z fire

[Walrus]

Hi All

I find it very, very tedious to play against.
Especially when every unit is doing it, every turn.
It makes the replays, which I enjoy almost as a 'movie', very boring to watch and can sometimes make my game crash as the replay file gets too big.
Recently I gave up watching the replays for a whole battle because of the wall of z fire in every turn.
It will make me think twice about playing another game against that player, which is a sad situation.

My main problem is that can reach out into the map far beyond actual visibility.
The main problem being that you can make it very accurate because you can keep re-targeting 'spotted' enemy units, even when the z firing unit cannot actually see where it is aiming.
eg. in a current game, visibility = 10 hexes. SP mortar and SPA guns are z firing out to 20+ hexes into exact areas.
That's double+ visibility with no LOS at all.

That is a slightly warped function of the game engine and not very Real Life.
That's when I find it very gamey.

I also do not enjoy seeing a unit pop smoke directly in front of itself...then proceed to z fire accurately (or as accurately as the game allows. There are tricks to 'correct' the fire) into occupied areas well out of LOS.

Also there is a sneaky trick you can do after z firing arty / indirect fire weapons which is almost cheating IMO...so I don't want to go into details.
I tend to warn my opponent when I see that routine being used.

However, I have never asked opponents not to use this feature as it is a fair enough tactic in many circumstances. Especially using MG fire to suppress enemy positions just out of LOS, or hammer hexes in LOS that contain 'un-spotted' but known enemy. That's a Rumsfeld 'known unknown" eh
It is often the only way to expose zero sized units.

I just think it is over used, mostly by players who have just discovered it.
I think eventually the tsunami of z fire will calm down after the novelty wares off. It has it's place in the tactical play book.

Just my 2 cents worth.
Cheers