LOS - the great unkown

[kensey]

One of the main problems I have with SP:
The wargames that I played before
all had the options to show LOS for an arbitrary
hex of which I made heavy use. In SP it seems
only LOS of hexes where you have a unit in can be
made visible and my LOS estimations are very often
wrong.

How are you guys coping with this situation?
For AI games you can just save the turn,
move a unit there and if it was not what you
expected reload but this makes the game tedious.
For PBEM the only possibility that I see is to
redraw the respective parts of the map in the editor
or use the original game where passwords have not yet
been set as a test game.

Are there any easier, more clever ways, rules of
thumb to get LOS?

[Jim1954]

I do believe it was designed that way on purpose. In my pbems, I just make sure I have enough scouts/recon units to do just that. Scout and recon. Does tend to increase the pucker factor though.

[Belisarius]

I think it's on purpose too.

For one thing, it makes games a lot more interesting. And by time, you'll learn (more or less *ahem*) what LOS you can expect looking at the terrain. Check for elevation changes and you'll know. If you're standing in a field at height 0, and some distance forward you have height 1, you won't see over it.

[Jim1954]

Bel, I think you have a turn waiting for you on the Eastern Front.

[minefield]

One word: Kuebelwagens (or the like). Cheap, fast units. Scoot them to the hex to see if you have a target or to check the los, then scoot them out of the way for the real move.

[Capt. Pixel]

ORIGINAL: minefield

One word: Kuebelwagens (or the like). Cheap, fast units. Scoot them to the hex to see if you have a target or to check the los, then scoot them out of the way for the real move.

This is the technique that I use. After a while, you'll begin to get a better sense of what you'd expect to view from a given location before you get a unit there. But even then I find myself surprised. Long visibility and undulating terrain can make itnearly impossible to tell what's in view wihtout actually sending a unit into the hex.

No matter how good I think I'm getting at LOS estimating, Snow-covered backgrounds still throw me for a loop. [8D]

[minefield]

I hate snow backgrounds. Even if I can determine LOS, I still can't see the units well or I get a headache. There's a reason why pro chess players have a black and tan or black and green board opposed to a black and white one.