Speed=3, EW=3, Vision=15) and created a dummy WC=11 (aircraft) weapon.
Interestingly it costs about half as much as a UC=50 (Air OP Aircraft) unit and since it's a "Gunship Aircraft" it makes only one circle-pass of the targeted location thus has a more limited probability of actually spotting anything. But since it's still officially an aircraft it's fired on by AA weapons. Finally being a different Unit Class then Spotter Aircraft you can create a formation with say two UAVs vice the Spotter A/Cs one.

The questions are:
Is this variant of spotter aircraft useful to represent "dimestore" UAV's?
Is it totally breaking WinSPMBTs "rules as intended"?

[DRG]

The real question is WHY would anyone want one ?

[Suhiir]

That applies to a good majority of the equipment modeled in WinSPMBT

Some folks think infantry is a waste of time, others aircraft.

So I guess my major concern, that it was "bending" WinSPMBTs rules too much isn't as much of an issue as "why bother".

[DRG]

Again......WHY would anyone want or need a "dimestore" UAV??

[Airborne Rifles]

Could it be used to model a small UAV like a Raven:

Every infantry company in the US Army is MTOEd two of them.

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by Airborne Rifles

Could it be used to model a small UAV like a Raven:

Every infantry company in the US Army is MTOEd two of them.

Yep.

While the game offers a "god view" you're still limited by line-of-sight. The lesser capability of the "gunship" UAV compared to a full "spotter aircraft" gives you a way to represent small unit UAVs as opposed to essentially strategic resources like a Predator.

Currently you have to spend 100-200 points to buy a high-tech spotter, hardly worthwhile for a scenario involving a 2-300 point infantry company.

[scorpio_rocks]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

Yep.

While the game offers a "god view" you're still limited by line-of-sight. The lesser capability of the "gunship" UAV compared to a full "spotter aircraft" gives you a way to represent small unit UAVs as opposed to essentially strategic resources like a Predator.

Currently you have to spend 100-200 points to buy a high-tech spotter, hardly worthwhile for a scenario involving a 2-300 point infantry company.

Isn't this contary to what you said here?

[Suhiir]

Opinions change over time

Besides it IS nice to know what's on the other side of a hill before sticking your head over it.

[jivemi]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

Some folks think infantry is a waste of time, others aircraft.

Well, don't infantry spot better than anything else? Try doing Scenario #61--El Al. You'll find that a paucity of infantry will result in your tank-heavy force being all-but-obliterated by enemies you can hardly see. Ditto for a number of others.

While personally I'd prefer to have unbuttoned, stationary tanks spot nearly as well as infantry there might be good reasons why this can't or won't be done. Anyway this is a combined-arms wargame so bending rules to favor aircraft as spotters might present problems (and don't ask me, I'm neither digitally, experientially nor theoretically competent ).

OTOH regarding the thread "Lessons Learned from the Rus-Ukr War" if drones are as ubiquitous and relatively invulnerable (sans EW incapacitation) as described and arty so powerful then the balance of conventional warfare as we know it may have been decisively altered. If so, then your suggestion may be a harbinger of rethink, at least for symmetrical warfare from now on.

[DRG]

A no frills basic UAV with 10 visibility would cost 30 points to be able to see over the next hill, so about the same as a decent scout team.... and a 20 vision version would only be 4 points more than that and a 30 vision version would total 37 points a GS version with 10 vision would be only 11 points less so hardy worth the price of kludging together a "dimestore" UAV from another Unitclass