Quote:
Originally Posted by scorpio_rocks
3/. My guess would be: yes - troops are unlikely to be affected by things (enemy troops) they are unaware of.
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Enemy need to know there are opponents nearby before reacting to them. Unspotted troops
wont trigger any "enemy near" adverse morale results.
Units in cover (trenches, rough etc) when badly suppressed will "hunker down" rather than run away,
unless they know enemy is nearby
and they fail a morale test. Even units in retreat or rout morale state will often remain in the cover hunkered down, but unable to fight effectively - these are "neutralised troops". Units at maximum suppression but not in retreat may also be considered as neutralised - they may not even spot you nearby, or if they do they are likely to have "firer panicked" results should they attempt to fire at 1 hex when severely suppressed.
If I am splattering an area with loads of arty, I often keep fast little units close to the barrage - armoured cars say, or motorcyclists (though those can suffer too many pinned results from hugging the barrage at times). I use these to nip into the beaten and smoke-ridden impact zone and find any neutralised (pinned in place, but either in retreat status, or too much suppressed to spot you) and then shoot up these stunned grunts. I then zip back out of the beaten zone. The main point is to get grunts out of cover so they dont hunker down, so I dont try to kill them with extra fires unless they were down near dispersal levels. The artillery about to land will be the main killer once they are flushed into the open, and once out in the open any with retreat or rout level will tend to keep on running - if in cover, they may not.
If you just stand outside a bombarded area waiting for the enemy to "magically go away" - they likely wont, in any useful amount of time. Especially dug in troops that have trenches to shelter from the bombardment - they
know its better to hunker down and endure the shelling rather than do a runner!.
You
do need to go in and use the bayonet on them really, or depleted units in cover will still be hunkered down weathering the barrage.
You can rally away any suppression caused by "leaning" on the barrage often enough. he has to stay suppressed till his turn.
So -
- make sure he knows you are close by. He
may fail morale tests and run away from you. Eventually.
- and/or go in and engage him when you think he has been suppressed to neutralisation levels. In other words, take full advantage of the barrage effects.