Efficacité au combat
The TD 4.12 upgrade to IL-2 provided skill ratings to ground objects for the first time. Previously, only aircraft and ships had skill parameters. Now, HSFX7 and SEOW7 can make use of skill ratings for shipping, ground units and aircraft. If we focus on the ground war, unit skill alone does not determine combat effectiveness. Other factors are important too, so SEOW incorporates a Combat Effectiveness Model (CEM) for all ground units.
In SEOW7, CEM is an optional feature. It is selectable in the campaign settings under the Campaign Modes tab in the DCS. With it disabled, conventional SEOW combat dynamics apply, with engagement ranges modulated simply by unit morale. With CEM enabled, a much richer and more complex calculation is triggered for each unit, with graphical support in the MP.
Calculating CEM
In the CEM, each combat unit has a fighting ability which is expressed as a numeric percentage value, called Combat Effectiveness (CE), ranging from 0% to 100%. There are a group of characteristic factors that contribute to CE:
- Morale State (denoted Morale) - expressed as a percentage from 0% (Desperate) to 100% (Excellent)
- Skill Level (Skill) - expressed as a percentage from 0% (Rookie) to 100% (Ace)
- Supply Holding (Supply) - expressed as a percentage of the unit's normal carrying capacity
- Command/Control (CC) - either 0% or 100%, depending the unit's access to CCCI (if enabled in the campaign design)
- Stamina State (Stamina) - can have three values: 100% (fully rested), 50% (fought OR moved in previous mission) or 0% (fought AND moved in previous mission)
Each of these 5 characteristic factors has a weighting parameter which can emphasize or de-emphasize the characteristic factor in relation to the other characteristic factors. These weighting parameters
are editable for either side in the Combat_Effectiveness_Model table in SEDB70. For example, the campaign designer may choose to give a weighting of 2 to the morale factor for Allied units and a weighting of 0.5 for Axis units. This would mean that Allied forces were more sensitive to declining morale than Axis forces.
The provisional CE is calculated by squaring each of the five factors, multiplying each squared number by its respective weighting parameter, adding all these five terms together, dividing by the sum of the weighting parameters and expressing as a percentage again. Provisional CE declines from 100% slowly as any of the unit factors falls, but can never be zero unless all factors are zero simultaneously.
The final CE is derived from the provisional CE by multiplying with two critical factors:
- Critical Supply (Erreur lors de la création de la miniature : Impossible d'enregistrer la vignette sur la destination) - this factor is near 1.0 unless unit supply drops below 20% capacity, then this factor declines steeply to zero as supply drops further. This simulates the rapidly declining rate of fire from a unit as its ammo reserves get very low.
- Critical Formation (Erreur lors de la création de la miniature : Impossible d'enregistrer la vignette sur la destination) - this factor takes into account the defensive formation of the unit (see Entrenchment Formations). Each formation has a value that simulates the cohesiveness and strength of the unit. The default Skirmish formation is weakest since in this formation the unit members are widely dispersed, are easily isolated and cannot readily coordinate their fire.
This is the unit's CE value, and it can change from mission to mission as the unit's characteristics change.
