We have already talked about how War Storm Series transfers the battlefield onto a top table game, reflecting real situations such as the tendency to inactivity that those platoons away from their officers, or the reluctance to perform risky actions like assaults.
We have also introduced you the Line of Sight (LOS), a common and well-known concept for the war gamers fans.
WSS adds another distinguishing feature, to avoid the perception that a player´s goal is only move a group of counters around the map: Spotting.
This concept reflects the difficulty to properly locate and identify enemy units, even if there is a clear LOS to the them.
To be able to spot an enemy platoon or vehicle, it has to be at a maximum distance from the observer, according to a predefined chart. This range will be affected by real factors, such as the size, the movement and the type of terrain.
The height of the observer is also another parameter to take into account. The higher the observer is placed on, the larger the distance an enemy unit may be spotted.
This way, a Sherman tank moving along a road may be spotted at a maximum distance of 18 hexes, while an unmoving MG platoon on a buildings hex will be only visible at a maximum range of 2 hexes!
Alone in the Storm, with their recce missions will allow us to spot enemy units in addition to clear up the fog of war. That way, you will be able to identify the strength and composition of an enemy unit represented by an Intel Marker. The unit it´s properly described in the reverse of the marker that will also reveal an event.
Recce Missions are key to the success of your mission, because unidentified enemy units will be able to fire against our units and cause damage. However, we may not combat units that have not been properly recognize: you need a positive identification prior battling them.
WSS main goal is to recreate the battlefield environment in order to let us feel that we´re commanding real units in the stress of the combat without adding an excessive level of difficulty or pretending to be a simulator.
