z fire

[retired from gaming]

OK, I understand now.
I went thru the thread once again and I guess I got 3 main issues here :

1) playing agianst "like minded" opponents
One of the reasons I practically stopped playing purchase battles and switched to premade scenarios was i wanted to avoid one month long pre-battle agreements. One player wants to limit snipers, another arty, or ammo suppliers etc. Even when you think you agreed everything e.g. no arty you may end up against hordes of SP-mortars. When you ask WTF ???, the answer is : They do not come from arty type of weapons in buying screen (true story, and I wasnt the one with NO ARTY rule, which means I was deliberatly screwed. I gave up the game and let the bastard have his so desired win).
The problem with like-minded players is they dont have to be as 'like-minded" as we expect. Example : when I want an MBT game with so called "historical" or realistic forces first oppo which comes to my mind is Shortreengage (btw hi Paul, long time no hear). His forces will probably come right out of the manual. However my knowledge about lets say 1984' russsian mech battalion composition is ZERO (NULL) comparing to his'. So I cant give him a fair game. What I can try is to make a reasonable buy, but thats all. So he may be disapointed.
Fortunately over the years in the club you gain a list of opponents you like to loose against (in my case. In my opponents case I might eventually be on the list of players they like to win against :) ).
Anyways, I found the best games were played when we just agreed to play "reasonable" forces - you get the fexibility to surprise your oppo, otoh most players here are adults and wont abuse such agreement.

2) issues number 2 (z-fire) and number 3 (eye of god vision) are not a problem SEPERATLY.
They become a problem when combined. Area fire backed by EOG in my opinion is a problem, and I wont hesitate to say - it's gamey.
I cant see any problem with firing thru smoke, when you EXPECT or SPOTTED someone there. No problem with firing at the building or forrest when you expect enemy there. etc,etc.
Firing 20 hexes when your visibility is 5 hexes - i find this a problem. In reality you dont even know what is there, what kind of terrain etc. You dnt know what is in beetwen.
But there is one thing sure about gamey tactics - we all KNOW when we trying to cheat a little, dont we ?

EDIT : one more thing just came to mind - want to avoid your oppo abuse z-fire ? Play short games, very short. He wont have time for fire as he has to run instead LOL