Problems with hit percentage calculation

[Veeman]

Thanks for the quick answer! I guess that explains why the T-34 missed.

However, the situation was different with the howitzer. I did not explain it very well in my message above, here's another explanation of what happened:

1. I selected the howitzer, rallied it once, and targeted the Ferdinand but did not fire. Hit chance 31%.

2. I selected another unit, cycled through a few targets without firing and...

3. Re-selected the howitzer and targeted the same Ferdinand , yet again without firing. Estimated hit chance 5%.

[edit] I managed to get the same phenomenon a while ago, on the next turn. One thing I had failed to notice earlier was that the howitzer had already been assigned an indirect fire target by the HQ. This could perhaps be linked to the problem - here's what I did:

4. In the beginning of the next turn, I gave a new indirect target for the howitzer from the Bombard menu.

5. I selected the unit again and cycled through a few Ferdinands in the Target mode. Estimated hit percentage 28-31%.

6. I exited the Target mode, and immediately pressed T again. Cycling through the Ferdinands produced percentages between 3-5%.

In other words, no shots were fired but the percentage dropped nevertheless. When no indirect bombardment orders were pending, the percentage was 3-5% right from the beginning. I may be chasing ghosts here but, at least for me, this seems like a possible bug. Any comments?

[Mobhack]

You have the artillery piece plotted for indirect fire.

Then, you try to select targets for direct fire - with the indirect fire flag set. You then get the indirect fire accuracy, with HE ammo (base probability to land a HE shell in the target hex itself most likely). However, the gun will fire AP (Heat in this case?) should you fire direct fire, and that would be at the hit percent (first shot attempt) for hitting a point target, which is different from the hit a hex percentage. The act of firing direct will clear the indirect flag.

If you have a weapon plotted for HE indirect fires, then you should manually clear the fire mission, if you need to do what you were trying to do. (Having the game clear the indirect mission just to check direct hitting chance is not a good option, since you might then clear an indirect mission you plotted 3-4 turns back).

Having a unit plotted for indirect mission, it will not fire in direct-fire reaction fires, in any case. The indirect mission has priority.

Better to have your indirect fire arty back in the rear, hidden behind blocking terrain, and not sitting out in the front line !.

Cheers
Andy

[Veeman]

All right, now I understand. Many thanks for your excellent answer!