Questions About Artillery

[Col Deadmarsh]

I have a few questions about arty that I couldn't find in any of the old threads.

1. Is the targeting by a HQ unit affected if they are hiding?

2. Can they hide at any point without negatively affecting spotting rounds, and does this differ from emergency missions?

3. What exactly is the difference between the number of assets and the duration of the mission and how should they be used in conjunction with each other in different situations?

 

 

[chuckdyke]

HQs are not very good spotters, an Artillery FO has the reference map and is in direct contact with the fire direction centre. It also depends which period you play. Black Sea US or Red Thunder Soviet Engineers to mention two extremes.

Here is British Commonwealth how I used the arty in the Scottish Corridor Campaign. 4X25 Pounders. After testing the effectiveness of this asset I found a 200 meter Heavy Linear Mission effective as it permitted a Company of Infantry to cross a danger zone. I allowed 50 meters for each 25 pounder. If you play US with 105 mm Howitzers it is different. I don't use HQ's for spotting and when I do I make sure that the FO or the Unit with direct contact with off map assets have the tentative contacts. HQ's on their own result in very ineffective missions as you lose too many munitions during the spotting phase. 

Edited August 20, 2022 by chuckdyke

[womble]

10 hours ago, Col Deadmarsh said:

I have a few questions about arty that I couldn't find in any of the old threads.

1. Is the targeting by a HQ unit affected if they are hiding?

Any spotter (HQ or FO) will spot less well if they are hiding while the spotting rounds are falling. While Hide-ing, a unit doesn't Spot as frequently, so will potentially miss any given fall of spotting shot and take another round to generate the bracket (which it may also not see).

If the unit is Hide-ing while you're trying to set up the mission, it will likely be prone and therefore unable to see the same range of target locations as it would be if it were not given a Hide instruction. If it can see what you want to shoot at, the Hide won't affect anything.

10 hours ago, Col Deadmarsh said:

2. Can they hide at any point without negatively affecting spotting rounds, and does this differ from emergency missions?

They can Hide while waiting for the spotting rounds to start and any time the FFE has been called. Since Emergency missions don't have a spotting phase, they can Hide as soon as they have called in the mission.

10 hours ago, Col Deadmarsh said:

3. What exactly is the difference between the number of assets and the duration of the mission and how should they be used in conjunction with each other in different situations?

There are two aspects to the number of assets: number of batteries and number of tubes. Each battery has a number of tubes (usually 2-4) and an allocated number of rounds. The duration of a mission is somewhat indeterminate, but is measured, I believe in "rounds per tube" or "salvoes" so a given duration of mission will use ammo proportional to the number of tubes assigned to it.

A spotter can combine eligible batteries into one mission, and each battery gets the same orders, so ordering a one tube mission from 4 batteries will send the same number of rounds downrange in the same time as a 4-tube mission from one battery, but the ammo expenditure will be spread across the 4 batteries. There may also be some subtle differences in the timing of the shell impacts.

What to use, when is, unsurprisingly, situational. The more tubes you assign, the more rounds you'll get landing. The longer the mission, the more shells you'll get landing over the course of the mission, from start to finish. The more intense the barrage, the faster they'll arrive.

A common tactic is to assign a "Maximum", low tube count (1, maybe 2) Harrass mission to an observer, since adjusting a mission is faster than calling a new one. This can be used to bring low intensity, so mostly suppressive, fires to bear quickly if you have a good perch for the observer, or a scattering of well-placed TRPs. If you want a position obliterated, hit it with a Heavy, Maximum mission with all available tubes. But be aware you won't have any ammo left on those assets for later.

In general, specific missions are probably better shorter than longer. If you want to keep a position's heads down for a while, use low tube counts and longer missions. But it's very situational.

[Bulletpoint]

Some people like to keep their FO hiding while waiting for the first spotting round to arrive, but I find it's rarely necessary. The most important parts of not getting your FO detected is to make sure he keeps distance (300m+), doesn't move, and doesn't shoot. Plus being in some kind of concealment. Then there's pretty much zero risk of him getting spotted.

However, crafty human opponents will often blast locations where he might be hiding anyway - such as church steeples, isolated areas of bocage with great LOS, etc.

[chuckdyke]

16 minutes ago, Bulletpoint said:

Some people like to keep their FO hiding while waiting for the first spotting round to arrive, but I find it's rarely necessary.

If you can spot individuals in theory some individual can spot you. If you find a great spot to spot from the enemy may agree with his terrain analysis. Lovely to drop some white phosphor on your location Especially when he notices some spotting rounds. It is not the shark you see when diving, it is the shark you don't see and is moving in your direction at the speed of a torpedo. In other words, a sniper's team may have spotted you.

 

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by chuckdyke

[womble]

38 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:

If you can spot individuals in theory some individual can spot you.

True, but arty spotters and their perches largely aren't about spotting individuals, and are more about getting a LoS to somewhere that has been identified as a "Good Target". So that's probably the litmus test: "Can I see people on that area (from my deep-in-concealment location)? No, so they probably can't see me."

[chuckdyke]

31 minutes ago, womble said:

Can I see people on that area (from my deep-in-concealment location)?

Humans have a mathematical mind and use it to analyse a situation. I call hide during preparation, return to post during receiving (adjust) return to an APC during fire for effect. Playing the AI makes us lazy. See what happens in real life. The artillery allocates to a different position so should the FO. We live during digital information warfare.