Heavy artyillery units in Multiplayer

[Xerxes the Great]

Will there be an option to select heavy artillery guns in the multiplayer maps?

I don't mean calling air raids or heavy artillery, but actually being in possession of artillery batteries where you can set defensive formations. It will certainly add a new dimension to the game as defending and destroying the artillery batteries were an essential part of every epic WW2 battle from Africa to Europe.

Over and out.

[ShiftZ]

Will there be an option to select heavy artillery guns in the multiplayer maps?

I don't mean calling air raids or heavy artillery, but actually being in possession of artillery batteries where you can set defensive formations. It will certainly add a new dimension to the game as defending and destroying the artillery batteries were an essential part of every epic WW2 battle from Africa to Europe.

Over and out.

I think it would depend on map size. If arty can strike at targets 50k away then having them on a map 3k square - in this case the battle area of the game - would not be so good for those assets. Arty comes with a lot of support too so a player may loose that as well. However mortars would be cool. You may see a script down the road where player A must defend an entrenched position with heavy artillery against player B but the guns would not be firing at player B. Just my 2 cents.

[Xerxes the Great]

I think it would depend on map size. If arty can strike at targets 50k away then having them on a map 3k square - in this case the battle area of the game - would not be so good for those assets. Arty comes with a lot of support too so a player may loose that as well. However mortars would be cool. You may see a script down the road where player A must defend an entrenched position with heavy artillery against player B but the guns would not be firing at player B. Just my 2 cents.

Well, you are addressing both of my desires for ToW!! Bigger map size and artillery units!

Given the fact that bigger map sizes may not be trivial for developers to implement since the tracking of elements become more cpu intensive (although it can be done with some optimization), I still would want to have artillery batteries on the current small maps.

I like your idea of mortar units to compensate for arty since it will still create a scenario where you can strategically place the mortar units and defend them while the enemy has to figure out how to destroy them. Currently, this element is completely missing in the game.

Any tank commander in WW2 would be shaking in his boots when hearing the artillery and mortar rounds exploding around them. In fact, most of the tanks lost in WW2 were lost/disabled to mines, air raids, and artillery fire. This element can not be ignored if the intention of the game is to recreate and simulate as realistic as possible the WW2 tank battles.

Over and out.

[ShiftZ]

Without question artillery is a vital tool for company commanders but it's not a direct fire weapon. If a situation arose where towed arty was within two or three kilometers or even miles of the enemy it would be bugged out as fast as possible.

Firing at targets that close with big guns would require the almost vertical elevation of the gun tube and thats not very realistic in my opinion. Fire support is by definition well back of the engagement because of time to load specific ammo, targeting, positioning and re-positioning as requests are recieved. Small battles as outlined by the current versions of TOW means that the heavy guns anyone uses for support are also being used by some other company or regiment a few blocks over.

I have no doubt that artillery knocked out a ****load of equipment but it did so because it was in fact well out of the way of direct fire.

What you are describing maybe would be a "behind enemy lines" covert operation using airborne assets or some other small group in an attempt to take out batterys.

I like the idea of small highly mobile light mortor units tho and maybe airborne too.