Interpreting detailed fire results

[Mowgli]

I thought I could share my attempts to interpret the detailed fire results that you get when you turn off the onmap results (settings/On map results). Here is the info that you get in the game (all values are just examples):


Range = 3, Modifier = -10%

Fire = 18 (mod 35%, inf 99%, arm 216%)

Range: Obviously, this is the range at which the engagement takes place, measured in hexes. The effect on the fire value is not listed, but you can calculate it, using the formula given in the manual. To give you an overall idea, the effect  is pretty big at closer distances but then gets smaller with each increment at farther distances: 100% (@1 hex), 66%, 50%, 40%, 33%, 28% (@6 hexes), ...

Modifier: This is the effect of cover in the targeted hex (e.g. woods, trenches, etc.). Remember that units in travel mode don't profit from cover. Also, if the targeted unit consists of vehicles, it only profits from 50% of the cover. 

Fire: This is the final fire value (unit strength * hard/soft fire, divided by the target's defense value (*0.5 if target is in travel mode)) to which all the other factors have already been applied. You multiply this value times the lower and upper fire thresholds to get the actual casualty points. For PzBattles:Normandy, the casualties will randomly be between 2% and 10% of this value (Fire Low Value 20, Fire High Value 100). The actual casualty value is then used to determine casualties (or chance for casualties vs. vehicles) and the accumulation of fatigue.

mod: This factor includes a variety of modifiers which are all added together (so, if two factors cancel each other out [e.g. quality A unit firing across hedgerow], the mod will be 0/not even show up):

• unit quality (A= 50%, B=25%, C=0, D=-20%, etc). Remember that unit quality is not identical with current unit morale. Unit quality never changes, unit morale does.
  
• elevation modifier (shooting up/down gives -/+ 15% per height level=per 25m of height difference). 
  
• hexside combat modifiers: e.g. firing across a hedgerow gives a -50% modifier (note: it seems that vehicles profit to 100% from hexside cover). NOTE that you only gain protection from hexside cover if you're in the actual hex with the hexside cover.
  

inf: This factor sometimes (not always!) shows up when the firing unit is an infantry unit. I suppose that it tells you the actual strength of the unit that is used for calculating the fire value (as the manual tells us, infantry units don't immediately lose fighting power when they take a few casualties, so the value given here is always higher than the value shown in the unit window).

arm: Note that this factor only shows up when you're firing at armored units. For more information refer to the manual, p. 48. This modifier's purpose is to make strong armor stronger against weak anti-tank weapons and also to prevent very strong anti tank weapons to knock out too many vehicles (because such a high casualty rate would be implausible/unrealistic).

Factors that are not listed separatedly and implicitly affect the total fire value: fatigue (-10/20/40%), disruption (-50%), digging in (-50%), low ammo (-50%), target density (if the targeted unit is positioned in a hex whose stacking limit is more than half full, you get a bonus on your fire value, depending on how "full" the target hex is - capped at *2 at the stacking limit; note you can see the density modifier of a hex in the detailed hex info window),