Trying to understand cover better.

[General Kazden]

Hello All,

I have been enjoying this game a lot but I have one thing that is nagging at me.  When I mouse over a part of the map it will say cover is 50% or 100% yet when I move my troops to station in those locations their cover is always below what the terrain says it is.  Terrain can say 50% but my unit says it only has 25% cover.  I put a brigade in a wheat field that say cover of 115% and yet the brigade inside only has 35%.  Am I misunderstanding the math behind the cover system?  

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Thank you

[sukha]

A few things here.

1st a unit must be fully covered by cover to get 100% if half your brigade is sticking out of cover it will only get half the bonus...

2nd 100% is the cap, idk where u read 115%on a wheat field I never seen such numbers.

3rd Skirmishers have like 25% natural cover at all times so its much easier for them to get to 100% and go full retard tank mode.

4th You seem to be able to combine covers, if your brigade is half inside a forest and half inside a building it will benefit from both.

[Hitorishizuka]

6 hours ago, General Kazden said:

Hello All,

I have been enjoying this game a lot but I have one thing that is nagging at me.  When I mouse over a part of the map it will say cover is 50% or 100% yet when I move my troops to station in those locations their cover is always below what the terrain says it is.  Terrain can say 50% but my unit says it only has 25% cover.  I put a brigade in a wheat field that say cover of 115% and yet the brigade inside only has 35%.  Am I misunderstanding the math behind the cover system?  

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Thank you

Yeah, the mouseover tooltips for general terrain are either inaccurate or deceptive; they might be right for Skirmishers but are wrong for Infantry. The ones for emplacements seem to be accurate.

In general for infantry:

River crossing/ford: 0%

Open field: 25%

Crops/tall grass: Up to 50%

Forest/buildings: Up to 100%

[akd]

Is cover actually cover, or rather concealment?

Cover and concealment are not the same thing.  You can have 100% concealment and 0% cover (wheatfield being a good example).

[Col_Kelly]

No cover is cover, definitly. Visibility is handled by a minor unit stat called stealth and it's linked to terrain configuration (i.e. forests offers good cover AND good concealment). A unit with good stealth will be able to hide better in such terrain but they won"t be invisible if in the open. 

[GS_Guderian]

Does the game actually differentiate between:

cover from bullets / fragments

and

cover from vision aka being concealed.

 

And on top: Do forrests work as a potential additive danger, considering being shelled by (explosive) artillery ammunition inside woods isn't always helpful. Shots that might normally miss, now cut down tree crowns and create all kinds of wooden debris.

Edited December 8, 2016 by GS_Guderian

[General Kazden]

7 hours ago, sukha said:

A few things here.

1st a unit must be fully covered by cover to get 100% if half your brigade is sticking out of cover it will only get half the bonus...

2nd 100% is the cap, idk where u read 115%on a wheat field I never seen such numbers.

3rd Skirmishers have like 25% natural cover at all times so its much easier for them to get to 100% and go full retard tank mode.

4th You seem to be able to combine covers, if your brigade is half inside a forest and half inside a building it will benefit from both.

 

6 hours ago, Hitorishizuka said:

Yeah, the mouseover tooltips for general terrain are either inaccurate or deceptive; they might be right for Skirmishers but are wrong for Infantry. The ones for emplacements seem to be accurate.

In general for infantry:

River crossing/ford: 0%

Open field: 25%

Crops/tall grass: Up to 50%

Forest/buildings: Up to 100%

Oh boy, I hope I am not that blind.  I will have to wait till I am back home to make a double confirmation but I am almost positive I see cover over 100% such as buildings would say 200% cover. 

Some of my brigades do stick out of cover so it is good to know that part is working as intended and I can choose better locations.

[Col_Kelly]

- Yes being hidden from the ennemy's sight is different from being under deep cover. Both can happen in-game

- No forrests don't provide that kind of disadvantage, its always gonna be a bonus with no weak point in it. Its just more tiring for troops to maneuver thru them.

TBH I've been researching a bit about the lethality of wooden debris in the Civil War and I mostly stumbled upon naval battles accounts. It feels that in most cases deeps woods were mostly acting as better cover, their biggest disdvantage being the fact that units could get lost in dense areas, like at Shiloh for instance. You're not the first to refer to that example of 'wooden canister' created by solid shots hitting tree trunks so I assume it comes from a somewhat famous anecdot, but I doubt it represents a common fact of the ACW . I dont think positions like the hornet nest and little round top would have been considered so valuable if wood cover had been that kind of death trap all the time.

[Don't Escrow Taxes]

Yeah looks like when you're in the woods and it says 150% cover I don't think it is trying to suggest you have 150% cover, that would be impossible, I think it is saying you have 150% cover above par.  Or i could be wrong. 

[Lif]

I had problems understanding this mechanic, too. Troops seem not to be able to get more than 100% cover, also buildings offer 200%. It's a bit confusing. Although you will learn how it works, a little tool tip would be nice.

[General Kazden]

Hello all,

Just wanted to thank everyone for the replies.  I do understand more now about the cover and what to expect from it and I am making sure when engaged to have cover of units above 40%.  Though I made a dumb mistake in my last battle having a brigade charge in the open field directly into cannon.... that canister shot... whew, never saw numbers drop so fast.  I was sure my men would have reached melee before the cannon could reload.  Not doing that again.

[GeneralPITA]

On 12/8/2016 at 9:07 AM, General Kazden said:

 

Oh boy, I hope I am not that blind.  I will have to wait till I am back home to make a double confirmation but I am almost positive I see cover over 100% such as buildings would say 200% cover. 

You're not blind, and a month later it's not addressed. I see more than 100% cover all the time when I hover. It's inaccurate and needs to be looked at.