Using large calibre arty

[Stalins Organ]

Try as I might I can never bring myself to buy the big-bore tubes - I always look at the number of rounds they get and just grimace. Generally this is in ME's - I prefer to play defence in other types, and heavy arty doesn't get a look in there either, but I'd buy it if I was attacking!

I've bought rockets a few times, but found them too inaccurate to be effective.

Generally I buy a bit of medium arty (105's, 25 lbers, 4.2 or 120mm mortars) to kill things, and a few light mortars (81, 3") for quick reaction vs AT guns or smoke.

How do other people feel about this?

[Panzer_Meyer]

For the Germans I find the 120mm mortatrs the most cost effrective and battle effective "arty" the Germans got.

As far as Allies I go, I find the 4.5 are the most cost effective arty on the allied side.

These are the arty weapons I ALWAYS pick, In QBs.

[StellarRat]

Well, if I know the enemy will be defending a town I buy the big guns. There is nothing like watching your enemy's town disintergrate around his ears and his squads running around like an ant nest that someone dug up!

[Michael Emrys]

Playing as the American, I usually get a battery of 81s, two batteries of 105s, and a battery of 155s. I consider that a fairly historical mix for a battalion-sized task force and it tends to be pretty useful in most game situations. But if attacking against heavily fortified postions, I would add more heavy artillery. Nothing clears out a town like those 14 inchers, but the 8" speaks pretty authoritively too.

If playing defense, I think it's better to go for greater amounts of smaller stuff. Mostly you aren't going to need to hit dug in units and since time is on your side, suppression and morale breaks are as good as kills.

Michael

[tailz]

The Commonwealth 25lber is a superb choice... lots of rounds and a solid punch for the buck. Don't leave Blighty without'em!!

[Mr. Johnson--]

I hate those 25pdrs. They say they take 3 min, but take like 5 to stop dropping. And so much can have changed on the battlefield by then...If you use them on me, you'll never catch my troops!

[Banshee]

I use large calibre artillery in offensive situations to pound the places in my path which I think would most likely hold me up at the greatest cost. So in essensce I pay my arty points out to guarantee the most painless ride to the back of the map. I found this highly useful in situations where LOS is more limited , i.e. medium hills or larger, or very heavy trees. This way I can concentrate my firepower in a small frontage and only exposing a small percentage of my troops. Usually the rest of my troops are held back in reserve to widen my breakthrough after I reach my initial objective.

[Stalins Organ]

Yes I think I'd use bigger tubes if I was attacking, but as I said, I mostly defend (I like it - call me a masochist if you will! ), or play the occasional ME.

[Scott B]

With the heavies you need every round to count; I'd consider anything above 5.5 inch (UK/CW)/150mm (German)/155 (US) for use only when you want to destroy an enemy force, and for that these guns are well suited.

Figure that, as in real life, artillery has three basic missions-- suppression, neutralization, and destruction. A suppression mission renders an enemy unit incapable of action while the mission is being fired, a neutralization mission renders them ineffective for some amount of time after the rounds have finished falling, and a destruction mission seeks to render the enemy ineffective permanently.

Destruction is where the heavies come in; when you have an opponent of sufficient mass confined to a relatively small area, you call for the big guns to blow the unfortunate enemy into hamburger. A single 8" gun round has a blast rating of 456-- equivelant to over 25 81mm mortar shells (blast=18). Well worth the wait if you can get it where it needs to go.

For the most part, I don't often see games where it's necessary to use artillery over the medium calibers (155s) anyway; particularly against human opponents that usually have the sense not to bunch up and give you the lucrative targets that the AI loves so much.

I try to pin my enemy down with mortars and/or direct fire before I deploy heavy artillery; for the most part the response time isn't sufficient to generate casualties on a target of opportunity.

Keep in mind, though, particularly if you usually play meeting engagements, that heavy artillery has another drawback, in that the reload times are particularly long. 8" guns can have a minute or more between rounds in CM, and that time counts against adjustments as well; compared with division-level artillery which will generally be firing 3 or more times a turn, this can be a real disadvantage.

Just my thoughts. They might not always be called for, but when used correctly can be a tremendously demoralizing and destructive tool in the right circumstances.

Scott B.

[Jarmo]

I love big arty both on attack and defend.

Nothing stops an attacking company quite like a well placed

155mm salvo. :cool:

You "just" need to time it right.

Actually my arty usage seems to have a gap between mortars

and the heavy stuff. 105mm is especially bad bargain IMO.

So what if you only get a few 200mm shots for the price of

a hundred 105mm shells...

[REVS]

Love those battleship 14" inch explosions myself, but can't say I've bought many. I use them mostly when introducing a friend to the game system, and I say things like "you're the Germans defending the Normandy beaches, and sometimes the will be some very big explosions." then I give them some 75s to play with. As for other OB artillery for the Allies, I prefer 105s. They're plentiful and versatile.