Preplanned barrages

[Tigrii]

Do you think that these are worth it? Are you better off with the BIG speed bonus or reserving the arty to react to later problems?

[Guest Mike]

Russian artillery often cannot react to problems later - with delay times of up to 15 minutes you pretty much have to use it or lose right away it!!

[Mud]

Yeah, 'specially the upper-echeleon radio-less spotters can have substantial delay times.

Oh, and in addition to the speed bonus, pre-planned barrages are always on target, so you don't need to worry about a TRP or even LOS, and if all you want is a preplan you should be able to get away with the lowest-rank no-radio highest-level spotter you can buy (in a QB).

But if you get a spotter with decent response time, you may want to reserve it for when you know better where to use it. I wish that CMBB would give me, on the first turn, an estimate of how much time it would take if it WEREN'T a pre-plan rather than only giving the 'standard' time once pre-plan is no longer an option.

[Slappy]

If you want reaction, you're limited to small calibre radio spotters. Use the big stuff on turn 1, or risk not using it at all in all but the longest battles.

[demoss]

If you want reaction, you're limited to small calibre radio spotters.

That depends on what you mean by reaction. Wire spotters have shorter delay times in general, it seems, but obviously aren't as mobile as radio spotters.

Also, I have found that all the German spotters I've tried have had reasonable delay times (4 min max, and that was for a radio). The regimental 150 delays are even shorter because of the lower command level - I love those things!

[Silvio Manuel]

Originally posted by Mud:

I wish that CMBB would give me, on the first turn, an estimate of how much time it would take if it WEREN'T a pre-plan rather than only giving the 'standard' time once pre-plan is no longer an option.

Mud,

It sucks...you have to open up another CMBB session, and replicate the situation by buying the same quality/type of spotter, and put him in commmand of the same Command-bonus-level HQ, then to a non-prep-barrage mission and check the ETA.

Tigrii,

You can use multiple spotters in a prep-barrage role to do a "rolling barrage" by staggering the ETA's w/ the barrage's pause/delay capability. Check the AAR I just bumped in the CMBO forum for the battle b/w Fionn Kelly and The_Capt. Fionn uses 30's Soviet Maneuver/Break-in & Exploitation tactics, using CMBO/U.S. units to simulate Soviet vehicles, squads, arty, etc. In the AAR he talks about how if he was using a rolling barrage, his scout units wouldn't be keeping up w/ it. btw, The_Capt uses NATO-style attritionist tactics.

[Frunze]

Delay's not the problem. The problem is the arty won't fall where you want it to. Maybe it'll even fall on your own positions. Then you'll adjust fire, and it'll fall somewhere else, but still off target. So preplan starts to look pretty good on offense.

On defense, though, I'm liking TRPs better. There's an old CMBO thread on using TRPs...maybe I'll bump it if it's still down there somewhere.

[Olle Petersson]

Originally posted by Mike:

Russian artillery often cannot react to problems later - ... you pretty much have to use it or lose right away it!!

The other option is to use it Soviet style; put one or more batteries of 76mm field artillery in an overwatch position at your rear area, thus able to respond with direct fire to any call...

Cheers

Olle