Targeting

= SR2020 Warfare Guide - Chapter 11 - Targeting = Submitted by Balthagor on Fri, 01/04/2013 - 20:31 Targeting is where an attacking unit spots an enemy target that is within the attacker's attack range, in order to bring its weapons to bear upon the target.

Obviously you cannot target what you cannot spot so the attacker's spotting range and the stealth of the target play crucial roles in targeting. All of this takes place under the game's Fog-of-War (FoW) that tends to cloak stealthy units and those that are stationary. Recon units like land recon units, spies and patrol aircraft can be of great help in targeting.

The stealth or "Profile" of the target reduces the ability of an attacker to spot it. But if an enemy target can be spotted then it can be attacked and in SR2020 attacks always succeed.

Enemy facilities such as bases and factories cannot be attacked or "targeted" by the player unless there is a mobile enemy unit such as a supply truck within the hex. If this is not the case then a Spy Unit can be sent as an in-hex spotter.

Some land units like recon and artillery come with a "Move and Fire" penalty that makes their targeting less effective when they are on the move. Motion also cuts a unit's stealth in half. Firing cuts it in half again.

Also, some units with gun turrets have a limited arc of fire that can inhibit their targeting ability.

AIs have a habit of fixating upon a single target until that target is destroyed. You can use this to your advantage by diverting an enemy's attention towards attacking one of your units while your other units attack and destroy the distracted enemy unit. Units also have a set rate of fire (initiative) which does not allow them to fire twice within a certain period of time. Once an enemy unit has fired on your decoy unit, your remaining units are free to attack and destroy the enemy unit as it reloads.

It is possible to turn the FoW off by using the game settings. This will lift the FoW for all regions, not just your own. Turning FoW off also tends to speed up the game.

Range
SR2020 has an idiosyncrasy where, despite the official attack range of a unit, every attack unit in the game is capable of attacking outside its own hex.

For example, the official land attack ranges of Garrison, Infantry, tank and AT units is under 8 km., yet, in the game, each of these units can attack outside its 16 km hex.

The most annoying aspect of this game glitch is that the thousands of Garrison units in SR2020 each have official attack ranges on just 1 km. Yet can each Garrison can reach out and attack units in surrounding hexes, using close-combat attack values. These basic Garrison units that hide inside of a city can reach out and seriously damage tank units that are at least 8 km outside of the city!

Direct-Fire
Non-missile direct-fire units are capable of targeting individual enemy units and facilities if the target is within the attacker's line-of-sight. All of the destructive power of the weapon can be brought to bear on a single target with its destructive power reduced only by the defensive values of the target. Most targets can sustain multiple hits so targeting using multiple attacking units is a good idea.

In SR2020 attacks always succeed - there is no concept of diminished accuracy due to poor targeting or increased range. Efficiency may play a role however.

There are a few direct-fire missile units, such as the TL Russian SS-26 Stone (Iskander E) Penetration that do not require LOS.

Indirect-fire
Indirect-fire weapons spread their damage across a hex and so cannot be used to target individual units or structures. Even if the target is alone in its hex, the damage that it takes from indirect-fire will be less.

IF is usually "ballistic" fire as well, which means that the target does not need to be within the attacker's line-of-sight.

Indirect-fire weapons can be a poor choice for attacking structures. On an industrial hex the indirect-fire damage is distributed between the central complex and the surrounding factory nodes. Each day at midnight the structure will all be repaired by a certain percentage. If this percentage is greater than or equal to indirect damage then the attack is futile. The percentage of the repair depends upon the hex supply level, infrastructure spending and the enemy region's resources.

Only enemy units can be targeted, but neutral units have been known to take damage due to being present in an enemy hex that is taking indirect-fire. For this reason, prior to Update 6 units in U.N. waters could not be targeted with indirect-fire.