Airland Battle Terminology

Explanation of terms used in Wargame:Airland Battle

Introduction

This is a simple quick reference guide.

There is a lot of copy&paste&editing from the official website here.

Add a comment if you think I missed something. Thumbs up is appreciated.

Unit Damage/States

Ammunition compartment hit: all remaining rounds are lost

Arduous ground: the unit moves more slowly until the timer or the patch comes to an end

Crew KO: the unit is immobilized and cannot act until the timer comes to an end

Critical hit: the unit suffers more damage than normal

Detracked: the unit is immobilized until the timer comes to an end

Engine stall: the unit is immobilized

Faulty optics: firing impossible

Faulty turbine: critical hit, the helicopter crashes

Fuel leak: the unit loses fuel, even at a standstill

Gearbox hit: speed comes down considerably until the timer comes to an end

Muddy ground: the unit moves more slowly up to the end of the muddy patch

Restarting 'firing computer': unable to fire until the timer comes to an end

Stabilizer hit: Firing accuracy reduced in movement

Track/Transaxial stuck: the track is immobilized until the timer comes to an end

Turbine hit: the helicopter is slowed down

Weapon Attributes

AoE: area of effect. The weapon will hit multiple targets within a specified area

CLUS: cluster munition. The weapon will release submunitions (bomblets) that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicles.In Wargame:Airland Battle, the cluster weapons are design to kill tanks ~4-5AP and 0 HE (AP = tank killing, HE = infantry collateral killing power).

CORR: correction. The weapon is indirect artillery. Accuracy is improved if the target is visually identified.

F&F: fire and forget. The weapon will guide itself. Once the missile is launched, the vehicle that launched the missile has no further role on whether the missile hits or misses (eg, the missile will not be impacted if the vehicle that launched the missile is destroyed).

GUID: guided. The missile is guided by the launching vehicle. The launching vehicle will have to maintain 'target firing readiness' until the missile reaches the target.

HEAT: High-Explosive Anti-Tank. An anti-armor ammo type. The warhead uses an explosive shaped charge that can punch through solid armor. The missile's AP should be more than the target's armour.

HESH: High-Explosive Squash Head. Also known as HEP(High Explosive Plastic) in the USA. Effective against buildings and (pre-80s)tank armour. Used in lower velocity weapons. Only used by the British & Canadians tanks.

The plastic explosive is "squashed" against the surface of the target on impact and spreads out to form a disc or "pat" of explosive. The base fuze detonates the explosive milliseconds later, creating a shock wave that, owing to its large surface area and direct contact with the target, is transmitted through the material.

This ammo type can be defeated by having an air gap between the interior and the hull. Increasing out of favour from the 70's onwards.

KE: kinetic energy (penetrator). The weapon/bullet does not use explosives to penetrate armour, but uses kinetic energy. The bigger the calibre & the shorter the range to the target = more damage. Range is very important: take note of the maximum range of the weapon.

NPLM: napalm. An inciderary weapon (fire). Used against buidlings, forests and infantry... and destroying enemy unit morale.

RAD: radar. The weapon is radar guided.

STAT: stationary. The weapon must be fired while the launching vehicle is stationary.

SMK: smoke. The weapon can create a smoke screen.

SEAD: Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses. The weapon homes in on electronic transmissions from surface-to-air radar systems: i.e. The weapon kills surface vehicles with [RAD] weapons active.

Typically these would be ARM (Anti Radiation Missiles) such as the American AGM-88 HARM and British ALARM.

SA: semi-active. The weapon is a radar-guided missile that requires the launching aircraft to paint the target with its radar for the entire flight time of the missile. If the launching plane dies or loses sight on the target, the missile will miss.

Glossary

Accuracy: accuracy of weapon affects how likely the weapon will hit the target (amongst other factors)

Armor (front, back, sides, top): armor resistance/thickness

AP- the Armour Piercing value checked against a vehicle's armour value to determine the amount of damage received

Explosive damage(Anti-personnel): weapon's effectiveness against lightly armored units and infantry

Health: number of soldiers (infantry) or unit's 'health points'

HE - High Explosive - Infantry killing power

Morale: The higher the unit's morale, the higher its effectiveness. Many factors may impact unit morale: the balance of power between the two blocs in the on-going battle, the intensity of enemy fire, or even recent losses in the squad or the formation.

• Calm: normal status. Unit performing at 100% of its abilities.
  
• Worried/stressed: unit starts to panic. Efficiency is slightly lower.
  
• Panic: unit becomes a lot less efficient but keeps fighting.
  
• Rout: unit stops fighting and flees. It will not respond to orders until it comes back to its senses.

Off-road speed: maximum speed off-road, in km per hours

Optics: optics quality; allows easier detection of enemy units

Piercing damage(Anti-Tank): weapon's effectiveness against armor

Radar: radar enables more accurate missile guidance and a longer detection range. Note, however, that some missiles may lock on radar transmissions. Radar can be deactivated, in which case the unit is invisible to the missiles. Yet without radar, the unit cannot fire, or if it can fire, it greatly lacks accuracy.

Road speed: maximum speed on the road, in km per hour

Size: Impacts on the risk of detection

also seem to affect the accuracy of enemy weapons [ty LBJ]

Stabilizer: stabilizer quality; allows firing more accurately whilst moving

Stealth: stealth prevents detection by the enemy

Suppression: stress level caused by the weapon. Some weapons are called 'terror weapons', such as flamethrowers, do not necessarily cause a lot of damage, but do cause a high level of stress in targeted units.

Acronyms

AAA: anti-aircraft artillery.

APC: armored personell carrier. Tanks for transporting infantry.

ATGM: anti-tank guided missile.

IFV: infantry fighting vehicle.APCs with extra weapons.

LAAD: low altitude air defense. Shorter range Antiaircraft missiles. eg: Stingers.

MANPADS: man-portable air defense systems. eg: Stingers.

MBT: main battle tank.

MCLOS: manual command to line of sight. With a MCLOS missile, the operator must track the missile and the target simultaneously and guide the missile to the target. Typically the missile is steered with a joystick, while the operator optically tracks the missile to the target.

SACLOS: semi-automatic command to line of sight. In SACLOS, the operator has to continually point a sighting device at the target while the missile is in flight. Electronics in the sighting device and/or the missile then guide it to the target.

SALH: semi-active laser homing. The missile will travel to the target the launching vehicle 'paints' with a laser beam.

Slang

AB or ALB - Wargame:Airland Battle

Agro - Aggression

AOE which is sometimes AOEDOT - area of effect: damage over time

APM - Actions per minute: Describes how many actions a player completes during each minute in a real-time strategy (RTS) game, which can include selecting units, building units, attacking enemies and etc. This metric is used as a general measure of how good a player is.

Arty - Artillery

DPS aka Deeps - Damage per second

Buff - strengthen

DC - Disconnect

Cheese - a strategy that exploits a weakness in the game

Def - Defence

EE - European Escalation: the previous game before Wargame:Airland Battle

FTW - For the win

GG - Good Game: a polite term used at the end of the game (i.e. good sportsmanship)

GLHF - Good luck have fun

Hax - Cheating

helis - Helicopters

HP - health/hitpoints

inc - incoming

Meta game - Outside game preparation and strategies

Micro - Unit micromanagement skill

Nerf - weaken

noob aka n00b aka newbie - a new player or a very bad player

OP - over powered

Ragequit aka Rage- leaving the game in anger

RTS - Real Time Strategy

Spam - attacking with a large amount of cheap units

Uber - the best

Zerg - a quick attack with a lot of cheap units at the start of the game.

[Worcestershire 40k]

Awesome. Thanks again!

[Conditional Love]

Armour Piercing & High Explosives? ... ummm .. errr.... ok check now.

[Worcestershire 40k]

Great guide. Thank you. Where are AP and HE Power though?

[Conditional Love]

@jamie - good idea

[Sadmiral]

i would be cool if you added some slang like arty and helis for people who are new to the game so they can understand what their teammates are saying

[MediOgre]

Thank you. Very helpful

[wayward]

Thanks for this! Quite helpful to me as a newbie.

[Conditional Love]

I think we are both right, see the last line in the link below

[Conditional Love]

ok, I will check it out. but you need to check out the link below :)

http://www.wargame-ab.com/game/gameplay/units.php?lang=en

[OKB-ZVEZDA]

Have a look at this. And the chart.
http://www.wargame-ee.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=113&t=4014
(I know its WEE version but WEE and WALB shares a lot of things)
I hope this can help you to make guide more perfect.