Command Bonuses for Mortar Halftracks

[Nemesis Lead]

CM manuals are unclear.....if you have a Captain spotting for mortar halftracks, do the halftracks get command bonuses (i.e., improved morale, combat, stealth)?

I have never noticed, for example, that a spotter with a +2 combat rating causes his mortar halftracks to fire more effectively.

Please only respond if you know the answer. Many thanks.

[Nemesis Lead]

Anyone out there?

[Dandelion]

Noone who knows. Your "please only etc" line there is blocking out everyone who has a plausible theory but is not dead certain - i.e. every possible answer you can hope for here, since only Steve, the programmer, actually knows - thus the silence.

I'll have a go anyway.

No command line, no bonus.

Cheerio

Dandelion

[Brent Pollock]

My wee test didn't show anything obvious...and I don't feel like doing an exhaustive one.

Since I couldn't get any hit chance info when using the L or T tools, I really don't know.

[Kanonier Reichmann]

My guess would be no....since individual infantry units never influence AFV's in the game so I'm assuming that this also applies to HQ units spotting for mortar halftracks. Their only interaction seems to be to allow the halftrack to fire indirectly.

As you can see...the definitive answer.

Regards

Jim R.

[JasonC]

I ran a modest test, didn't complete all phases of it, but saw enough to discount HQ bonuses.

I did 40 engagements each with the shooters all SPW 251/2s and the targets Maxim MGs 400m away in wooded foxholes. One set was indirect with +2 combat HQs spotting. One set indirect with spotters that had no combat bonus. Next set was direct, observed, with +2 combat commanders. All shooters and targets regulars, the targets not under command - so YMMV if you change those etc. One mintue of fire, record the state of the MG at the end.

+2 indirect results - 34 men hit, 2 MGs less than pinned, 15 pinned, 10 panicked, 13 broken or routed.

+0 indirect results - 31 men hit, 3 MGs less than pinned, 12 pinned, 9 panicked, 16 broken or routed.

+2 direct results - 21 men hit, 9 MGs less than pinned, 10 pinned, 12 panicked, 9 broken or routed.

There may be no real difference in the above results, just random breaks. The indirect results are indistinguishable from each other. They are both better than I got on the direct round, which might reflect something like continued adjusts to hit the same point when using area fire, vs. attempting to reaim each time when firing direct.

Or there might not be anything there. There isn't some big boost to the expected effect by having a +2 combat HQ help. The basic story in all cases was, on average you hit one man, put half of them into red morale and mostly pin the other half. You can't count on them being broken, you can mostly count on them being suppressed.

The obvious test extension is to try it with dismounted mortars as well, try it at 200m and at 800m, try it with 50mm and 60mm mortars, try it against trenches, against guns rather than MGs - but I didn't have the time to run 40 trials of every combination of those, so this is what you get.

FWIW.