155mm Howitzers and Armour

[BrucePos]

I've been playing the British Module to death for the past few days, and I've got to the campaign scenario where hordes of T72's and BMP descend on you. No problem I thought - I've 2 x 155mm Howitzer batteries. Set them for heavy, short duration and selected anti-armour ammunition. The ground in front of the spotter disappeared in gouts of sand and dust, and I thought, take that! Unfortunately, when the dust cleared not one of the vehicles seemed to be in the slightest way upset. I've reloaded this scenario three times and still haven't had any success with the anti-armour rounds.

Has anybody else had problems with this?

[Flanker15]

They've got to land right on the tank to knock them out, quite tricky with such a small target.

When you do get a hit even 81mm morters will knock out tanks sometimes.

Oh yeah and setting anti-armor only tightens the shot pattern (apparently) not change the shell.

You are using the right settings with heavy, short, anti-armor fire mission with a point target on the tank. You can use longer missions if you intend to cancel it when you hit and don't mind losing some ammo fired after a hit (you can tell when you hit as the explosion will be raised above the ground right over the tank).

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Artillery seems really bad at killing vehicles unless you're firing at a point target that's not moving. It's not that they're not killing per se, but rather that they don't hit much, if at all, on area targets. I can't speak for the accuracy or intention of this, but this is the way I've seen it in the game.

Right now, I'd say use CAS against armor and artillery against infantry. Both are fine against buildings.

[ScubaSam]

That mission pretty much requires you to use Artillery on tanks, thanks to the fact your Apache CAS only shows up late in the mission, and with a limited supply of Hellfires. It works well enough, the only problem can be that your spotter loses sight of the target after the first few rounds (thanks to the smoke kicked up) which I'm sure can't be good for accuracy/tightness of the group.

[handihoc]

I've killed tanks with artillery in that mission. They do need to be parked, though. You have to time it in the hope/anticipation that once they've stopped, they won't move again before the barrage hits. Get it right and it can be very effective.

[stikkypixie]

It can knock out their equipment though, damaging optics, radio, etc...

[hcrof]

The 155mm howitzer can fire anti tank cluster bombs (In real life, not the game) that have HEAT warheads and a huge number of bomblets. They are however banned in many countries and therefore their use in countries which do still field them (like the USA, Isreal) is severely discouraged.

[MikeyD]

In one Brit scenario, twice I've targeted a distant T72 with 155mm and twice the next round following the spotting round hit the tank squarely on the turret and killed it. If this surprises you - it surprised me too! I had got used to creating a moonscape beneath enemy tanks without so much as scratching their paint. it makes you want to know what's going on 'under the hood', Was it a lucky shot? A directed attack munition of some sort? Was my FO carrying a laser desgnator with him that I don't know about?