I think part of the problem with artillery in games and artillery perceptions even in the military are suspect. Everyone believes that the role of the artillery is to kill, kill, kill. While that is always nice, artillery provides much flexibility than the "killing role". I've seen many Artillery Captains at the National Training Center serving as Infantry or Armor Fire Support Officers made scapegoats because the artillery didn't kill X amount of tanks. Artillery is much more effective as a suppression weapon on the battlefield and the results are much difficult to measure. You can't measure stats on how many soldiers were rendered useless in their defensive positions by artillery while enemy armor rolled by untouched. Artillery is not expected to kill tanks (usually) but to influence and set battlefield conditions. Use artillery to fix or turn an enemy, disrupt enemy breach ops, screen an objective with smoke. The trick to using artillery is to pound enemy positions as close to friendlies as possible so that the enemy are rendered useless while friendlies move on the objective and fires are lifted just minutes prior to the assault. If artillery is used more to shape the battlefield conditions rather than concentrating on kills, artillery is much more effective. The kills will come on their own.
Trey
