Friday, October 7, 2011

WWII ranges

This subject is soon going to need its own section.  Or page?

Anyway, a table of ranges in meters converted to inches at various ratios.  The base distances are not far off those used in the weapons tables for Test of Battle, which uses Short, Medium, Long and Extreme bands.


S M L X


6x4 Table (km)
250 500 1000 2500


width  depth
6 12 18 48 inches @ 50 m/inch 3.6 2.4
2 4 8 20 inches @ 125 m/inch 9 6
1.7 3.3 6.7 16.7 inches @ 150 m/inch 10.8 7.2
1.5 3 6 15 inches @ 166.7 m/inch 12 8
1.25 2.5 5 12.5 inches @ 200 m/inch 14.4 9.6

In terms of a division in defense game, both 6" = 1 km and 1"=200m seem to me to give the most effective table size.  However, we come close to loosing close range combat entirely.  Soviet AT doctrine, for example, called for fire to commence at no greater than 500m range.  Also, table terrain interpretation will have to be considered carefully.  Simple flat table space cannot be considered equal to a clear, open field of view or very long range fire will be too common.

I sometime reflect on this image when considering lines of sight:



There are clearly some very long viewplanes here, but between most places out on the plain you cannot see very  far at all

1 comment:

  1. Interesting, I took some photos like this at my in-laws farm and found similar things. It's fun to look at the real world in terms of a wargame table.

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