Matrix Games Forums

After the LOS Question thread, I thought I would publish my findings. Hopefully they are correct and will assist other players.

The image below is from the Arracourt opening and once again we are looking at the US 53 Armd Inf Bn. In the lower unit panel, we are told that the Axis have "Partial Info and Identified" the 53rd and that information is displayed. The location of the 53rd has its details listed in the hex info panel. "Recon 28" means the Axis has 28 Recon points on that hex, in other games this maybe referred to as spotting.


Minimum effective recon to spot unit with Hide value of 0 (zero) is 20, and full info provided with recon 80 and hide 0 (zero). In the 53rd case, Axis has 28 Effective Recon vs 4 Hide = 24 Recon (Manual p. 32).
Best LOS: 12 – Percentage of recon points that will be applied by the unit with the best line of sight.
Presume Recon of 28 is 12% of the initial recon, so initial recon must equal 234 (rounded up). 234*.12=28. Note that Obstruct is zero in this example.

The Ranged Attack screen(via Ranged).

The three units that can perform a ranged attack are the 1126 and 1127 VG Regt Leig Guns and the 119 Art Regt. Note that 1127 and 119 do not have direct LOS because of the intervening level 1 hill, i.e., are firing indirectly.
Estimation of offensive mods indicates 1126 has excellent LOS (+3%).

Of course, a few presumptions here, but I think it is reasonable estimation of what the screens are telling us.

You have it mostly right. A systematical approach:

1. WHICH UNITS HAVE LOS ON THE TARGET HEX?
In this case, I'd say only the german units in the northwest (559.Panzerjäger Abt., regimental assets and the II. Btn of the the 1126. Volskgrenadier Regiment) have a LOS on the target. The german units in the north (I, II, + reg. assets of 1127 VG Reg.) have their LOS blocked by the hill.

2. HOW MANY RECON POINTS DO THESE UNITS CAST ON THE TARGET HEX?
The unit with the best LOS will be the 559. Panzerjäger Abt. Due to the light/weather conditions and the great distance (4 hexes), it can only cast 12% of its (raw) recon points onto the target hex. The units further away (regimental assets of 1127 VG Reg.) may also contribute a few recon points, but their LOS% will be even smaller as they're farther away (3%). You add up all the raw recon points that your units (at some point during your turn) have cast onto the target hex and translate them into effective recon points (small values are increased, large values are decreased). In this case, your units have cast a total of 8 raw recon points onto the target hex during the turn, which gets translated into 28 effective recon points.

3. ARE YOUR RECON POINTS SUFFICIENT TO SPOT THE ENEMY?
So you have 28 effective recon points in the hex. Any enemy unit in the hex has a base hide value of just 4, because the hex is open plains, bare of any cover or concealment. As your recon points are greater than the enemy unit's hide value you see an enemy counter in the hex. As your recon points exceed the enemy unit's hide value by 20, you also get an idea about the type and size of the enemy unit. But the information is not that good yet - the enemy unit might still be much larger and at this point you probably only see a small share of the individuals in the enemy unit (perhaps not enough yet to warrant an artillery strike...you can only hit what you can see!). To discover more individuals, you'd need to further increase your recon value.

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Regarding the ranged attack:
I think that the bonus for indirect fire is bugged. Right now, an indirectly firing unit receives a 1% bonus for each LOS% the unit itself has on the target hex. In this case, the 1126. VG Reg. regimental assets unit (which the mortars are part of) has a 3% LOS on the target hex, thus the mortars only get a +3% bonus. The tooltip ("by ANY unit") and common sense would suggest, however, that any friendly unit should be able to spot for the indirect unit. As your best LOS% on target is 12%, you should get a +12% bonus.

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Small remark: There is additional information on the left side of the NATO symbols to further identify units. E.g. the Volksgrenadier regiments consist of a "regimental asset" unit ("A") and battalions ("I, II, III").

Note that you can check your unit's LOS% on other hexes (see red mark in screenshot). For some reason, this info does NOT show up in inspection mode, you must be in move mode:





In this case, the selected hex has a LOS of 6% on the target hex (the hex I'm hovering over). This is exclusively due to weather and distance (day, mist, distance 2), which is represented as a fraction ("Dist: /16" = 6%). There is no LOS-obstructing terrain ("Obstacle:0%").

Thx Jacques for your comments.

I thought it might be useful to clarify the INDIRECT FIRE LOS BONUS popup.
It says, "If you have good Line of Sight ... bonus".

At first I thought the percentage displayed was the bonus. Du-dah! Wrong!
It is the LOS quality and this, of course, varies. 3% is a poor LOS value, attacking entrenched units with this low value is pointless!

To get the "eyes" back, click Inspect

The LOS% is indeed the bonus. For each LOS % your indirectly firing unit has on target (other friendly units don't matter! It has to be the unit itself!), you receive a +1% bonus on firepower.
You can check it in the detailed combat report.