Firing Effectiveness and Distance

[ComradeP]

The formula and the explanation from the manual:

At ranges greater than 1 is modified by the Range Effect Parameter Data Value.  If the range is N and the Range Effect is R, then the fire value is divided by 1 + (N-1) * (R-1).

For example, if the Range Effect value is 1.5, then the fire value of direct fire at a range of 2 hexes is divided by 1.5.  At 3 hexes, it is divided by 2, and so on.

In practice, you can still get decent results at longer ranges with larger units (companies/~10 vehicle units) but not with smaller ones. Due to rounding, you might still get 1-2 Men results at longer ranges even with platoon-sized units.

For A and B quality vehicle units with decent to good guns (75mm and up), you can knock out enemy medium tanks at ranges up to about 4 hexes with some reliability, but after that the effectiveness drops sharply for smaller units and it becomes a true "roll of the dice" kind of affair whether you knock out a vehicle or not.

Infantry units are capable of disruptive fire at ranges 3 and 4, but will only really hurt enemy units at ranges 1 and 2. German infantry units tend to have (slightly) superior soft attack values compared to their opponents due to having good squad level MG's and are usually also capable of firing at range 4 due to that. The majority of the Allied (and Soviet) infantry units can only hit targets up to 3 hexes away. US mechanized infantry can fire at range 4 as well.

Allied infantry soft attack values are generally not so hot, so pour artillery fire into the hex you want to attack close in if you want to kill something.