Question: Sighting

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by jivemi

Interesting. Just played a SPMBT campaign battle (advance) in desert as Israeli vs Sovs (Autumn 1986). A couple Russian T-12 100mm AT guns firing both shot and Kastet missiles at my tanks with 4 of my units (2 scouts and 2 snipers, experience level 70-plus to 90) within 30-35 hexes and clear LOS of enemy units with visibility at 57 were not spotted. Couldn't see any lingering smoke either. In fact it was so mystifying I thought maybe there was a bug or something until the battle ended and I finally saw them!

Your prospective spotters were at 1.5kms on a small target (AT gun) and were also over half the current visibility.

-Chance to spot goes down with range increase. Chance to spot at 1 hex is vastly more than chance to spot at 30.
-Chance to spot infantry and guns (non-vehicles) is rather low beyond 1km. Vehicles stick out like sore thumbs at all ranges, even if hidden in a wood line or similar. Moving vehicles compound the problem - its not easy to be sneaky-beaky even with a little kubelwagen.
-Chance to spot is further reduced at > 50% of current vis, at > 75% CV etc. (CV is your night fighting vision rating if at night, but if using that you get a penalty over eyeball Mk1)
-Were your spotters moving? - self movement reduces chance to spot, as with hitting chance.
-Did the enemy fire much? - if something is continually banging away there is more chance to zero in on him. If he pauses for a while and just takes a pot-shot now and then, less so.
- Were the guns in soft sand hexes? - that's cover. Cover helps reduce spotting chance, especially for non-vehicles.

The big word is chance - they will have rolled below the sighting possibility on each occasion the enemy double-fired (gun + ATGM, the latter being more "spottable"). Usually I would expect a 75mm+ ATG which fired at 30 hexes or so to pop into sight after 3-4 rounds. Those did not - chance was on their side.