4th edition hidden rules and artillery recon

[larry marak]

If you want to set up units hidden in a town, the spotting range shrinks from 3 hexes for limiting terrain to adjacent spoting only. Once again a tremendous advantage for the defender or the attacker waiting in ambush.

Recon by artillery seems to be a compensating mechanism for the new hidden unit optional rules. Do you read this as ANY result of bombardment, including only a morale check which the defender passes, gives away the hidden location of the defender?

In general I like the enhanced value of artillery and recon units in 4th edition :-)

[richvalle]

Does 'recon by fire' need to be done with on-board art? It kind of reads like it does.

[richvalle]

If you want to set up units hidden in a town, the spotting range shrinks from 3 hexes for limiting terrain to adjacent spoting only. Once again a tremendous advantage for the defender or the attacker waiting in ambush.

Recon by artillery seems to be a compensating mechanism for the new hidden unit optional rules. Do you read this as ANY result of bombardment, including only a morale check which the defender passes, gives away the hidden location of the defender?

In general I like the enhanced value of artillery and recon units in 4th edition :-)

Larry, where are you seeing the above? I'm probably missing it somewhere. All I see is:

"Revealing
A hidden unit loses its special status and must be placed on the board if an enemy unit is able to spot it, or if it moves or conducts any type of fire."

[larry marak]

Optional rules, part 2 released as Daily Content a few weeks ago.

[richvalle]

Yeah, I was looking though them to see what I could find on your question. I don't see the part about being spotted on moral checks.

Recon by Fire
In situations where unspotted units are in range of artillery on the map, or in scenarios using Hidden Units, bombardment may be attempted against those hexes using the following procedure. The hex (not the units) must be spotted normally (8.0). Make the decision to combine fire or not normally (9.3). Once the firing units are chosen, roll one die for the attack. On a result of 1 or 2 the bombardment has no effect: mark the firing unit(s) Moved/Fired. On a result of 3 through 5 the hex is attacked at half the normal bombardment strength. On a result of 6 a full-strength bombardment attack is performed.

[larry marak]

Recon by fire is supposted to help spot hidden units without sending spotters adjacent. A hidden unit that retreats or repositions itself as a result of bombardment might become unspotted, but a unit that survives its morale check would just hug the floor more tightly and remain invisible. Plus the owner of the hidden unit on the board must roll a die to determine the effects, which gives the hidden unit's position away anyway.

If I am reading the rule and intent correctly then a solution that keeps units passing morale hidden would be for a list of sequential morale checks to be made and written down before the start of play, so that only the defender knows if a morale check die roll needed to be consulted after a bombardment.

[richvalle]

Or just roll some dice on every bombardment and only you know if they are 'real' or not.

[Matt W]

Nothing keeps the defender from rolling dice and looking upset and/or relieved regardless of whether there is anything in the hex. I find that writing furiously on the sheet of paper with the hidden units is also helpful. Usually it is things on the "Honey Do" list...

[Hugmenot]

If you want to set up units hidden in a town, the spotting range shrinks from 3 hexes for limiting terrain to adjacent spoting only. Once again a tremendous advantage for the defender or the attacker waiting in ambush.

The range for hidden units in limiting terrain was also 1 hex in 3rd edition rules. See 16.6, second paragraph, for the details.

Recon by artillery seems to be a compensating mechanism for the new hidden unit optional rules.

Hidden units is not a new rule.

As others pointed out, there is nothing in the Optional Rule preview which states hidden units must be revealed if they suffer any adverse result.

As Recon by Fire can be used against units on the board that are still unspotted, I doubt it was created specifically to counter the advantage of having hidden units. I would probably use Recon by Fire against known (but yet unspotted) units on my way to an objective with the hope of weakening them before engaging them.

As Recon by Fire will usually favor the attacker when victory conditions include taking terrain defenders can set up into, I am unlikely to use this optional rule without also using another optional rules which favors the defender.

[larry marak]

16.6 3RD edition automatically reveals a unit if any artillery fire hits the hex. In 4th edition I suspect the fire has to have a negative result to produce unhidden status.