NeoOhm

I'd have gone with Marines but that is just my bias.  

NeoOhm, the other modules are available now (or are you referring to the fact that they are not available to you since you don’t own the CMSF1 versions of them?).

If you already own CMSF1,  go to the Upgrades button on the BFC main screen. Select CMSF2. You'll be presented with selections for all combinations to upgrade your CMSF1 to CMSF2. Just the base game, base game with a module, or Big Bundle. You go to the games button on the main page to buy modules you don't already have. Those are not discounted. Just remember, go to UPGRADES for what you already own, and GAMES for what you don't own yet.

Didn't think about letting the dust settle, that makes sense.  I also need to read up on what the dots mean for artillery.  

I have found that to be the case. If you run out of precision rounds, or you wish to conserve them, you can use this and set it to have several minutes of duration and you'll have a pretty good chance of hitting your target. I've used this for attacking enemy-ooccupied buildings, for instance.
Michael

Answered your own question there. Target Armor Arc.

Hi NeoOhm,
Yes, Being provided with a new CMSF 1 key solved my problem.
I’d check with the help desk. But I suspect that if you have bought the $35 Big bundle pack, you will need CMSF1 NATO and Brits keys for things to work properly. They may be able to help 🤓. Good luck. 

I tested this alot now, and what i see is that 1 round is less accurate than 3 rounds of precision arty.
When firing 1 at the time it can take up to 5-6-7 rounds before you get a direct hit - i wait for the dust to settle before every shoot, and the arty has all green dots full.
When using a 3 shoot precision, at-least 2 rounds hits spot on and not often all 3 on the first fire mission.

I've gotten some tickets on the Help Desk where people are getting what they describe as either a back screen or just the Battlefront tanks firing with the black background. This happens when an element (or more) of the Upgrade is not activated. To cure it (or avoid it) follow these activation instructions:
 
Installation and activation instructions for the Combat Mission: Shock Force 1 Upgrade:   1) Download the game, extract the download and run the game installer.   2) Use the desktop shortcut labeled Activate New Products and enter the key that came with your CMSF Upgrade purchase.   3) Use the Activate New Products shortcut and enter your original Combat Mission Shock Force 1 base game key   4) If have purchased any of the module Upgrades use the Activate New Products shortcut and enter your original Combat Mission Shock Force module key. Repeat will all module keys.    You can actually activate these bits in any order that you want as long as each piece is activated. It's just the OCD in me that lists them in the order above.   Here's what it looks like:    

How much precision can I expect?  I am using the Forward Observer that is controlling the drone and so far not good or at least not very reliable.  I am playing Blue in the scenario BSBP 01 Honor.  Should I just use a regular point mission instead because the time it takes me to get it done, leaves me exposed to artillery.

Yeah. I think you are reading the closest thing to it but these forums are more like 40 000 pages.

Strange, that's quite contrary to what I recall from my limited (outside of TOC resting) experience of Blue units in CM:BS.....I clearly need more practice. 

^^^ This is really cool to use for Blue.
For calling artillery I try to use an FO, especially the one in a dedicated observation vehicle, to use a drone. Then I use that FO to call precision artillery and you can use others (personally I use this CO mostly for this) to call non precision strikes that are observable by the drone. The reason for that is the FO gets the full spotting information from the drone and can therefore make calls that strike a vehicle. The CO gets '?' info from the drone which is plenty to call small - or big - circular or linear fire missions.
Rinse and repeat while there is still stuff moving and rounds to fire.

If you want to spot for artillery by drone, the drone controller has to be the one to call in the artillery AFAIK, again @MOS:96B2P would know more, I suspect.

The configuration of the aircraft (strafe, light, medium, etc.) refer to the ordinance the aircraft carry.  This varies some with the CM titles.  A generic way of thinking about it is light equals bullets and heavy equals big bombs.  Everything else falls somewhere in between.  If you order your light configured aircraft to target a tank it will target said tank with the light ordinance.  If you have the aircraft set to a large area target (700 meters) I'm not sure how the AI of the aircraft selects targets within that 700 meter area.  I've not tested but suspect it's a combination of soft factors and what it can actually spot.  Moving vehicles seem to draw a lot of attention.  Of course sometimes a friendly vehicle 100 meters outside the target area also draws attention .  Hate when that happens .      
  
Depends.  Especially on the US side (maybe not so much for Ukraine?)  If a spotter has a satellite link, via PDA or vehicle, the spotter can call for artillery fire on any area observed by any friendly UAV.   

@ MOS,
 
Thanks for running these tests. It's good to know how things work, and the manuals often leave large gaps of information.
 
Michael

Following up:  In CM Battle for Normandy v3.11 Engine 3 I had US Platoon HQ teams request fire support from the same 105mm howitzer battery.  All teams had the same soft factors with the exception of experience.  Motivation: normal / Leadership 0 / Fitness: fit.  The following are the results.
 
Elite          13 minutes
Crack        13 minutes
Veteran     13 minutes
Regular     13 minutes
Green        15 minutes
Conscript  18 minutes
 
I thought it use to be that a Bn HQ could call for fire faster than a Plt. HQ and a HQ in a command vehicle faster than one not in a command vehicle.  In CMBN it appears the only difference is with green and conscript HQs.  Just when I think I am catching on to the game mechanics I find out I am wrong again...............    

That was a good idea.  I added a Forward Observer.
 
In CM Battle for Normandy v3.11 Engine 3 I had the following teams request fire support from the same 105mm howitzer battery both in and out of the command track.  All teams had the same soft factors, Experience: veteran / Motivation: normal / Leadership 0 / Fitness: fit.  The following are the results.
                                   Back Pack Radio                     SPW 251/3
German Bn. HQ           14 minutes                             14 minutes
German Co. HQ           14 minutes                             14 minutes
German Plt. HQ           14 minutes                             14 minutes
German FO                    9 minutes                               9 minutes
 
In CM Black Sea v1.00 Engine 3 I had the following teams request fire support from the same 105mm howitzer battery both in and out of the command track.  All teams had the same soft factors, Experience: veteran / Motivation: normal / Leadership 0 / Fitness: fit.  The following are the results.
                                    Radio /PDA                     Stryker Cmd. Veh.
US BN. HQ                 10 minutes                             9 minutes
US Co. HQ                  10 minutes                             9 minutes
US Plt. HQ                  10 minutes                             9 minutes
US FO                           6 minutes                             5 minutes
 
It would appear there is no advantage to using command vehicles in CMBN.  However there is a small advantage to using them in CMBS.  Different level HQ units in both games appear to have the same call times however Forward Observers are quicker.  Not the way I thought it worked but unless I am missing something that appears to be the way it is. 

I was under the impression that when calling for artillery there was an advantage to calling for artillery from a command vehicle as compared to just using a backpack radio.  I looked into this and could find no advantage.  I also used Platoon, Company and Battalion HQ teams with the same soft factors in iron mode.  They all called for fire from a 105mm Battery.  The time was always 14 minutes.  It did not matter if it was a platoon HQ team using a backpack radio or a Bn. HQ team inside a SPW 251/3 the time was 14 minutes.
 
This was in CMBN v3.11 Engine 3.
 
Am I missing something?  Maybe there never was a difference?
 
          
 

 
 

 
 There was not even a difference in time between a platoon and Bn. team.  I must be doing something wrong.  Just does not make sense.     

Interesting topic.  Below is a thread where some of these issues were discussed.  IMO the Experience of the spotter and artillery are the most important.  Same for any UAV that might be involved.  In CMBS a command vehicle can also help with call times.  I have not tested for CMSF2 but I suspect it is the same.  
IIRC a JTAC can get a UAV on station quicker than an FO but, with all things equal (experience), I could not detect any difference in artillery accuracy between a JTAC and an FO.  With artillery in general an FO has quicker call times than a JTAC.   
A light Hellfire mission is two missiles.
A heavy Hellfire mission is four missiles.
Reference a linear pattern. The more experienced the UAV the better at observation & detection within the linear area. I don't know how far off the sides of the linear pattern a UAV observes.  However that's a good question.    In TOC the target vehicle controlled by the AI stayed on the linear road.  We were just trying to destroy it on the road (so within the pattern) before it reached a trigger and triggered another tactical situation.........  
 
 

Light, Medium and Heavy strikes select the ordnance that the air asset will expend on that pass.....For a Hind D in CM:A Light is a gun run with 12.7mm gatling gun, Medium gets you a full salvo of rockets, Heavy will produce either a ATGM or a 250kg bomb depending on the exact asset type (anti-tank or air-support).
My prayers to the elder ones for enlightenment on this arcane subject remain unanswered.
In my experience they are utterly myopic.....Except when they aren't. 
I'll ping @MOS:96B2P here, because I know he studied the subject when building TOC, but I never discovered what he discovered (or didn't). 
 

Blazing saddles... a great movie

Since you already own CMSF1 + Marines, I'd preorder the British and NATO modules, and purchase CMSF2 + Marines at release.
I also bought my original CMSF (Paradox), and later  the upgrade key and Marines. Go on battlefront.com, login to your account and select the Upgrades. Your new key for Marines will be listed if you bought it after 2007. Even if your Paradox CMSF isn't listed, when you download the Marines module, CMSF base game will download with it. All of the CMx2 game downloads now have all of their modules already included, so you just have to enter your new module key to activate the module.

Yes NeoOhm. TYVM to BTF for CMx1 and CMx2.
 
It's only have Patience.

We'll moan from time to time, but we will never abandon BF. Happy Thanksgiving!