To target or not to target - that is the question.

[rocketman]

Indeed, that is the question. I'm not sure what is most effective, to pick targets or leave your troops to pick them. To me it seems to be either or. This is not considering covered arcs. Are there situation when you should always pick targets manually?

[Amizaur]

I have a little different problem. My tanks seem to ignore my targeting orders, they are choosing targets on their own.

I'm playing a battle in RT, my tank has multiple available targets (infantry and tanks) on quite close range (50-200m), I chose manually the most dangerous one and order "target" on it, but the tank seems to ignore my order and targets different ones, sometimes it targets a running infantry 200m to the side, exposing the side of the turret to enemy tanks in front of it. It happened few times.

I realised that in target rich enviroment on close range, my tank rarely obeys my manual targeting orders, rather ignores them and choses targets on it's own.

[nik mond]

I've seen the AI overide my target for a good reason. I was targeting a nearby AT gun, it chose to target nearby infantry. It threw me for a bit. I looked closer and the AT icon was for the crew of the gun that sat abandoned, and the infantry it chose had schrek man. I say target because the AI seems to have a good overide system. I'm sure it gets it wrong once in a while too.

[theFightingSeabee]

I've seen the AI overide my target for a good reason. I was targeting a nearby AT gun, it chose to target nearby infantry. It threw me for a bit. I looked closer and the AT icon was for the crew of the gun that sat abandoned, and the infantry it chose had schrek man. I say target because the AI seems to have a good overide system. I'm sure it gets it wrong once in a while too.

You're right. If the AI thinks that it needs to hit another target in order to stay alive, it will attempt to do so.

[c3k]

It depends.

TARGET if you really want to hit that spot with no known enemy. TARGET if you want that particular enemy hit. (You can use TARGET, PAUSE for however long you think is appropriate, then move in some form ever so slightly away and add a FACE command or COVER ARC to let the TacAI regain targeting control.)

[Sakai007]

Sometimes there is a small LOS issue with targeting that you can not see unless you get down to weeds level. I had good LOS to a Marder with my Sherman 76 in a QB the other day. But even after a target order they wouldn't fire. I discovered that there was a single tree in the way of a firing solution. The Sherman could "see" the Marder, but couldn't fire on it. Instead they chucked some HE at a nearby infantry unit.

[Battlefront.com]

I generally don't give it much thought. I leave my guys with no Target orders almost all the time. Instead I focus my targeting decisions to key areas at key times in ways that I don't think my little guys would behave unless otherwise directed. For example, ambushes or suppressive fire of suspected areas. I find the TacAI does a really good job of overriding my Commands when the need arises.

Note that I play RT so there's more reward to this sort of non-micromanagement approach than there is in WeGo.

Steve

[Michael Emrys]

Sometimes I know where an enemy unit is but the friendlies I want to shoot at it haven't spotted it yet. If the enemy poses an immediate threat, I will order the friendlies to area fire as close to that unit as I can get an aiming line. At least there is some hope of suppressing it and neutralizing it even if not causing any casualties.

Michael

[sonar]

I hardly ever target, individual squads are usualy very good at looking after themselve's I find.

[womble]

Indeed, that is the question. I'm not sure what is most effective, to pick targets or leave your troops to pick them. To me it seems to be either or. This is not considering covered arcs. Are there situation when you should always pick targets manually?

It depends. Perhaps especially in WeGo

If you know there's an enemy unit watching where you want to move some infantry, and you have it spotted, whether you manually target it, or let the AI, they'll stop shooting at it when it goes to ground. You know that it will pop back up again in 30s or so, but the amount of that 30s that's left at turn interstice will maybe not be enough to get across the covered gap... So you have to whack manual area-targets on the enemy, because leaving it for the AI to pick up the target and then suppress by aimed fire might mean the enemy gets off several bursts of automatic fire at your moving element.

My gut feeling, too, is that troops fire more intensively at spotted targets that they're assigned rather than those which they have acquired for themselves, at least when they're not the target of the enemy. So suppression of the enemy is achieved more quickly.