Boot Camp: Artillery

[Gremlin]

(Author’s Note: Below is an article that originally appeared as part of the Boot Camp series on Manx’s sadly defunct Combat Missions site. It was written quite some time ago, and I’d surely make changes and additions to it if I had the time, in light of all I’ve learned since writing it. Unfortunately, I have no easy way to post the original explanatory images that accompanied it. Still, I think this article will be useful for newer players. Enjoy!)

Death from Above: Artillery

Welcome to Combat Mission Boot Camp, an occasional series of guides for newer CM players, particularly those who have little wargaming experience or who aren’t very familiar with World War II vehicles and weaponry. These guides, which assume you’ve read the CM manual carefully and played at least a few CM battles, will help you learn a little about the different units at your disposal and some basic tactics for using them. These guides are based on my playing experience and reading. I make no claims to being an expert; I’m offering suggestions, not inflexible rules. In fact, flexibility is a key to good playing. CM can be a very subtle, sophisticated game, and every CM player will have his or her own opinions and theories on tactics and unit use. Still, I hope these guides will help you learn the basics in a way that will quickly improve your playing by focusing on fundamentals.

It’s often said that artillery rules the battlefield. Artillery, or arty, is definitely one of your most vital assets in CM. In this guide, we’ll look at off-map arty, represented on the CM battlefield by spotters, also known as forward observers, or FO’s. These are the men who locate a target’s coordinates and relay it by radio to batteries of howitzers, mortars, or rockets. We’ll take a brief look at on-map mortars too.

Spotters can call in arty strikes anywhere on the map, but remember that strikes come more quickly and accurately when spotters can actually spot targets: try to position them where they have a direct LOS (line of sight) to areas where the enemy might appear. The initial positioning of your spotters depends, like most tactical decisions, on terrain. Just like you, the enemy will generally try to stay out of view behind hills and pass through heavily wooded areas and grouped buildings that provide cover and concealment. The broader the fields of view your spotters have, the better, since information is a key weapon on the battlefield.

Getting a good field of view poses a problem, though: the more ground you can see, the more ground you can potentially be seen from. Placing spotters near the front lines might expose them to fire, and spotters are prime targets that will be eliminated easily. Try to keep them as far back from the enemy as possible, preferably on forested heights or in upper floors of buildings for a good field of view coupled with cover and concealment (though the enemy might guess their positions on a map with only a couple buildings or hills). Never advance spotters into areas that haven’t recently been scouted carefully by your other units. Spotters are far too valuable to risk needlessly, though it can perhaps be helpful to have a spotter advance slightly behind a scouting element to call down suppressive fire in a hurry. An on-map mortar team might be better suited to that task, though they move rather slowly.

To help your spotters, you can use target reference points (TRP’s) to cover spots where the enemy is likely to approach, allowing you to more quickly and accurately call in an arty strike at that location than otherwise. TRP’s can be particularly useful in covered approaches, letting you keep your spotters in areas where they retain wide fields of view, instead of, say, hidden in the woods near a crossroads, only able to watch one little area. Naturally, you’ll still need some other unit in a position to see the TRP’s in order to know that the enemy is near them. A sniper and/or anti-tank team might be a good choice if you expect vehicles to enter into their range. An MG team or two might be good if infantry is expected. Anything that will slow the enemy down until the arty arrives should serve you well.

When choosing your arty in a Quick Battle, you’re presented with a variety of types and calibers. Your basic choices include mortars, artillery (standard howitzers), VT (proximity fuze) artillery, and rockets. Mortars, which fire at angles greater than 45 degrees to lob shells over obstacles, and artillery, which usually shoots in lower arcs, both fire high-explosive shells that have the same practical effect on the CM battlefield. The important difference is that mortars typically provide more shells per spotter than similar-sized artillery has. VT shells have proximity fuzes that cause them to airburst over targets before hitting the ground, ensuring maximum damage to troops by directing the blast downward. VT arty costs more than standard arty of equivalent caliber. Rockets are generally cheaper and have a smaller blast and wider spread than standard arty of the equivalent caliber. In fact, the spread for the rockets—they can land around 500m apart—is probably their biggest drawback. Don’t use them anywhere near your troops, and try to hit areas where you suspect large concentrations of enemy units are spread out over some distance.

When selecting your arty, you have to consider what you expect to use it for. The answer isn’t as simple as “blow up the enemy.” It can of course do that very well, but an equally important use is to suppress and rattle them. Just before assaulting a known concentration of enemy units, you almost always want to dump arty on the area for at least a turn or two. This can produce casualties and break troops’ morale, as well as keep their heads down as you advance. If you’re lucky, by the time you reach the enemy, they’ll be too busy cowering to fight effectively. (Generally, you can and should use your most powerful units like machine guns, on-map mortars, and assault guns according to this same general principle: these “big guns” suppress and attrit (wear down) the enemy, while infantry moves in to occupy. Then the big guns can close in as needed and help mop up with more direct fire.)

In addition to being used in assaults on static enemy positions, arty can break up enemy advances. Since arty usually takes at least a turn to start dropping once the strike is ordered, practice targeting the area where you expect the enemy to be by the time the arty starts raining down. Try to target the strike so it lands slightly toward the front portion of the advancing group to prevent troops from running forward to get away from the blasts. An exception would be if you had well placed machine guns, for instance, ready to mow them down in an open area just ahead of the strike. Then you’d target the center or back of the group. You’ll learn the proper timing of arty strikes with experience. Remember, though, that a smart player won’t be so obliging to you by always running troops in a straight line or bunching them up excessively. In fact, the very fear of your artillery hitting the enemy’s massed troops can cause your opponent to spread his or her forces dangerously thin, letting you isolate and pick them off, unit by unit.

If you can’t get a direct LOS to your target area and have to spot indirectly, you should use the “target” instead of “target wide” command, since the spread will be greater than normal anyway due to the lack of direct LOS. On your first turn, it’s a wise idea to target areas where you expect to spot the enemy shortly, even if you have no visual or sound contacts yet. If the enemy doesn’t appear there by the time the arty is about to fall, just cancel the targeting orders and retarget a new area or the same one. The idea is to have arty ready to fall as soon as possible, and you can extend this practice to where your spotters are always targeting areas, and then repeatedly canceling or letting the strikes commence as needed.

Since smaller-caliber arty usually strikes quicker than its big brothers, don’t underestimate the use of light arty, like 81mm mortars. When you need to suppress an enemy or stop an advancing group in a hurry, these can be invaluable. Once the enemy is restricted to an area or at least significantly slowed by this suppressive arty, on-map weaponry, and/or terrain, you can dump the heavier shells on them.

If you have on-map mortars, small-caliber arty isn’t as important. Despite their strengths, on-map mortars nevertheless lack off-map arty’s ability to target anywhere without LOS. Still, with direct LOS to the target or while under the command of an HQ unit with direct LOS, on-map mortars can be excellent tools for instantly hitting the enemy or creating small smoke screens quickly. In fact, it’s often useful to set up a small firebase with a bank of on-map mortars hidden out of view—behind a hill, for instance. Hide an HQ unit in front of them with a good view of likely target areas while still in command of the mortars. The company HQ you get with a complete infantry company is good for this role. This setup protects the mortars from being spotted or hit with direct fire. As with most weapons teams, mortars do have the disadvantage of moving quite slowly and being prime targets, though transporting them in halftracks or other armored vehicles can lessen these problems. There are also a number of lightly armored vehicles that carry mortars, and they tend to have good speed and high ammo counts but are readily destroyed if not used with great care.

While small-caliber arty can be useful against infantry in many situations, it’s almost useless for inflicting casualties or even suppressing troops when they’re in buildings, particularly heavy ones. The same holds true for infantry in foxholes, though perhaps to a lesser extent. Try to hit infantry in open or wooded areas if at all possible. For hurting infantry in buildings, you’ll want to use larger caliber arty (over 105mm), though the random spread means you’re unlikely to hit just one specific building. When you need to destroy a particular building, it’s typically better to use on-map howitzers, self-propelled guns, assault guns, and other high-powered weapons that can fire directly.

What applies to buildings applies more so to bunkers or pillboxes. While high-caliber arty can blow a wooden bunker sky high, the chance of a round actually hitting such a small spot is often slim. As with buildings, there are other units better suited to eliminating bunkers, like engineers/pioneers, flamethrowers, or direct fire from a tank or assault gun into the firing slit.

When you’ve selected your target, you can use multiple spotters to hit the area at the same time for maximum damage, preferably using the “target” command instead of “target wide” in order to concentrate the blasts in a relatively limited area. However, since you usually only have a few spotters in a typical battle, you need to be very careful about using up arty too quickly. Then again, don’t hold off until the enemy is on top of you and arty would result in friendly fire casualties. Be sure you can hit a large body of troops or a group about to make a significant breakthrough. Don’t waste precious rounds on just one or two infantry squads. On-map mortar or machine gun nests, anti-tank guns, or anti-aircraft guns that are giving you trouble are possible exceptions.

Conversely, when defending an area, you’ll typically open up with your MG’s and on-map mortars before ambushing with your infantry squads from closer ranges. This means that these weapon teams will become prime targets for shelling, so be aware of this trade-off and position them away from infantry squads, so they aren’t taken out along with the teams.

For maximum, sustained damage to an area, you also don’t want to constantly start and stop arty strikes, except perhaps to throw the enemy off guard by making him think the coast is clear. Try not to keep “walking” (re-adjusting) the strikes, but instead wait until you’ve found a dense concentration of troops (preferably pinned by your other units), and then hit them hard. Of course, you may need to slightly adjust your targeting on occasion, but this will pause the arty for part of a turn, reducing its suppressive effect.

In addition to attacking infantry with arty, it can be used against vehicles. A lucky hit can penetrate a tank’s weak top armor, or land right in an open-topped vehicle. At the very least, it can immobilize a vehicle with a nearby blast. Because of arty’s random spread, it’s strictly luck whether or not you’ll hit a vehicle this way. (Rushing to take vital terrain, I once drove five German half-tracks directly through an 81mm mortar barrage unscathed. Needless to say, I would have taken a different route or waited a bit had I anticipated the strike, but you take the point!) Generally, you don’t specifically want to target vehicles with arty, unless there are a number of them that are stationary or bunched together when the arty falls. However, a competent player won’t oblige you by just leaving all his or her vehicles parked in one place, since mobility is a key to their combat effectiveness and survival.

In addition to destroying, suppressing, and breaking the enemy’s morale, many spotters can use their arty volleys for smoke screens. Small-caliber off-map mortars, which can sustain firing over a few turns because of their high ammo allotment, are usually well suited for this. Remember that arty has a limited number of rounds per spotter, and smoke rounds will use up the total allotment. Still, smoke is an invaluable tool in CM. It can mask your movement across otherwise open areas, allowing troops to run from cover to cover or letting you reposition tanks or other vehicles where they’re either safer or have a better shot at enemy vehicles. Smoke can blind enemies caught within it, and it can also be used for a feint by hitting an area where you don’t really have any intention of going. As with all arty, when you’re going to use smoke, commit to it. You really have to pour it on for it to be effective; otherwise, it will dissipate before you can get your troops moving. When timing your movement in conjunction with a smoke screen, note that substantial smoke usually only begins to form a turn or two after the shells start falling. As an aside, arty can also create smoke (and block LOS) unintentionally by setting woods or buildings on fire, but since this is random and not particularly common, you can’t count on it as a planned tactic. Flamethrower teams or vehicles are much better at that.

Fighter-bombers are also considered to be artillery in your Quick Battle purchases. These are quite expensive and can be devastating when they strike an enemy target, but whether or not the planes will reach and hit the target (or your tanks by mistake) is very unpredictable, making the purchase of these units a gamble. You have no control over them.

Now that you’ve learned the basics of arty in CM, you know that it can be used to cause casualties, suppress the enemy, and/or break morale. It can also be used to create valuable smoke screens. Higher caliber arty does the most damage and can level buildings, but its spread is often larger than smaller-caliber rounds, and it usually takes longer to start falling and quits falling sooner because of less ammo. Since bigger isn’t always better, you’ll want to choose your arty carefully based on the terrain and whether you’re conducting a meeting engagement, attack, or defense. Most of all, you’ll want to position your spotters with great care and preserve them at all costs. If you remember these basic concepts, and bear in mind that the enemy will likely apply them to you, you’ll have gained a vital weapon in Combat Mission.

© 2002 by Scott Osborne

[ March 05, 2002, 09:42 AM: Message edited by: Gremlin ]

[Ozzy]

Excellent summary.

However, after having gained some experience on arty usage in CMMC, I'd like to share some thoughts on artillery usage in CM:

a.) Scenario creators and QB players often underestimate the power of TRPs. Unless it is an "unexpected" meeting engagement, the corps/divisional artillery officer and spotters of each side -regardless whether attacker and defender- will have previously (i.e. before the battle starts) recorded targets or target zones where enemy presence or approach is expected, in CM modeled as Target Reference Points (TRPs). There is no other artillery tool that can provide such quick and precise fire than TRPs. And you can fire on them without LOS without delay or accuracy penalty.

None the less, I find almost no TRPs in scenarios or QBs, maybe because many see CM missions only on tactical (battlefield) level, and not as part of a Divisional or Corps operation.

b.) The Artillery TRPs we know in CM represent the targets recorded by the line unit's FOs (organic artillery, e.g. a battery of 81mm (3") and a battery of 120mm (4.5")), with an effectiveness of a max. 100 meter radius. Having 5 of them per present Battallion is realistic.

But we can estimate that having 1 divisional level TRP per 1km x 1km battlefield surface is realistic as well. Such TRPs are much larger. In CMMC such TRPs are represented by 9 CM TRPs, placed in a square shape, with a spacing of 100m between each single CM TRP. Two Div. TRPs must have at least 1000m of spacing between them, counted from the center point.

So if we allow 5 single TRPs per Bn. present on a battlefield of 1.5km x 1.5km (2 div. TRPs possible), we can estimate 5+9+9=23 single CM TRPs for a battle are not unrealistic, but almost never seen in scenarios or QBs.

c.) The available ammo amount in CM battles is often too low, especially for organic artillery batteries. A smart line unit CO will join his mortars to batteries, thus providing him with FOs which can fire without LOS, instead of using the tubes as on-map artillery (requiring LOS). In a real situation this will also provide him the chance to stockpile ammo before a battle starts. He hence can have several hundreds of rounds to his disposition. The same is true for attached regimental organic artillery.

Usually, a smart divisional artillery officer will in addition provide his line unit COs with several batteries (FOs) of larger calibres, each disposing of an almost unreasonably high seeming ammo amount; larger than the CM default. He would order them to use only a part of it and the rest as a "reserve" (better to waste some ammo then to have too less).

d.) Players should not underestimate the experience level of the FOs and the support by officers commanding the FOs. While accuracy is almost not affected, the base time between the target order and the barrage start is influenced by the FO's experience (the higher the exp., the lower the base time required).

A FO is a team, usually commanded by junior officers. Adding a senior officer (HQ unit) with good command rates improves the time delay situation additionally (base time does not change, but the countdown is quicker).

[edgars]

Originally posted by Ozzy:

And you can fire on them without LOS without delay or accuracy penalty.

Not true. The delay part.

If you fire on TRP out of LOS, you will still get the double time til impact.

For example: Reg US 105mm has 45 second delay if TRP is in LOS, but 90 seconds, if out of LOS, despite what the counter says.

[Ozzy]

hmm... true,

however, it is much faster than firing without TRP (firing on TRP w/o LOS is even faster than firing with LOS but w/o TRP)

[Gremlin]

Since this forum seems to be getting more attention of late, I thought I'd bump this old article for new players who might benefit from it.

[Slappy]

Thanks Gremlin.

I remember reading these as a newbie back in CMBO times myself and finding them very useful.

[netrat]

Originally posted by Slappy:

Thanks Gremlin.

I remember reading these as a newbie back in CMBO times myself and finding them very useful.

Can anyone think of any reasons why Grem's info

doesn't apply to CMBB?

[Gremlin]

Can anyone think of any reasons why Grem's info doesn't apply to CMBB?

I can Check out p. 217 of the (US version) CMBB manual for changes made to artillery use. CMBB features pre-planned strikes you can launch on turn 1, new rules about targeting out of LOS, and so forth. That said, I think most of the basic ideas will still apply.

[PiggDogg]

Gremlin & Guys,

When compared to BO, it seems that in BB off board arty arty is substantially less effective. On board mortars, seem about the same in BB & in BO. That means concentrated (all one's on board mortars in one grand battery with a well spotting HQ) onboard mortars (even 50s) are pretty darn effective. :eek:

The following are opinions from my observations regarding off board arty for spotted barrages. (I will not comment on unspotted barrages because, except for smoke, unspotted barrages are nearly totally ineffective in BO. I assume that the same applies to BB. In short, unspotted barrages are a total waste of effort.)

(1) The time delays in BB are somewhat increased (especially for the Russians) when compared to BO. This has the obvious effect of making it more difficult to hit enemy troop concentrations.

(2) In BB, the delay for small targeting adjustments are significantly increased when compared to BO. The effect is the same as in (1).

(3) In BB, the arty strike areas seem larger than in BO. This increases the general BB arty ineffectiveness.

(4) In BB, small arty (75s, 81s, below 105s, etc.) does surpress a bit like in BO, especially when the enemy infantry is in open terrain. However, it seems that the BB smalls are surprisingly & almost laughibly ineffective in killing troops in cover (trees). In both BB & BO, small arty is a total waste against infantry in buildings.

(5) Even BB medium arty (105s, 120s, etc) does not kill like in BO. In BO, a 105/120 barrage would render up to an infantry company in trees pretty much ineffective due to heavy casualties inflicted. BB mediums do not seem to inflict as many casualties upon infantry in tree cover as BO mediums. In BO, mediums are not effective against infantry in buildings. I assume that this applies to BB mediums against infantry in buildings.

(6) I can't comment on the efficiency of BB heavies (150s, 152s, etc.) because I have not had the opportunity to use them yet. All I can say is that BO heavies, especially USA 155s because of their short on target time, are most effective against infantry in any terrain. I should be able to comment on BB heavies in the future.

(7) In BO, super heavies (8 inch & larger) kill everything, everywhere, at every time if the infantry is foolish enough to remain around. I suspect that the same applies to BB super heavies, but I don't know for sure.

The conclusion is that BB arty is less effective than BO arty. Therefore, purchase onboard anti infantry guns.

Cheers, Richard