"Do you have skylining?" Topic

I am thinking of re-running a part of one of our big games to get better at using artillery in a credible fashion.

However there is a steep hill in the terrain and going over it you could be sky-lined. However even our rules do not cover such issues, it being a bit too subtle for us and would have to be a definition as its not usual we have terrain where such things would be obvious to both players. Do you have such rules and what is the impact you assume in such cases?

I don't but clearly it is a real thing, and very noticeable.

I'd say auto-detection if/when it occurs by all units within visual sight of the units/troops/vehicles being skylined.

Perhaps reduce to 90% chance of detection if you don't like auto-detection.

A large reduction in the above, if troops are prone and sneaking across a crest.

I think the real question is how to reflect ordering a unit, or portion thereof, to watch that steep hill for this. An engaged unit is going to be concentrated on its fight so it's more likely to be a rear support unit to get this order. I know units are supposed to maintain a 360 awareness, but how is this actually conducted?

I have a Situational Awareness rule that covers reaction and spotting. A unit's best SA is to it's front or the direction the gun/turret is pointing assuming over watch (no specific over watch orders or restrictions). Being buttoned up, poor crew, suppressed or flanked decreases the chances of spotting and reacting immediately. Over watching in the right direction, good crew, not surprised is better.

Units are always active and can react to enemy actions and new LOS from movement. No unit activation rules.

When a new LOS occurs from movement there is a Mutual Situational Awareness Check for both sides rolling a D6 with 0-3 modifiers. Since I use a Time Competitive game system seconds count with the quicker unit going into action to shoot first (no need for initiative rules). The result of an SA Check can be <= 0 so the unit can go into action and issue a shooting order. A result > 0 is an Engagement Delay and the number of seconds before going into action to shoot. Generally, a delay of 7+ seconds will mean your opponent will shoot before you even notice him.

When a unit is sky lining there is a large negative modifier to the D6 SA Check die roll so less chance for an Engagement Delay.

Sky lining and Reverse Slope Defense: This is where a unit is on a reverse slope turret down. When it moves into a hull down position to shoot the turret is sky lining and enemy units can make an SA Check to engage. If they are over watching where the units pops up and sky lines there is a fair chance it can shoot before the hull down unit can reverse back to a turret down position and reload or relocate.

I had tried doing traditional spotting checks using a 5 second turns but it didn't work right and was more complicated than the above description but it should work for other systems non Time Competitive systems.

Wolfhag

Star Blazer
It hurtsto say it but you query falls well outside our scope. To do what you want with drones you really need a battlespace proably 20 even 50km across (especially when the ukrains get the latest US SP artillery). Our battlespace is only about 2.4km by 1.8km max so is nowhere near this and scaling up is impractical.

I guess you need to play on Google maps but the assumptions on Supply lines, target sizes etc are in themselves a msssive task.

I suspect drones generally are not around for the close in fight.

We are looking at what may be plausible within our scope. Obviously Russian kit is OK as its old.

Javlin is problematic with a 2.5km range, we could deal with it just.

NLAW we have sorted, but it is a fix, not in the new rules, you would be welcome too.

Battlefield communication, our system can easily be modified as it can deal with both Radio and if pushed runners. However what you would set it at seems to be a very difficult issue. I could only suggest numbers but without the real situation they would be guestimate.