pdf encylopedia and more questions
 

Is there a pdf encylopedia file or can it be done so I can view it on my phone? It would be very handy

Also do mortars have a bonus fire into woodland? I play a few board wargames and some tend to have a bonus fire into woodland against infantry due to splitting timbers and causeing chaos down below.

Can somebody explain what z fire does and how it effects enemys etc? I know it is used to shoot into hexs not seen but if they can see the enemy is it better to target shoot rather than z fire?

Thanks again hopefully last few questions now. I think I have taken over the forum :)

Re: pdf encylopedia and more questions
 

Please try to ask one 91) question per post - not a multitude of unrelated items.

There is absolutely no chance of any PDF encyclopaedia since that is delivered by active code from the database data. Thus any hard coy would be instantly out of date come any database mod.

There is no mortar bonus into woods - since although splinters may (its not guaranteed) be generated, the woods in general will tend to absorb any fragments.

If you can see the enemy then fire direct - its vastly more effective. Z fire is speculative area fire. It may be observed or unobserved (with more tendency to drift), but it is largely ineffective. The USA did however like to do "reconnaissance by fire" - AKA "spray and pray", so its there if you want to waste rounds.

Andy

Re: pdf encylopedia and more questions
 

Well, sometimes mortars do cause fires, which adds additional suppression.

I also use Z fire as a form of fire and movement when moving the platoon. For example, when the lead section sees the enemy infront, it may be more prudent to get a section that doesn't see the enemy to put 2-3 shots into the enemy. Once the enemy unit is pinned or retreating, the lead section can come close (1hex away) and attack the enemy without fear of return fire.

And sometimes when you play Delay missions, it's good to Z fire just to pin units down.

Re: pdf encylopedia and more questions
 

The German army used recon by fire in some instances. Rommel was a big proponent of it, encouraging it during his command of the 'Ghost' division in France '40. From other accounts though it wasn't a generally encouraged tactic, especially as the war wore on and ammo supply became more of an issue.

German armored recon troops also used a variation of the tactic, approaching a suspect position slowly, then reversing, firing off a few shots and speeding up as if they'd actually spotted something. The idea was to draw enemy fire, thus exposing otherwise hidden enemy presence rather than actually have much real effect.

Machine guns were sometimes used as a substitute for or in support of light artillery in this manner. In the game, a dozen or so well placed MGs using 'Z' fire for a few turns are pretty effective at suppressing isolated enemy positions.

Some steel panthers versions have a bit of a bug in regards to suppression with direct fire vs 'Z' fire. I've never run enough tests with this particular version to determine if it exists in this game or not but the bug was that you could do more suppression with 'Z' fire than you could with direct fire in many cases. Also against a stack of units in the same hex, the targeted unit in direct fire would get less suppression than the other stacked units. But again, I've never done exhaustive enough tests to actually figure out if that bug exists in this game or not.