Apologies in advance for the length of this post!
Reading up on the 4th Edition rules got me thinking about spotting:
8.0 When the unit or leader that spotted an enemy moves out of spotting range, the enemy is no longer spotted (there is no “passing” of the spotted information to others; exception 8.22).
8.22 When a unit occupying limiting terrain fires within LOS of an enemy, place a spotted marker on top of it...as long as the spotted marker remains on a unit, it’s considered to be in a clear hex for spotting purposes.....If a unit with a spotted marker on top of it moves to another hex that is either limiting terrain AND a greater distance than the TEC spotting range from enemy units, OR is outside the enemy LOS, remove the spotted marker from the unit.
8.23 Both foot and vehicle mounted recce units possess two special spotting abilities....Their second ability is that they can place a Spotted marker on any one enemy unit they can spot per turn, just as if the enemy unit had “blown its cover” by firing. Such spotted markers are removed as described earlier.
Now to consider some scenarios:
Common set up:
Suppose that a German AT gun unit is located in the edge of some woods; looking south there are 2 separate woods with a clear area between them. A road which is more than 3 hexes away runs east to west.
An American M4 unit and an M18 unit move along the road through one of the woods and take up positions on the edge of the woods. They are both more than 3 hexes away from the German AT guns.
Scenario 1:
The M4s move north until they are 3 hexes away from the AT guns and can spot them, so next turn they can open fire on them. The AT guns hold their fire. The rules do not permit the M4s inform the M18s about the AT guns’ position so the M18s cannot open fire on them.
If the M4s had been recce units instead, then in effect they could have informed the M18s by marking the AT guns with a Spotted marker (per 8.23).
I can see that recce units would have special abilities to be able to identify enemy unit locations (due to better training/optics/radios), but the M4s would need to know the AT guns’ location accurately enough to be able to open fire on them: so why couldn’t the M4s radio that information to the M18s?
One reason is to suppose that the rules take into account comms problems, especially early/mid war with the lack of reliable radios; but also late war as I am guessing that not all units would be on the same net even if they had working radios (especially some of the foot sloggers). However, that could affect the ability of some units to receive the target information from the recce unit.....
Scenario 2:
The M4s move into the clear terrain between the woods and are fired on by the AT guns. A Spotted marker is placed on the AT guns.
The M18s are in LOS and range and can now open fire.
The next turn an M36 unit drives along the road and into the open south of the AT guns’ position. Because the latter has a Spotted marker, the M36s can open fire on the following turn.
The problem I have with this is how do the M36s know exactly where the AT guns are located? Presumably the M4s or M18s radioed the information to them. But see Scenario 1 for potential comms problems.....
Conclusion:
Is it the intention of the rules to avoid book-keeping? If poor comms are to blame for not passing spotting information (Scenario 1), then late arriving units should not be allowed to spot enemy units that had fired earlier (Scenario 2) and a record would have to be kept of these late arrivals.
One other issue:
Scenario 3:
The M4s move into the clear terrain between the woods and are fired on by the AT guns. A Spotted marker is placed on them. Subsequently the M4s and M18s move away out of LOS of the AT guns before the M36s appear within LOS of the AT guns.
The rules state that the Spotted marker is removed if the AT guns move outside the enemy LOS. In this scenario the opposite occurs, so should the Spotted marker be removed or remain?
I would play this as follows:
Although the AT guns’ last known location remains noted by American units, any American units that come back into LOS and range cannot open fire on the AT guns because none of the original spotters are on hand to talk the newcomers onto the target (and given the potential comms problems, would the newcomers even know about their rough location?). The newcomers don’t know whether the AT guns are still there or if they have moved away: so I would remove the Spotted marker.
This interpretation of the rules goes some way towards balancing the inability of the non-recce units in Scenario 1 to “pass” spotted information to others.
Apologies again for the long post, but this has niggled away at me for a few days now and I still have not been able to reconcile the rules with what I think would actually happen! Have I missed something?
Tim
