SP Terrain challenge

[Cross]

I think there are three different types of ‘cover’ in SP.

1. Terrain that protects occupying units from harm, or damage.
2. Terrain that blocks line-of-sight to units in other hexes.
3. Terrain that provides cover (from being spotted) to occupying units.

This assumes for example, that a wooden building provides the same cover from being spotted as a stone building, but the stone building provides better protection from harm.

However, I guess it’s possible – with code limitations – that the level of protection from harm is the same as the level of cover from being spotted. Anyone know?

I’m going to assume that the terrain provides 6 different levels of protection from harm:

Excellent
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
Very Poor

I think I’ve listed all the SPWW2 terrain types below.

The challenge is to sort them into the level of protection that you think they provide. Here’s my first guesstimate with a few clues I found in the game guide:

Excellent
Rough……………………....... Provides excellent cover
Stone Building Rubble….. Stone rubble is better
Trench……………………...... Vehicle and infantry cover
Foxholes…………………...... Protects only infantry
Impassable………………..... Extremely rough terrain
Very Good
Stone Buildings………….... Provide cover, especially stone
Wood Building Rubble…... Quite good cover
Shell Holes…………......... Provide some cover
Good
Wood Buildings………….... Provides cover
Hedgerow/Bocage…….... Good protection
Trees…………………......... Provide good cover
Orchards………………....... Lower density wooded
Soft Sand (dunes)
Volcanic Sand (dunes).. Same as Soft Sand
Dragons Teeth
Fair
Tilled Fields
Wheat Crops
Green Crops
High Grass……………....... Some protection for infantry
Slopes
Poor
Clear………………….......... Minor ground fluctuations
Short Grass
Forest Ground Cover
Secondary Road
Bare Earth
Streams
Snow
Snowdrifts
Wooden Bridges……..…... Negates the terrrain below
Very Poor
Paved Road
Stone Bridges…………..... Negates underlying terrain
Mud……………………......... Similar to marshes
Marsh/Swamp
Paddy Field
Railway Track
Tram Lines……………....... Treated as Paved Roads
Cobblestone……………..... Acts like road terrain
Pavement………………...... Acts like road terrain
Deep Water
Shallow Water
Sand (beach/flat)

What have I got wrong here?

[Narwan]

The following are from my observations in the game. I do not know how these are all coded with regards to cover. But here are my suggested changes:

* Streams give worse cover than clear terrain.
* Shellholes should be just one category below trenches/foxholes.
* the combination of rough and wooded gives the best cover from harm of all terrain types (possibly matched by stone building rubble which I place as the second best terrain for cover)
* Beach sand has worse cover than clear terrain


Narwan

[Imp]

This assumes for example, that a wooden building provides the same cover from being spotted as a stone building, but the stone building provides better protection from harm.

However, I guess it’s possible – with code limitations – that the level of protection from harm is the same as the level of cover from being spotted. Anyone know?

Not sure but think your assumption with buildings is correct so can set seperatly.

My observations
Agree with Narwan on beach sand & streams not a good place to be
Dragons teeth, never occured to me modified cover makes sense but try not to hang around long enough to find out:)
Slopes do they make a diffrence to cover protection? Assumed just terrain in hex modified. If anything worse protection for indirect fire I would guesstimate plus if its breakdown terrain seems to make it worse. Dont get stuck often but it always seems to be on slopes when it happens :pullhair:

[Vesku]

Dont get stuck often but it always seems to be on slopes when it happens :pullhair:

It's rough slopes that gets you stuck.

[Imp]

Dont get stuck often but it always seems to be on slopes when it happens :pullhair:

It's rough slopes that gets you stuck.

Indeed or soft sand snow drifts on occasion, avoid mud swamps paddies like the plague.

[Cross]

Thanks for the input.

I confess that I did consult the SPWaW guide to try to help figure this out. As you probably know WaW actually lists the quality of cover that each terrain type provides. As these games are ‘cousins’ they share some of the same DNA, and that may include terrain cover to some extent.

Streams – I checked WaW and they have ‘rivers’ as Poor. Which would make them the same as ‘Clear’. I’m going to bump ‘Streams’ into Poor for now, and will test this to see if Streams belong in Very Poor with Shallow and Deep Water.

I’ll be disappointed if Streams are Very Poor, because just about every stream I’ve seen IRL has some good cover in the way of banks. But perhaps in the game Stream hexes represent mid-stream rather than including the typical terrain that hems in a stream.

Shell Holes – Makes sense to me, I heard in the distant past they gave only slight cover (perhaps I imagined small shell holes) but I bumped shell holes to ‘Very Good’.

Combinations – My belief/understanding is that terrain cover is cumulative. So I will leave ‘Rough’ and ‘Stone building rubble’ in ‘Excellent’; and assume that ‘Trees’ on top of ‘Rough’ will give you ‘Excellent’ + ‘Good”.

Beach Sand – I think I was a bit confused here. There are clear terrain hexes that are sand coloured, but these are really the same as ‘Clear’ hexes. Then there are actual sand hexes, which are probably supposed to represent flat beaches or flat desert; and therefore belong in the Very Poor category.

Soft Sand - In addition there are Soft Sand hexes (also referred to as Sand Dunes or Volcanic Sand in the Game Guide) these hexes can cause vehicles to get stuck, but should provide protection from harm. I’ve spent a lot of time messing around in sand dunes and I think they should offer at least ‘Good’ protection (think Dunkirk). I’ll have to test these in the game.

Dragons Teeth – I actually have no idea if these provide any protection at all. I just thought I’d throw them in there to see if anyone knew, and with the thought they should offer at least some protection.
Again, I may have to test these if no one knows.

Slopes – Slopes definitely offer ‘Good’ protection in WaW, but I can’t recall the reason why. Not sure if this is also the case in SPWW2.

I will edit my OP to include the above changes.