It is important to understand that around 85% of your success on a battlefield will depend on the correct usage of artillery. If you went through my last post you probably noticed that proper Force Adjustment leads to certain patterns of combat. Meaning that even when you have 3 times more units than your enemy, you still can expect up to 50 (in some cases even 70%) of casualties. That means that you can achieve a victory in attack, and then be beaten up during counter-attack. As a commander your main goal is to minimize your casualties while achieving your goal. Furthermore, I understand that sometimes it is difficult to concentrate required amount of your units in order to adjust your force accordingly to Force Adjustment Formula. In further posts I’m planning to go into detail on each aspect (macro, and micro) of strategy and tactics, but today I will go over some key points related to using artillery while attacking. At this moment you should view Artillery as another tool of the Force Adjustment.
First of all, you should always remember that artillery is not a bonus tool what you should use rarely during your attacks. It is a common tool, and when you planning your quick missions be sure that you spend enough of your points on different kinds of artillery. Now let’s touch a little on a general view of any attack. First of all, hybrid and asymmetric war is consisting of two major phases: Active (attack/movement/rotations) and Passive (defense/positions/support). Those are important things to keep in mind because that will explain why sometimes even few companies can be supported by large number of different kinds of artillery. Another important aspect is that an active phase is usually very short, while passive phase can take months. Why would you need to think about it you may ask? The answer is simple: there is a very low chance that prior to your attack you will never know about where and approximately what kind of the enemy force is opposing you. To make long story short, always train your skill in this game while picking enemy forces on your own in order to know what to expect. Another reason for that prehistory relates to a kind of your battle: if you are attacking with a company or even with a battalion you should always pick an “assault mode.” There is no way that somebody would risk leading such force into completely unknown battle.
So if you’re fighting force is equal to few squads it is ok to go with “probe” and other stuff like that. But if you going to use some decent manpower you should always pretend that area of your attack was investigated prior to your mission. Ukrainian army using several approaches to supporting its ground units with artillery. There is always standard support on a battalion level (meaning that each battalion has its own artillery (usually 6 mortars)), and there are artillery units and even brigades which are positioned in a different sectors of the territory close to the frontline. That means that in any moment each ground unit can receive needed amount of support in a short period of time. Furthermore, Ukrainian artillery is extremely mobile type of military force. All of that leads us to conclusion that in a point where several units will be planning to attack, they will receive of support from different directions.
Now if you still reading this lol I will explain how pick what kind of artillery use while attacking. First of all, if you attacking an enemy whose forces are consisting of infantry, you may be limited to mortars. Yet, if you planning to attack some units supported by armored vehicles you simply must have some howitzers on standby. The reason for that is that Russian armored units can be deadly even in small numbers (right defensive position can do a lot). Mortars would be good to immobilize vehicles but even immobilized units can do a lot of harm to you. When you trying to minimize your casualties you should always remember that and use proper artillery power against your enemy.
Cases of using mortars:
Against infantry
Counter Battery Fire (will be explained later)
Collecting Fire (right after or with other types of artillery in order to collect everything what stayed alive after howitzer fire)
Provoking/Harassment Fire (to force your enemy to move/reposition/hide)
Against light protected targets (Trucks, Cars, etc)
How to Adjust Mortars against lightly protected Infantry:
2 mortars firing general shells + 1 against infantry (if you have 3 mortars)
4 mortars firing general shells + 2 firing infantry shells (if you have a 6x battery)
When to use Linear Fire:
When enemy takes positions close to the roads
When enemy has defensive positions in the wood lines
When enemy is covered in tranches
When to use Area Fire:
When enemy covered in villages (not that effective in towns prior to different building types)
When enemy hiding (not holding line) within Forest
When Covering area related to area of heavy Artillery fire (collecting fire). Example: using mortars with other types of artillery in order to trap and avoid your enemy from escaping.
When harassing certain zones in order to force your enemy to relocate or to hide.
Light, Medium, Long or maybe Maximum?
Try to avoid short and small fire missions if not harassing on purpose. If you attacking Squad with a platoon you might choose “medium” on both length and force. In that way you will be able to use this tactics two times within one battle and one battery. It will be also quite effective, because you not only destroying your enemy, but you also keep your enemy low to the ground while moving towards his forces. Yet, using Maximum fire power while assaulting your enemy accordingly to Force Adjustment Formula leads to simple waste of your ammo. The only time I would really support using mortars on Maximum is when your enemy is covered within village.
If this post will be accepted by a community as an interesting one I will further write about other types of artillery, its usage, some macro and micro level tactics and strategies, counter battery usage, defense (from general to specific), usage of smoke, etc.