How does Cover work?

[RubberNeck]

Cover seems to be diminished by firing from different angles. The source code wizards would have to address this more specifically, but I make it a practice to engage enemy infantry with multiple units whenever possible. Assume my unit X fires on enemy unit and draws return fire. My follow-up shot is from my unit Y which is ideally not in the same hex as X. When enemy unit returns fire on unit Y, it is then engaged by either unit X again, or better still by unit Z in another hex. Casualties are invariably higher for the enemy unit when done this way than by shooting 4 or 5 rounds from X, then 4 or 5 from Y and so on.

This may also be because suppression is lessened by spreading it over multiple units which allows for greater firing accuracy.

Dean

[Smersh]

yeah its a general rule that if at all possible never shoot twice with the same unit if you expect return fire. Its better to go from 'x, y, z' like in your example. This really does make a big difference.

about scale, yeah unfortunetly the icons, including buildings are not to scale. 50m could represent several smaller buildings.

[Tiger_Reyth]

Right and even though I'm a newb I do know that if a unit is outnumbered 2-1 there would be a pretty serious suppression issue even if it is in the superior cover of a stone building because supression occurs even if the shots miss.

So I would think that what happened is when your guys opened up initially you had a superior advantage and probably scared the hell out of whoever you shot at first.

But not all the units felt the same threat because you didn't have enough firepower to supress them all and those others fired back which started to break your guys down.

By repeating this process your cover advantage would be worn down by the significant supression caused by the other units because you would be unable to keep them all suppressed so they would work all your guys up on suppression and in that state you couldn't hit a brick wall and so eventually they just wiped your guys based on superior firepower.

Thats how the comp gets me all the time.

So the advantage of cover would only apply in the beginning and would be negated by the overwhelming return firepower.

In other words, the only way to realize a superior cover advantage over an extended period of time is to have at least enough firepower to keep most if not all your targets supressed which would keep the supression for your guys low.

Hey that reminds me! Nobody brought up the leadership factor! Were your guys in a company or a lone platoon? If they were in a lone platoon were they cross attached to another company besides 'A'? And were they in contact with their chain of command or out of contact? Because with all that fire coming at them they'd need as much supression cushioning from leadership as possible

Since I'm a newb I could be missing something but the above seems to be the practical reality of the situation IMHO

Tiger_Reyth