Arty/Mortar Spotters

[Okimaw]

Being fairly new to CM one of the things I'm having a bit of difficulty with is the deployment of spotters. In defense it's not so bad as they're mostly stationary and just watch for approaching enemies and plot their course as best you can. Attacking on the other hand is different. In one of my games I have a spotter for 300mm artillery, takes 30 mins to fire on target and it's only a 40 turn game. What would be the most effective use of a unit like that in that situation? Also when spotters of smaller variety are on the attack what are some advised tactics for their best use? I know a lot might depend on terrain, viibilty etc but some general info would be good.

[stoat]

If you have that kind of delay, you either need to purchase TRPs to aid your fire, or fire on the first turn to avoid the delay.

Smaller caliber artillery such as 81mm mortar on up to full 105mm shells are quite useful on the attack, provided you can find a nice place to plunk a spotter. They can be used to drop a covering smokescreen, small amounts of shells can be used to eliminate gun positions or momentarily pin an enemy to allow your infantry to close, or large amounts can be used to disrupt infantry for a longer period of time and inflict some casualties. 81mm is best for the first two, while 105mm and up is better at inflicting serious casualties.

[Cuirassier]

Its all about planning. Heavy Russian stuff has horribly long firing delays, and thus has to be fired as a prep fire (target selected on turn 1, then you delay with QQQQQQ etc). Rockets I find should also be fired as prep, for they are very inaccurate, so there is little point trying to pick a small target for them to hit. So basically, for this type of artillery, look at the map, decide where your troops are going and where probable clumps of enemy may be located. Target these locations and delay the barrage however long you see fit.

With more reactive stuff, planning is still necessary. You need to decide where your men will be going, and how overwatch will support them. This includes your spotters. Basically, you want your spotters as far away from the action as possible, but still with good visibility to support your advancing troops. That is why you have to plan early on where they will need to go to get likely spots.

A trick to lower the count down delay of artillery is to target a likely location of the enemy before it is confirmed whether or not they are there. This shaves a couple minutes from the delay. If the enemy is there, let the timer count down and shell them. If not, walk the targeting line to the next probable enemy location.

For basic tactics, all artillery barrages should be followed up by an immediate infantry attack. This is especially true for the smaller stuff, like 81mm mortars. These cause little casualties themselves, and only really suppress. Thus they must be followed up by maneuver units. Light artillery is also useful for smoke.

It is a waste to use heavy stuff for smoke, because it has so much HE punch. On the attack, 150mm or up is of greatest value, as it kills as good as it suppresses. For defense, smaller stuff is ok.

I hope this answers your questions.

[jBrereton]

If you can't preplan fire (it arrives when you set it to) or take TRPs (which mean that artillery only ever takes one minute to arrive) in your current scenario (if it's a meeting engagement, for example), don't take any kind of heavy artillery if you're the Russians.

The heaviest feasible artillery for Russian use outside of preplanned or TRP-guided fire is probably 120mm mortar fire, which still has a five or so minute delay.

[Cuirassier]

I also forgot to mention that several of JasonC's Russian Training Scenarios involve using preplanned barrages to support infantry attacks. These provide good practice.

[Joachim]

Delay increases with the size of the formation that owns the battery. A regular Soviet regimental 122mm has slightly less delay than a regular Soviet divisional 122mm battery. So don't let the lower price fool you - you buy something cheap, you will likely get something cheap.

Edit (cf 2 posts below):

Change divisonal 122 to corps 152 and regimental 122 to divisional 152 to get a valid example. Or take Romanian 120mm or 81mm mortars.

[ January 19, 2007, 11:31 AM: Message edited by: Joachim ]

[Joachim]

Treeburst 155 did a nice arty primer which WineCape (re-)posted. Maybe try a search function - most likely on the CMAK forum.

[JasonC]

Joachim - um, there aren't any regimental 122s. There are divisional 122mm howitzers, and corps level 122mm guns. Quite different pieces. The latter was the standard Russian long range counterbattery item. In the game, it gets 30 rounds vs. 35 for the howitzer, but with significantly larger blast. The response time is of course slower, corps vs. division, as you say.

However, this does not matter for "map fire". In fact, the low priced 122mm gun model taken as conscripts, costing only 70 points with rariety off, is one of the best buys the Russians have, for map fire shoots. The 152mm gun is also a bargain for this purpose, though you only get 20 shells.

Meanwhile, the divisional 122mm howitzers still have a delay so long that reactive fire with them - without a TRP at least - is problematic at best, before about 1944.

A better buy for a reactive model is the regimental 120mm mortars.

If you want to spend more than the 64-70 points that the 122 and 152 gun FOs cost, you can either take 2 of those, or you can throw accuracy to the wind and buy a 300mm rocket FO instead. The enemy will notice, either way, when this stuff comes down. And with rariety off and low quality deliberately taken for map fire only use, either will run you scarcely more than one platoon or medium tank.