v1.10 AI Artillery - a whole new game

[Marwek77 aka Red Reporter]

Steve,

Any explaination on why the AI can use Syrian HQ's as spotters while in all the missions I've played only the FO can call arty for the human player?

I think that some HQ units with radio have to have the possibilty to call arty but maybe with some limitation, but definitely YES! Its more realistic.

[JohnO]

Why is it more realistic? Were talking about a third world country here.

[Lethaface]

You must have missed the five minutes of spotting rounds.

Yeah, I was still feeling a little invincible, thought all the rounds would miss. Well, the spotting rounds did

However a little later a spotting round took out a just arrived truck including all tuna's inside it

[Marwek77 aka Red Reporter]

I have following question...

In my scenario the FO is reinforcement together with mortar. When he appears he move to spot location and has to direct fire... But i am waiting and waiting and nothing happen all the time. The mission is 30 minutes long, he comes at 5th minute and has to move very short distance. I checked the position and he can see my building in prone or in lie down position. I am defending myself in these buildings against AI probe, AI advance is slow but with often shooting exchange to show my position, timing is to fully attack by the end to leave place for AI FO to call strike... But nothing happens. Why? Did i something wrong? Or i have really to make 2 hours battles? Somewhere i read that strikes are coming mostly in second half of scenario... Or is the problem that FO is reinforcement?

[SgtMuhammed]

The problem is probably that the FO himself couldn't see the target combined with the fact that your forces were engaging it with direct fire. The AI is hesitant to fire near enemy troops and prefers to try to resolve encounters with direct fire. Where you can usually expect fire is on your assembly areas if the FO can see them or on your support positions.

Remember, while AI arty is there, the AI just isn't as good as a human player. It can't recognize that it might be desirable to nuke a building that is engaging your guys even if you can shoot at it with direct fire. If it did then it would be WAY too easy to get the AI to waste all its arty on nothing targets. You will always have the advantage over the AI when it comes down to using indirect fire.

From a technical point of view their should be nothing about your scenario that would prevent the AI from calling fire.

[Melnibone]

I play Elite level. If the AI has longer waits for artillery arrival (similar to the player) at the higher levels - then does it mean it also has more chance to lose the target and thus cancel the mission? Does playing Elite mean the enemy AI artillery is actually easier to play against than lower levels?

[salwon]

Are the longer wait times (10 minutes v 2 for a fire mission) more realistic, or was that a gameplay decision? I do notice that spotting rounds come in well before the estimated time, so maybe that time is more of a "Time till FFE," or time to completion sort of estimate. Anyone with real-world experience have insight here?

[SgtMuhammed]

It is a realism decision. Syrian artillery doctrine relies much more on preplanned barrages and centralized control. The result is that it is not nearly as responsive as the US system.

Melnibone,

It may actually work out that way. I'm not sure how quick the AI is to cancel missions, I will try to find out.

[Marwek77 aka Red Reporter]

The problem is probably that the FO himself couldn't see the target combined with the fact that your forces were engaging it with direct fire. The AI is hesitant to fire near enemy troops and prefers to try to resolve encounters with direct fire. Where you can usually expect fire is on your assembly areas if the FO can see them or on your support positions.

Remember, while AI arty is there, the AI just isn't as good as a human player. It can't recognize that it might be desirable to nuke a building that is engaging your guys even if you can shoot at it with direct fire. If it did then it would be WAY too easy to get the AI to waste all its arty on nothing targets. You will always have the advantage over the AI when it comes down to using indirect fire.

From a technical point of view their should be nothing about your scenario that would prevent the AI from calling fire.

Thanx for explanation... It look's like, that i cannot use the AI like direct support for the troops, but more like bombing positions behind... I will try to test this.

[missinginreality]

Felt the need to resurrect this coz i just this minute finished playtesting a scenario from a small campaigni'm slowly building up.

Fairly simple blue move through heavily held village in mountain country.

Red [syrian Regular Mech] has an FO and a number of command/HQ units and 2 x mortars available. Throughout the 30 mins of game time [i forgot to set the time to 120min duh] Syran artillery was a constant headache to Blue - first off they called in smoke rounds on an isolated hoiuse where the FO was located and Blue was trying to take with a large assault. Secondly, throughout the rest of the battle mortar rounds were constantly dropping in short fire missions at numerous places where Blue units were holed up, either in buildings or outside. It totally threw one assault down a forested slope when 3 platoons got hit with a few rounds of AP on the way.

At the end of the mission, reviewing the map, 2 Syrian HQ units had area fire mission targets to Blue positions. I was pretty impressed with the way AI handled it's artillery assets in that mission.