Microsoft Close Combat - Manual (Page 20)

Chapter 2 Setup and Game Play 19
following the orders you issued. Red text indicates the team is intentionally acting
against the command you issued due to local battlefield conditions. White text
indicates you have issued no commands to the team, or the command you previ-
ously issued has been completed. In this case, the team will go into Defend mode
(Ambush for the Germans) and select targets of opportunity based on local
battlefield conditions.
Enemy Threat Indicator
The rosette to the right of the team type and current orders is the enemy threat
indicator. The indicator is an eight-sided rosette; the eight points of the rosette
represent eight compass points: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest,
west, and northwest.
These eight points are green at the start of the game and change to red when a
team is threatened by the enemy. A team is threatened when it either sees, or is
fired upon by, the enemy. For example, if one of your teams sees enemy troops to
the north, the north point of the rosette turns red. If your team is taking fire, both
the appropriate compass point and the center of the rosette turn red.
When you start a game, all American teams scan for threats using a 90-degree arc
aimed west (the direction of the Germans); all German teams scan for threats
using a 90-degree arc aimed east (the direction of the Americans).
If you issue a Defend command to a team, you manually set the arc the team uses
to scan for threats. A blue circle appears, which you use to set the width of the arc
the team uses to scan for threats.
This arc is used to scan the terrain for cover and potential ambush points; the scan
arc works in the same manner as the scan for threats. For example, at the start of a
game, all American teams scan in a 90-degree arc aimed west and all German
teams scan in a 90-degree arc aimed east.
When you start a game, your teams start scanning for both threats and cover. For
example, if a team starts in the middle of an open field, they scan for cover within
their scan arc, then move toward the closest available cover. If there is a stone
fence twenty meters away and a stone building fifty meters away, the team will
move to the stone fence; even though it provides less protection than the stone
building, as it’s closer to the team. However, if the team’s threat scan reveals an
enemy threat, the team may move back to different cover, as the stone fence may
not protect against fire from the enemy’s direction.
A team’s scan arc changes when you issue a Move or Move Fast command. When
you issue one of these commands, the team scans 45 degrees to either side of the
compass heading the team is ordered to move on. For example, if you order a
team to move north, it will scan 45 degrees to the left of north (west and north-
west) and 45 degrees to the right of north (east and northeast).