Spotting for arty

[Father Ted]

This would be my first post here - hi all:)

I played a lot of CMBB and have really enjoyed my first couple of battles in CMBN. I have, however, found it difficult to use the arty - specifically getting an observer into position. It seems that if move my FOO to have LOS to the target, then the target will see him and either kill or suppress him. This occurs even when I move him/them slowly (in concealment) up to a hedgeline.

Is it the precision of my move command? Am I not paying close enough attention to pathing?

I should add that this is when I'm attacking, so I have to move to get a view of the target.

As a corollary to this, am I right in thinking that the observer has to maintain visual contact with the target until I hear the "Fire for effect" message?

[Wreck]

Some of your questions are addressed at the wiki:

http://combatmission.wikia.com/wiki/Forward_Observer

particularly the one about having to maintain view of the target. (You don't for much of the artillery cycle.)

Your problem is that at short range in CMBN, infantry are spottable -- even in cover. So, either keep your FO at longer range (not always possible), or put enough other infantry on the same hedgerow so that the enemy cannot concentrate on your FO. (That's against AI. A human will target your FO if he sees it, because he knows what it implies. So try to avoid that.)

[Michael Emrys]

Yeah, I try to keep my FOs well back. If you have to advance them where they might be seen, try to do it behind a smoke screen if you have some to spare. Get them in position behind foliage or other concealing terrain and settled in before the smoke dissipates. Then try not to move them again. Anything in motion can get spotted at much greater range than the same object remaining still.

Michael

[winkelried]

use concealment and move carefully - i rarely have trouble to get FOs in place.

i try to approach the observation post with a hunt command as close as possible using natural concealment - so the FO will stop whenever he sees something. often i then do the last few dozen meters with the slow command. keep everything quiet is important. when you are so close, that you may be seen when moving carefully and slow then you're probably too close to call artillery (at least heavy) anyway since you risk spotting rounds falling on your head.

[ClarkWGriswold]

Another tip is to give your FO and spotting HQ groups short cover arcs to prevent them firing at enemy units and giving away their position. In general, they don't have weapons or numbers that are effective at long range anyway, so it's a waste of ammo AND draws fire.