Thanks, I did try some covered arc tricks, but still had trouble...but will try again. From reading the manual I thought that manually selecting a target would override the TacAI except in emergencies, but apparently this isn't the case (with area-targeted smoke anyway).
That brings up another basic question...if I manually target with a unit, and then want to switch back to the TacAI in the next turn, how do I do that? I used "Target Next" but seemed like I still had units shooting at the "next" target, and then taking a blow doing nothing when that target ducked. Maybe there's a better way (maybe manually target something, then "Cancel target," thereby defaulting to TacAI?)
thx again