Area fire on buildings... Can you target specific floors?

[Javaslinger]

Doesn't seem like it... How does it work? Specifically when you don't have LOS on an enemy combatants.

[Mord]

It's basically an action spot issue and depends on how many action spots it's taking up. Target the building and the unit will spread fire through out....if it's a really big building you should be able to target specific floors or at least close to the one you are aiming for.

Mord.

[Wreck]

You cannot target individual action spots or levels in a building. So far as I know, your fire strikes the whole building. (Presumably only parts of it your unit sees? Dunno.) If multiple levels, it is spread across them. In area fire it never matters whether you see anyone, just whether you have line of fire on them. (It would be nice if, when area firing, your men happen to see an enemy unit near enough to where they are firing they would target it while they see it then return to area fire when it ducks. But I don't think they do this.) Also I think that ricochets and perhaps splintering can cause wounds, although I am not sure about the latter. So you don't even have to be able to hit a man directly.

Could use some testing, though.

You can certainly suppress enemies and break them without ever seeing them. I've done this fairly often. (If close enough, your men can hear a ? flee out the back.) Buildings in CMBN are not really the place to be, against a human. At least not the smaller buildings. It is usually easy and prudent to hose down every building with a few hundred rounds of MG fire if there is more than a small suspicion that the enemy is occupying it.

[Sergei]

Yes, you can and always do target specific floors. Eg. if it's a 4 story building and your tank targets the 2nd floor, most of the fire will be hitting the 2nd floor and it's also where the walls take most damage. But some of the MG bursts will stray to neighbouring floors, and HE has an effect on surroundings too, so enemies in 3rd and ground floor would at least be suppressed and possible take casualties.

[Javaslinger]

Yes, you can and always do target specific floors. Eg. if it's a 4 story building and your tank targets the 2nd floor, most of the fire will be hitting the 2nd floor and it's also where the walls take most damage. But some of the MG bursts will stray to neighbouring floors, and HE has an effect on surroundings too, so enemies in 3rd and ground floor would at least be suppressed and possible take casualties.

I have never been given the option to target a floor. Perhaps it's only with Guns and Tanks.

[Glukx Ouglouk]

I have never been given the option to target a floor. Perhaps it's only with Guns and Tanks.

You're not "given a option" like a menu or something, you just have to click on the right part of the building (and then check that the target line from the unit goes to the right floor). I think it'll become pretty obvious once you start fiddling with it.

[flamingknives]

It's a subtle thing.

The area fire line goes to the floor of the level targetted, so if the target line goes into the wall above the ground, then you have targetted an upper level. A target line indicating the ground floor will intersect the wall at the ground.

I find the only reliable way to get the floor that you want is to move the viewpoint so that you are looking at the side of the building and drawing the target line to the right floor.

It's definitely possible.

[JyriErik]

I can verify that it is definitely possible. When closing in on some buildings I'll set different untis firing on each floor of multi-level buildings to suppress any defenders so that the assault squads will make it without taking too many losses. Sometimes the building is empty other times my assault squads enter the building without a loss and I'm sorry I wasted all that ammo I used for the covering fire but when I check out the building there's a bunch of dead enemy troops in the building, so. Apparantly ambushes don't always work as planned...

Jyri

[Holman]

I do it all the time. Watch where your target line hits. When you move it around a bit, it will "jump" to the level your mouse is touching.

Of course your unit's shots might hit a different level sometimes, but (depending on skill and weapon accuracy) they'll at least be aiming towards the spot/level you picked.

Note that it may be better to aim at the "center of gravity" of a building to ensure more hits. In a recent game, I had a panzerschreck firing at infantry in the top floor of a five-story building. I wasted two shots when they sailed over the roof. When I switched my target spot to the third (instead of the fifth) floor, the remaining shots at least hit the building.

[Sakai007]

+1 Martyr - I have noticed that if the enemy is at the top of a hill you should aim your units fire an action spot of so below them. Automatic weapons always fire high after the first round, and rockets and rifle grenades that go high aiming at the top of a hill will sail into the great unknown, hopefully hitting the enemy command group far behind the lines