Russkies in Oklahoma!

[Walrus]

Hi Narwan

Sorry, as Walrus said flightpath has to be determined BEFORE you plot the strike. So no changing it when the delay becomes .5

Hmmmm, are you 100% on that.
I have a sneaking suspicion that as long as you set a new In-Out before you re-target the mission, it will fly in the new direction.
I could be wrong there.
I am sure that it is absolute folly to try and re-plot para drops.
It gets very strange if you do anything other than cancel it and start over again.
I think.
Air outines in SP are a bit of a Grey area in general (you hear that SG...Grey! Not black and white!!!...he he )

Seabolt;
the LOS difference can happen if there are multiple rounding offs after each other. If unit A looks at B there can be a number of factors between them that affect LOS, eg X,Y and Z. To determine LOS from A to B the order for checking (and possible rounding off's) is X, Y, Z. To determine the LOS from B to A the order may well be Z, Y, X. That difference can mean A can see B but B can't see A because the order of rounding off varies. It's something like that anyway. Andy explained it to us back during the intial playtesting of the windows version. It's an artifact of the 'spaghetti-code', but rare though.

x - y- eg- a= b z, x, y meep! -LOS -spagetti round off...eerrggg..bleep..w-x-y-zeeee...noo errggdddzzziittt - los y z e rg eg-===aaaarrrgggghhhh!!!!!!

clear as mud...cheers mate :bow: :whis: :cheeky:

[seabolt]

x - y- eg- a= b z, x, y meep! -LOS -spagetti round off...eerrggg..bleep..w-x-y-zeeee...noo errggdddzzziittt - los y z e rg eg-===aaaarrrgggghhhh!!!!!!

LOL. Somebody *please* perform the Heimlich on that poor man.

The question remains to be addressed: If I plot a warplane on a V-shaped flight path (ie, to change direction by 60 degrees after attacking the target hex), will it actually change course as requested?

If I shift its plot during the delay between assignment and execution, will that nullify/alter the flight path?

Should I just stick to helicopters? I'm having a lot of luck with them here! (Of course, I lost 3 attack copters in 2 turns to a single 57mm piece in the next friggin' county, last time I deployed them en masse ...)

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[Vesku]

It's faster and more reliable to do a test than discussing this on the forum ... but less fun of course.

[Walrus]

x - y- eg- a= b z, x, y meep! -LOS -spagetti round off...eerrggg..bleep..w-x-y-zeeee...noo errggdddzzziittt - los y z e rg eg-===aaaarrrgggghhhh!!!!!!

LOL. Somebody *please* perform the Heimlich on that poor man.

It's sleep I need.

The question remains to be addressed: If I plot a warplane on a V-shaped flight path (ie, to change direction by 60 degrees after attacking the target hex), will it actually change course as requested?

Yes. Absolutely.

If I shift its plot during the delay between assignment and execution, will that nullify/alter the flight path?

Possibly. If you re-set the In-Out instructions before you shift plot I think it will do what you ask.

Should I just stick to helicopters? I'm having a lot of luck with them here!

As always....use what works for you. Helos are great, but air strikes are quite random and bloody good fun when they work out
Hurrah!

[Walrus]

It's faster and more reliable to do a test than discussing this on the forum ... but less fun of course.

So, by now you've obviously done some tests yeah, can you ruin our fun and give us the answer? :whis:

[Narwan]

[quote=Walrus]

Hmmmm, are you 100% on that.
I have a sneaking suspicion that as long as you set a new In-Out before you re-target the mission, it will fly in the new direction.
I could be wrong there.

[quote=Narwan]


You're right, you can replot the mission. What I meant to say was that you can't change the flight path during a plotted mission. So you can't keep the .5 delay but have to start over with the 2.5 delay and a new flight path. (Which were the values junk2drive mentioned).

[Vesku]

It's faster and more reliable to do a test than discussing this on the forum ... but less fun of course.

So, by now you've obviously done some tests yeah, can you ruin our fun and give us the answer? :whis:

And ruin the fun of testing from you guys? No, will not give any hint.

[seabolt]

TURN 10

Ah, the ~10-point basic marksman. Stepper on mines, stumbler into ambushes, the most beloved sacrificial goat in SPWW2/MBT bar none. Hugging his tattered cloak of special sniper survivability about himself, he steps ever forward into the inevitable crossfire. Maybe, just maybe, he'll even take about 3 points' worth of regular grunt with him when he goes.

The poor Russian fellow who sauntered into hex 89,25 on Epoletov's turn couldn't even accomplish that much. But there's another thing about goats: They generally let you know whether a goatsherd is nearby. One has to wonder if Epoletov has slithered some units westward in the extreme north, and is planning to take a hard turn to the south and try to wrench back a VH. Maybe even work his way all the way around the town and strike directly into my rear. That would be bold. Yes, I'm trying to lay the jinx down.

Getting back to snipers, at the other extreme we have the ~60-point fire-breathing ubersnipers, hardened men of steely accuracy who often are required accessories in elite companies. Such as Russian paratroops. Funny how I forget to count heads sometimes. :rolleyes: It's the basic skills that elude me. Yes, after evading umpteen Apache passes and patiently positioning himself, a Russian sharpshooter on Mt Acme caught one of my approaching Ranger units flat-footed, a situation made even worse by our volte-face positioning, causing the always vexing retreat into enemy fire. (In boxing parlance, my boys led with their face.) The sniper finally died hard, but only after taking 4 brave souls with him. Let's see, that's a 0.4 chunk of a 43-pt unit, or 17 effective points of damage, vs a writeoff of 60 points. That's about par for my experience with the ubersniper. Looks like at any level, you spend 3 to kill 1 with the scoped guns.

Jinking back to the boxing meme, the scattered sniper actions were only the flyweight undercards leading to the main event. Last turn's pause gave me a chance to bring up some mechanized reinforcements. My Rangers moving from 99,38 toward VH 110,43 were in the town hexes, directly across the street from some Russian line units. For the last 2 turns, 60mm fire had kept the x-pinks from ridding themselves of an acute sense of impending doom.

Troops in place, I dropped the hammer. A well-stealthed HMG at 104,43 opened up, trying to cut my attack short. I rolled an Abrams over the ridge at 93,58 to trump the .50 with 63 tons of Oh No You Did Not. My infantry took care to pick the flamingcheese troops out from all of their Vampyr-toting brothers and pick on them first. Once everyone was suppressed, I crashed in with the first mech unit, who of course unloaded to discover the HMG's twin waiting for them at point blank range. (Missed an HMG crew sitting in the street 50 meters away. Gotta love size 0 units ...) So, rolled another Abrams up the street to Suppress-O-Fire *that* wannabe party pooper. Blew chunks in various routed Russians and z-fired the snot out of 111,42 (aka, ATGM Abbey) before ending the turn within hailing distance of the VH. I'ma coming, Epoletov. Bake a cake or something.

That was the high point of the turn. The low point came at the beginning, when yet another abandoned Nona came back to life, nor could my Warthog kill the one that it strafed. I mentioned earlier that's it always a tossup whether to move on when a gun goes abandoned, or to lay another round or two of fire in hopes of actually killing the crew (although, of course, you'll never know whether you succeeded). In this fight, it seemed best to move on. With all of the constant displacement required by the Russian firepower, my Paladins can only snap off a round or two of fire at a time. Way too many targets and too few fire missions to go rechurning old ground. Still, the durn things won't stay dead ...

... as deafeningly illustrated at the end of turn, as the Russians unreeled yet another 100-round salvo at my troops. To give Epoletov credit where credit is due, a lot of fire shifted from the woods to the road in the north: He *knew* I'd be bringing it. It's a little frustrating, having spent 85% of my fire missions in counterbattery mode and still getting outgunned 4:1. I'll have to comfort myself by counting my VHs. ;)

-- 30 --

[Zemke]

I have not play Steel Panthers in years but this thread is outstanding.

[seabolt]

TURN 11

He's cut! He's cut! The Russian's cut.

We've already heard from the Kiwi kontingent about the merits of the Rocky series, and believe me I've done my share of mocking the ham-handed films. But there's a reason that they endure in the pop zeitgeist. One of the varsity linemen at my son's football practice the other day was wearing a T-shirt that at first glance seemed inelegant even by Nike slogan standards. "Toughness is hanging on when others let go," it stated. But there can be just a hair between prosaic and profound. Rocky's not a charming fellow, he doesn't possess the Super Saiyan Megacircumcise move, and the only person he's ever outwitted is himself. But what he does is hang on, take a punch, ride out the storm ... flat-out endure.

In short, he's all the man that most of us can ever hope to be. Maybe we can't even really aspire to be Rocky. Maybe the best we can hope for is to emulate the terrified old tar in "Master and Commander," the death grip--whitened knuckles of his right hand tattoed with "HOLD," those of the left with "FAST." Just don't let go. Keep it together and wait for the other guy to blink. Even God blinks.

Even the Russian war machine blinks. The turn started out promising, as my Warthog made another pass at that pesky Nona, and still couldn't kill it but at least *executed a midflight turn.* It's the little things that make my day. It also avoided some SAM rounds, which was interesting because the 60mm barrage intended to suppress said SAMs was set 0.1 earlier than the flight but arrived afterward. (Time to target delay? Or just shortcut programming because the Warthog was purchased before the mortar?) The follow-on CM rounds killed that Nona's ammo carrier, and another, and suppressed the guns deeply. Not bad.

At Mt Acme, the Rangers killed 3 of the 4 remaining spotted paratroop units, with the other being routed. Barring more uberunits popping up (unlikely), that battle is effectively over.

So, onward to claim VH 110,43. For all of their experience and high spirits, my Rangers have proven themselves to be doggedly myopic. I doubt that they could spot a hand grenade that was tossed into their mess tin, even as it hissed away covered in ranchero sauce from their MRE. But we've got 10-point snipers on our side, too! One of my dancers with death trotted up the street to spot a pinned HMG in front of the VH and a pinned rifle section just behind it.

I jigged around the overwatch Abrams on the road to the south, trying to establish LOS, then got a tingly sensation on the back of my neck. Moving the tank's outrider Humvee into the very next hex elicited an ATGM's fatal one-finger salute. Goodbye, little missile-catching buddy. You can join the legions of weak-ass marksmen and jeep drivers in SP recon unit heaven.

So, a little weak-ass z-fire of my own, and I moved up some Rangers to take out the HMG. This drew opfire from the MG, then something bigger and nastier opened up. And did it again. It couldn't be ...

... but it was, the sweet, sweet sound of 23mm AA fire, the only two AA guns to have fired in the east all match. In LOS. Oh, mama. Needless to say, Abramses came bolting out of their hideyholes like piranhas smelling a Nature Channel cameraman. Screw the VH. Much cannon fire ensued, and in short time Epoletov was down to SAMs, of which 2 were killed on Mt Acme, 1 disappeared earlier after 2 Paladins said howdy do, and 1 is catching mortar shells in the teeth. And all of which have been spraying much of their loadout in the Warthog's wake.

And me with 3 Apaches and half a map full of stuff that desperately needs killing.

I even remembered to do a drive-by and claim the VH, leaving Epoletov holding just 2 others. As interesting as this turn was, though, it's about to get a whole lot more entertaining for me.

It's a bad cut.

-- 30 --