Dismounted tank crew calling artillery

[simovitch]

I have an isolated British tank crew HQ surrounded by Germans, with nothing but a pair of binoculars, and no C2 whatsoever able to call in fairly accurate offboard 81mm mortar support. They are in a building a few feet away from their destroyed Cromwell. This can't be right, can it? shouldn't the OBA display so "no contact" and disallow this action?

[Michael Emrys]

This may be a quirky corner case of something that was intentionally designed into the system. Namely, that otherwise authorized units (HQs and the like) can call in artillery even if they lack radios. This is to account for the existence of field telephones (which were actually far more common than radios and often worked more reliably) even though they are not explicitly modeled in the game. A really accurate modeling of them, including such things as wire broken by artillery, etc., would have been a complicated coding task that for the present BFC has decided is not worth their while.

Michael

[MOS:96B2P]

11 hours ago, simovitch said:

I have an isolated British tank crew HQ surrounded by Germans, with nothing but a pair of binoculars, and no C2 whatsoever able to call in fairly accurate offboard 81mm mortar support. They are in a building a few feet away from their destroyed Cromwell. This can't be right, can it? shouldn't the OBA display so "no contact" and disallow this action?

What @Michael Emrys said.  I will add, keep the Commanding Officer safe.  He is the one making the call for arty/mortars possible.  

Rank determines ability to access artillery (that doesn't require FO).  If a unit has an individual with sufficient rank, the unit can call artillery.  If that individual gets KIA, the unit will lose the ability.  

[c3k]

Sigh. British tank crew you said? Obviously, the tank commander embraced the "individuality" for which the British upper class was/is renowned. As an avid pigeoner, he would have taken his best birds with him over to the Continent. Once he found himself "unhorsed" upon the field of battle, he immediately rescued his birds from the tank bustle. Seeing the Hun, and knowing that his men depended upon him, he scrawled a quick note on a slip of paper: "Dearest Babs. I hope this missive finds you doing well. I know that running the estate can seem daunting, but James is an excellent caretaker and you can rely upon his judgment. I find myself in a bit of an embarrassing position. If it wouldn't be too much of a bother, I'm sure my comrades would be very appreciative if you could ring up Dodgkins, from the Regiment, and pass on to him that a few rounds of 25 pounder would not go amiss. Especially if they were delivered about 87 yards NNE of the small chicken coop by the yellow farmhouse on the road just outside Mesnil-Petry. The one you liked when we rode the countryside in '36. If you're too busy, don't worry about it. Until I return... Your Jamesy-poo."

Quickly tying off the message to the leg of his favorite grey, he tossed the bird aloft, whence it circled, got its bearings, and fluttered away over the trees.

Minutes later, the shells started landing.

What other game has this level of simulation?

Ken

[George MC]

1 hour ago, c3k said:

Sigh. British tank crew you said? Obviously, the tank commander embraced the "individuality" for which the British upper class was/is renowned. As an avid pigeoner, he would have taken his best birds with him over to the Continent. Once he found himself "unhorsed" upon the field of battle, he immediately rescued his birds from the tank bustle. Seeing the Hun, and knowing that his men depended upon him, he scrawled a quick note on a slip of paper: "Dearest Babs. I hope this missive finds you doing well. I know that running the estate can seem daunting, but James is an excellent caretaker and you can rely upon his judgment. I find myself in a bit of an embarrassing position. If it wouldn't be too much of a bother, I'm sure my comrades would be very appreciative if you could ring up Dodgkins, from the Regiment, and pass on to him that a few rounds of 25 pounder would not go amiss. Especially if they were delivered about 87 yards NNE of the small chicken coop by the yellow farmhouse on the road just outside Mesnil-Petry. The one you liked when we rode the countryside in '36. If you're too busy, don't worry about it. Until I return... Your Jamesy-poo."

Quickly tying off the message to the leg of his favorite grey, he tossed the bird aloft, whence it circled, got its bearings, and fluttered away over the trees.

Minutes later, the shells started landing.

What other game has this level of simulation?

Ken

Ah that would be his Speckled Jim...

 

[Wicky]

c3k So you cracked the code!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2012/nov/23/crack-pigeon-second-world-war-code

"AOAKN HVPKD FNFJW. Confused? You're in good company. These inscrutable letters mark the start of a 143-character coded message sent during the second world war, and found strapped to the leg of a dead pigeon down a chimney in Surrey earlier this month.

The UK's chief codebreakers – Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – were asked if they could decode the message. But though it is thought to have been sent from occupied France during the D-day landings, so far none of the country's best number-crunchers have been able to fathom what it actually says."

The aforementioned Pigeon (RIP)

Edited November 26, 2016 by Wicky