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Covered Arc hurts spotting?


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First off, did a search, came up empty. Ahhh for the old days when any question was immediately pelted with "DO A FREAKING SEARCH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD".....ahem, anyway, thanks for letting me reminisce.

Back to the topic. Does a covered arc hurt spotting outside the arc? Intuitively you'd say yes because you're telling your guys to concentrate on what's in the arc. And if so, then the probability of spotting anything outside that arc decreases. I did a test and I think what I'm saying is correct, but I want some other opinions.

Anybody have any insights?

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I played a game this lunchtime against the AI where I had a platoon forward in a patch of woods and then about 100m behind in tall pines was a MG42. The patch of woods was 'L' shaped, but with the 'L' rotated anti clockwise 90 degrees so it was lying on its back and with the three squads arrayed along its back in a line. Their view to the right was slightly restricted but they certainly were in a position to fire on anything that came from that direction. They had no cover arcs.

The MG behind had a cover arc which covered the area to the left of the woods where the platoon was located. At that time there was a strong counter attack going on in that direction.

Something did appear to the right of the platoon but they, with no cover arc, and even with line of sight to this new enemy to the right, continued to shoot at the attacking forces to their left. The MG42, which was further away and had a cover arc directing it away from that area, turned to engage.

I think it's entirely reasonable that those guys should, these new foes had turned up seemingly out of nowhere within 100 metres of where the MG was. The ability of the MG to spot units outside its cover arc didn't seem to be a problem though.

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hmmm, ok, that's interesting.

I too thought that cover arcs was only for shooting purposes and had nothing to do with spotting, but I got suspicious in one of my games when I knew the enemy was out there but I just didn't spot them. Turning off cover arcs led to spotting some units part way through a subsequent turn.

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To be fair though, the MG42 probably didn't spot them. It just seemed to decide they were enough of a threat to abandon the cover arc for a wee while. That they knew the new infantry threat was there may well have been down to borg spotting.

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Originally posted by Juardis:

hmmm, ok, that's interesting.

I too thought that cover arcs was only for shooting purposes and had nothing to do with spotting, but I got suspicious in one of my games when I knew the enemy was out there but I just didn't spot them. Turning off cover arcs led to spotting some units part way through a subsequent turn.

is it possible that was just and coincidence?

"Turning off cover arcs led to spotting some units part way through a subsequent turn"

:confused:

-tom w

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Yes tom, it could be coincidence, that is why I was asking for other people's experiences.

Another bit o anecdotal evidence is that it happened in another battle (not a test, but an actual battle). I turned off covered arcs and the following turn I spotted some infantry moving.

Again, coincidence? Could be, but I'm convinced that cover arcs do lessen the probability of spotting outside the arc and increases the probability of spotting within the arc. If I were coding the command, that is surely how I would do it.

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