Reconnaisance

[Freddy Fudpucker]

I really do need to learn how to best use reconnaisance. I keep running into large numbers of enemy units at the most surprising times.

How does recon work in this game. The manual doesn't seem to help out much here.

So what tactics do you employ for best results? How do I deploy my recon units? It seems air power does not add to your knowledge of enemy deployment and I only get a bit of basic info when I have recon able units parked in an adjacent hex.

Does splitting up a parent unit that has good recon ability help or am I just diluting that unit's overall ability? i.e I could end up worst off?

All help appreciated.

[Industrial]

Well, there is Theather Recon, which basically is a percentage value for each hex that it's spotted by you during that turn. Whith a TR of 50% every second enemy controlled hex will be visible to you, it's random for each hex, so you might know that he has nothing 300km behind the front, but dont know what's 20kmm from your front. AirFields have a higher probability of getting spotted.

There is no way of how you can influence TR, its set (and modified) by the scenario designer.

The local recon % of you units only helps you once you made contact with an enemy unit, by giving you a %-chance of getting more detailed informations about the enemy unit (attack-defence ratings). Local recon also helps when you try to disengage from an enemy unity, it reduces the movement penalty and reduces the likeliness of disengagement attacks.

Occupying a hex with a peak gives you recon about the surrounding hexes, especially nice in scenarios with low TR.

[Catch21]

ORIGINAL: Freddy Fudpucker
I keep running into large numbers of enemy units at the most surprising times.

Yes, nasty habit of happening in war. Aside from what Industrial said on TR and peaks, check your individual units' recon ratings. If you break one with a 99% value down into 3, you'll usually (always?) notice its recon rating will go down in %. 99% will almost always get you out of trouble, 33% isn't bad. Arracourt 44 IIRC has some good recon values.

Also depends what you're retreating from and its recon and other values. Check disengagement in the manual. Also arty and HQs have qualities that can help. A tip: breaking arty into 3 pieces can help 3x more units get away (or used to in ACOW anyway).

Testing is the best way in hotseat to see how it all fits together. Practice makes perfect they say.

Hope this helps.

[Anthropoid]

ORIGINAL: Industrial

Well, there is Theather Recon, which basically is a percentage value for each hex that it's spotted by you during that turn. Whith a TR of 50% every second enemy controlled hex will be visible to you, it's random for each hex, so you might know that he has nothing 300km behind the front, but dont know what's 20kmm from your front. AirFields have a higher probability of getting spotted.

Very useful information!

There is no way of how you can influence TR, its set (and modified) by the scenario designer.

The local recon % of you units only helps you once you made contact with an enemy unit, by giving you a %-chance of getting more detailed informations about the enemy unit (attack-defence ratings). Local recon also helps when you try to disengage from an enemy unity, it reduces the movement penalty and reduces the likeliness of disengagement attacks.

I'm guessing based on the first paragraph quoted above that the second paragraph applies equally to air and sea units? More or less?

Specifically, lets say I have 10 air units each with recon of 3% and my TR is 30%. Does that mean that, if I send all 10 of them to attack a specific hex, I will get the same info on the unit details there as if I had an army recon unit next to the tile that had a 30% recon ability?

Or does it mean that, my TR will bo up by 30%. Or, will my TR go up by _X_ % for each air unit that I have doing any sort of air sortie, i.e., everything but not resting?

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

I'm guessing based on the first paragraph quoted above that the second paragraph applies equally to air and sea units? More or less?

Specifically, lets say I have 10 air units each with recon of 3% and my TR is 30%. Does that mean that, if I send all 10 of them to attack a specific hex, I will get the same info on the unit details there as if I had an army recon unit next to the tile that had a 30% recon ability?

In an attack, the combat report will always give you exactly the same information regardless of what you attack with and what the recon level (unknown, observed or spotted) in that hex is.

There isn't a continuous range of effectiveness of recon- you just get each of the three levels above. In an "unknown" hex, you won't be able to see anything except the terrain. In an "observed" hex you will be able to see any enemy units, their size indicators, plus their 2D and 3D icons (the latter is derived from the first (and usually most important) item in their TO&E). You will also be able to see the entrenchment graphic, giving you some idea of how much entrenchment work has been made on the hex, though not how well entrenched the units are. Finally, "spotted" tells you just about everything you can know about the units in the hex without going into a unit report.

If you control a hex or have a unit adjacent to it, it is automatically observed. The higher the recon capability of your units, the more likely adjacent hexes are to become "spotted", but high recon is actually more useful for moving between enemy ZOCs, and for the bonus it gives in the first round of combat. Theatre recon decides which hexes in enemy rear areas will be "observed" or "spotted". The two types of recon don't really interact and its difficult to compare the two.

[Anthropoid]

Thanks for clarifying that Golden, very useful [:D]
 
Another question on recon. Recon helis in the Next War scenario. I'm really having a hard time making any USE of these!
 
It is not clear to me whether they will observe tiles to which they are adjacent while they are embarked (in the air), so the only real way to use these seems to be:
 
(a) park them in tiles on the front with ground units that do not have high recon
 
(b) send them behind the lines and park them (immediately causing their movement to go to zero) where they can be destroyed.
 
Am I just missing something here? It seems like the whole point of a recon heli unit is: it flies over enemy territory, and sees what is there, but it does not seem to actually work that way.
 
I have noticed once or twice that (maybe) moving an airmobile embarked unit over a unobserved tile caused it to become observed, so maybe it is simply the partial recon effectiveness that I'm encountering?

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

Another question on recon. Recon helis in the Next War scenario. I'm really having a hard time making any USE of these!

It is not clear to me whether they will observe tiles to which they are adjacent while they are embarked (in the air), so the only real way to use these seems to be:

(a) park them in tiles on the front with ground units that do not have high recon

(b) send them behind the lines and park them (immediately causing their movement to go to zero) where they can be destroyed.

Am I just missing something here? It seems like the whole point of a recon heli unit is: it flies over enemy territory, and sees what is there, but it does not seem to actually work that way.

I have noticed once or twice that (maybe) moving an airmobile embarked unit over a unobserved tile caused it to become observed, so maybe it is simply the partial recon effectiveness that I'm encountering?

I don't think helicopter recon works very well. On the whole, I use them for;
a) completing encirclements
b) testing enemy air superiority before moving a more valuable unit
c) disbanding if they contain equipment used by combat units

[Anthropoid]

Thanks Golden, that pretty much confirms what I had gathered.