FWWC - Shrinking fire values

[Ricky B]

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Besides that the Fire Value seems also variable sometimes, I tested a unit in the Nancy scenario(hex 56,10) and it fires at the stack south of it either with a fire value of 646(hits the infantry)/46(hits the MG unit) or 323(hits the infantry)/92(hits the MG unit).
Not sure why the Fire Value changes, especially since the casualties are already randomly generated between the high and low combat results.

Anyhow repeat it by firing on the single unit South-West and there it generates 642 Fire Value so you see that you can end up with more Fire Value generated for firing on a stack than when firing on a single unit but that is likely only because the way the additional fire value is assigned to the other units in a stack that are not the major target.

Okay, I have a few ideas, but not all the answers. I would bet VM doesn't know the details either, although he might have more to add.

First, for this section above. As was stated, the fire is split with 100% firepower against 1 target unit and 50% against the others in the hex. The manual does not have any details on density modifiers that I can find and the firepower results don't indicate anything directly related to density from what I can see. However, I believe there is a combination of factors used, including density, in determining the fire value.

So here, you have in the first example, a slightly higher target density than in the second. As there are 2 targets in the first example, one gets hit by 100% of the firepower and the second by half. So if the battalion is the main target, it shows the fire value is 646, and the MG gets hit by half of its target fire value or 46. Flip it around and the MG is the main target and it gets hit by 92 (double the other), while the bn gets hit by half the original fire value.

The second example shows that without the MG boosting the overall density in the hex, the fire value against the bn is lower by the 4 pts shown. I also setup some tests that confirmed this, as I boosted a target battalion from 10 men to 500, the fire value went up with the strength, from 1 to about 48, based on a weak firing unit I created.

As to why the fire at the MG unit has a lower 100% fire value on it than the battalion, I would strongly guess that the density calc takes into account the target size compared to the overall density in some way, adjusting it toward what it would be if the unit was alone in the hex plus some portion of other units in the hex. Add to that the MG has a higher defense factor, and you have a fire value that is less than 1/6th that of the same fire against the battalion.

So again, I don't have all the details, but the above data does indicate the target numbers do impact the fire value. I also learned a bit of a trick with multiple units in a hex that surprises me, but I won't share that .

Rick