Reply To: Spotters

[Stuart Harrison]

“And you left out a key sentence following the statement the crew sees what’s he sees. The next sentence explains the spotter is enabling the crew to see a target that is invisible to them .” The sentence you are referring to doesn’t introduce anything new to the rule, all it does is point out how you can benefit from being able to draw your LOS from a different point on the table. In what way is it a key sentence? “This can potentially enable a mortar or artillery piece to shoot at targets that lie on the other side of a hill, woods, or in some other position that is invisible to the crew itself.”

“If the spotter is pinned down by machinegun fire (for example), how can he relay coordinates and direct fire if he has a pin? So if the spotter has a pin on him (someone shot at him, hit the spotter, but didn’t kill/wound him, he receives a pin) if you use the spotter for a target that is invisible to the weapon, first you have to take an order check on the spotter if he has a pin (not talking about if the weapon/crew has a pin, we’re talking the spotter has a pin) .” Does your officer take an order test when a unit near a pinned officer uses his morale bonus to pass their order test or a morale check? No, you don’t. It is a passive ability, the same as a medic and the same as a spotter. Units take an order test when THEY are issued an order and one of the triggers applies (usually pins), not when an active unit benefits from them.

Yes, it’s counter-intuitive to have totally different rules for observers and spotters when their real-life roles were so similar, but that’s the game designer’s choice. Observers are active and have a ‘call for fire’ mechanism requiring them to receive an order to ‘do their thing’. Spotters are a passive point that an active indirect fire unit can use to draw LOS from when they fire.