recon by fire

[larryfulkerson]

It should be pointed out that TOAW doesn't, as of my last perusal, permit players to do attacking on presumably empty hexes that aren't at least "observed", or (ideally) "spotted". Actually, not even then....there is no recon by fire in TOAW. I could really use such an ability in my game of Campaign for South Vietnam 1965. I could attack any of those enemy hexes and get valuable intel about the hexes contents should it contain an enemy. Empty hexes cost just some supply. Get it? Other games have this ability. It's valuable. It's needed.

And another thing. I could really use a grease-pencil function so I could mark out for myself the umbrella of coverage that my fighters are providing right *now*, for instance, or mark out ( different colored ) routes for each formation to follow ( so I can see the routes on the map, plainly ). With the ability to annotate what you've drawn, of course. I'll help pay for it!

[Panama]

I smell a can of worms being opened. [;)]

[ColinWright]

Isn't an ammunition supply so lavish that the terrain can just be hosed at random pretty much an anomaly?

[samba_liten]

Recon by fire at an operational level? I don't know. In a game like SPWW2 (Steel Panthers World War 2, it's free, check it out if you don't know it already!)or CMBB (Combat Mission Barbarossa to Berlin), sure. In other words, on a tactical level i can see recon by fire happening.

On the operational level i can think of no other instances that the US in Vietnam. No-one else had the spare ammo. And even then it seems wrong to allow it on a scale like this.
I mean, Arc-Light and what-ever the artillery missions were called (H&I - Harassment and Interdiction?)  hardly covered however many square kilometers a 5km hex adds up to. It would have to be a hefty supply hit to cover the ammo needed to blast every likely location in such a big area!
And further, were they really intended as intelligence? I mean how was the information gathered? I would see both phenomenons as mostly covered by the interdiction mission in TOAW.
Hum...interdiction missions for artillery units anyone?[:D]

EDIT:I love the grease pen idea. Would make D21 and the rest of the monsters a bit easier!

[SMK-at-work]

Yes I'm not sure that it is a good reflection of anything "real" at this level....certainly you should be able to shoot at any hex you want in range - but I don't see why you should get any great amount of intel from it.

I guess you are expecting that there will be radio traffic, or "ants on the ground" as a result?

[BigDuke66]

What would be nice is to make it similar to a supply unit, put a recon unit here and it will raise the recon level in radius X to Y above the normal recon level, I guess that would fit with the operational level.

[gabeeg]

Not sure I like the recon by fire...but I love the "grease pencil" function! ...I want it.

[ralphtricky]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

It should be pointed out that TOAW doesn't, as of my last perusal, permit players to do attacking on presumably empty hexes that aren't at least "observed", or (ideally) "spotted". Actually, not even then....there is no recon by fire in TOAW. I could really use such an ability in my game of Campaign for South Vietnam 1965. I could attack any of those enemy hexes and get valuable intel about the hexes contents should it contain an enemy. Empty hexes cost just some supply. Get it? Other games have this ability. It's valuable. It's needed.

And another thing. I could really use a grease-pencil function so I could mark out for myself the umbrella of coverage that my fighters are providing right *now*, for instance, or mark out ( different colored ) routes for each formation to follow ( so I can see the routes on the map, plainly ). With the ability to annotate what you've drawn, of course. I'll help pay for it!

It's not perfect, but with 3.4, you can set the formation paths for your own formations for planning purposes. I don't think I've enabled it for PBEM because of concerns over breaking something, but I may have. You can save the .AI files and re-use them in replays, training, etc.

You can always save a snapshot JPG and use your favorite editor for the rest of it. It's not perfect, but it does some of what you want...

Ralph

[fogger]

Larry, it has been a long time since I served but from memory a bty of 105's covered an area of 250m x 250m. To cover a 5km x 5 km square you would need 400 bty's. H&I had little effect in nam. one example - 15 Aussies sitting in a ambush position when about 0130hrs, 109 NVA walk pass in single file. The radio operator pushes the press to talk switch on the radio handset as each soldier walks pass so that HQ could the speed at which they were walking. 15 mins later the area where the NVA are expected to be gets hit by H&I. A check of the area next morning showed nothing.