Defensive Fire ?

[Dog Soldier]

Yeah, but that's just a one-time occurrence. Once a unit has been spotted, it typically stays spotted and thus continually exerts a ZOC whether or not it actually fires more than once (and thus repeatedly exposes itself to op-fire). Also units can be spotted without actively breaking concealment.

Strela made it sound as if each firing action influenced ZOC, hence why I (and probably nim8or as well) became confused. Basically firing is not a macro-action with the intent to stop the enemy from moving forward and with defensive fire as a consequence, concealment is. A unit is typically concealed only once per game, but fires many times each turn.

What you seem to be describing is play against the AI which will hide units but then expose them because the AI is not so smart.

It is easy to return to concealed status in many cases.  l move to a location not spotted by enemy units.  This is sometimes easier said than done because of long sight lines and enemy hidden units that see you move.  War is hell.

A sure way to do it is to drop smoke to block LOS to your unit and where it is going.  The unit will then be concealed in the next enemy turn unless they can move next to your unit.  Not the best use of smoke, but in some cases the hex you want the unit hidden in is worth it.  The enemy player can guess where you went, unless you use the smoke to get out of his LOS and move out of his LOS to where you want to go before he can acquire your unit again.

Like in real war I feel the game models this aspect very well.  A little luck and skill are needed to learn to do this properly.  Mastering the art of hidden units and controlling fire makes PzB an exciting game and worth the effort to learn.  In PzB there are no perfect plans nor silver bullet tactics that work as expected every time.  At least not against a human opponent.  That is by design.  Every command decision has a trade off.

A game of cat and mouse anyone?

Dog Soldier