Enemy FA strikes

[rich4421972]

Something that has always confused me about TacOps is the way that a combat phase always begins with a portion of time devoted to enemy artillery fire. I don't understand why this happens and it gives me the blues because the enemy FA usually knocks out some of my favorite units before they have a chance to follow "my" orders. Major H., could you please explain the structure of a combat phase to me in terms of direct fire, indirect fire, routing and artillery fire/ Close air support?

Richard Crowley

Seattle, WA

[James Sterrett]

The arty fire *ought* to be spread out across the turn, just as yours is. Either that or Opfor is getting really lucky. 8)

However, in the first 15 seconds or so, you units won't have moved much from their initial positions.

[Guest MajorH]

A TacOps turn has two phases - an orders phase and a combat/movement phase.

A TacOps Combat/Movement Phase represents 60 seconds of activity.

The Combat/Movement Phase is executed in four 15 second pulses.

Each fifteen second pulse is further divided into three 5 second sub pulses.

During each 5 second sub pulse ...

1. The program determines if any flying ATGM has reached its target. If so then the attack is resolved.

2. The program determines if any arty salvo has reached its target. If so then the attack is resolved.

3. The program determines if any air strike has reached its target. If so then the attack is resolved.

4. Each Blue and Red unit with movement orders does 5 seconds worth of movement.

At the end of every third 5 second sub pulse, every Blue and Red unit is checked to see if it qualifies to engage in direct fire. If it qualifies then it fires at a target.

The game repeats the above for another 15 second pulse.

At the end of the fourth 15 second pulse the combat/movement Phase ends and the game starts a new turn with an orders phase.

There are also a lot of housekeeping tasks that go on during the various pulses and sub pulses.

------------------

Best regards, Major H

majorh@mac.com