Other Means

I know John, I'm only messing with you because it looked so plaintive.

I appreciate the effort Jon. I've looked at Nigel Evans' site many times, I'm always amazed that it's not on a proper government website somewhere. Looking quickly now at the Errors and Mistakes section I can see that I've never really thought about muzzle wear, propellant temperature, batch differences etc. I'm guessing this would preclude some kind of standard chart for minimum safe distance. Or at least, one that would basically act as in CM, where you can bring the shells in right over the heads of your infantry?

Jason, Jon, John, cheers for the answers - very educational. So if a standard max range for your 25pdr's/155's is 14km, and on the front foot you have them 1/3 max range forward, that means we start at 4km shoots. What minimum safe distance to troops does that give us? Does it increase the further away from the guns? Does the FO have a chart saying where the guns are and therefore how close he can call fire in? How accurate over that range was the standard, I'm trying to ask. If an FO is calling in ranging fire he's doing it with one gun - yes? So when he calls FFE, there must be quite a distribution, with WWII technology, around that point. Even for a single gun I'd have thought we'd get (finger in the air) ~25m radius deviation. Is the spread we see in CM reasonable? Within a magnitude? Thanks guys.

He's not coming John.

JonS - thanks. Can you give me a rough estimate - if you have one memorised - of the max ranges of the various calibres? Very rough will do. Or should I do my own damn research Also, I never knew about crater analysis. I'd assumed some kind of spread analysis but that the craters were more or less dominated by the HE spread. Live and learn.

This is a bit of a sidebar, but at what distances would certain calibres be fired from? i.e. you got a 105 battery at 6k, a 155 at 10k..? Is that how they'd be positioned? How would the muzzle flashes be hidden, behind a brow? Would counter battery ever just be dropped behind a ridge on spec? Thanks.

Was this any different in WWII? I can't see why it should be apart from doctrine and lack of decent maps but I've no real idea. Would a battery go back to indirect after firing DF in self defence? I'd have though everyone would be real twitchy about it, but again I guess there's no real reason why not. I think what was colouring my thinking was reports of 25pdr's taking a day to set up and so being too far behind the lines. OTOH, I've also heard JonS citing an incredibly low figure for a snap-shoot of a CW battery in WWII. Less than a minute FWIR. In which case - yes J/K, I'd agree it would be good to get on-map indirect fire. Maybe for SF

True. And then go straight back to indirect fire? Probably not.

It would take quite a while to set up a piece for indirect fire wouldn't it? My expectation is that it wouldn't be done under fire, I don't know how accurate that is. If you want to buy a Priest, roll it up and wait for 120 turns while it sights and sets up comms then you play very differently to me. Not that that's a bad thing necessarily

God that looks hot. Take that how you will.

He means off-map arty. Indirect = off map. The best way to kill ATG's with tanks is to move to a position where the ATG can't see the tank, but the tank can see within a few meters of the ATG. Then plaster it with fire. If you move your tanks en-masse, as you should, when an ATG opens up at your tank, try to target it with all the tanks in the group. The ones that can actually target it - get them out of there. The ones that can't - stay where they are and HE as close to the gun as possible. If you have to use smoke to get your tanks out of the way, that's fine. Keep the others there for when it clears. But as others have said, the best counter to an ATG is an on-map mortar. The British 3 inch is ideal for the task.

LOL.

Folk's site will help: http://cmak.jemian.com/ God bless him.

Amen.

Commonwealth troops get VT arty too. 5.5 inch VT arty is a joy to behold.

I think it's listed in the unit info. Can you set an armour cover arc? I wouldn't do it at the max range though.

Ahh sorry Mike, it was various recoilless rifles. I'm quite glad actually, as one got a 500m first-shot kill on me, which I was quite peeved at.

And by "Move a unit to a flanking position." I of course mean "Advance a unit to a flanking position, preferably in cover." I'm really not too good at the whole "typing reasonable post" thing today - sorry.

Sorry, why have the mortars where he can't see them? </font>

Don't advance until all the enemies you're advancing on are head down. Get them head down by sitting where you are and shooting them. Also, get a HQ close and keep your mortars where he can't see them, then area fire on the trench. When they're head down, advance one platoon into the trench, or somewhere where you have 90 degrees or more separation from your other forces. Separation is a force multiplier. The best way to defeat the enemy is to shoot at him, not to go over and try to club him to death - that happens later.

Sounds good -historical would be just what the doctor ordered! The HSG one looks quite too, and seems well researched. </font>

If you're looking for a large game with them in I've just finished a great one by our own Kingfish against Bigduke. It's a historical one set in Italy and features the CW, I'd recommend it. And as soon as I can remember out what it's called, I'll let you know.

In the desert you don't want to rotate in place, as you raise a dust cloud. Even a very small movement order in the direction you want your tank to face gets you out of this and allows you to acquire targets faster as you're not waiting for the dust to settle. The reverse is also true, you can rotate to raise dust and have a couple of seconds hidden, and of course, there's no command delay.

Great bone. Will we see flaming road wheels being blown off and comically rolling 200m chasing the crunchies out of their positions?

CM:SF is coming out, and Peng has slithered off to squat there. It will never die. Even when the internet is no longer, Peng will exist in some ethereal plane of crap jokes and passive/aggressive active/aggressive back slapping.