Emergency Artillery

[Sequoia]

Say you're in dire straits to an attacking enemy or you're attacking and the perfect target appears and you've used up all your air and/or artillery assets already. Never fear, your upper echolon has an emergency reserve. However it will cost you victory points to use so use it wisely. Any comments on making something like this available to scenario designers?

[JonS]

I've often thought that artillery assets - guns and FOs - should quite 'cheap' to buy in CMxx, and that the rounds should be essentially unlimited. HOWEVER, the cost - in VPs - for each round fired would rise on an exponential scale, with the scenario designer able to specify where the 'corner' of the exponential graph is - at 10 rounds, 100 rounds, 1000 rounds, 312 rounds, whatever.

The thinking here is that when it's available, artillery is available. However, whenever you use it for /this/ battle there is an opportunity cost in that it cannot be used for some other battle. Because of it's range and distributed control assets (the FOs spread out with the various manoeuvre elements) artillery can influence multiple battles from a single location. Obviously, in the CM-verse, there is only ever one battlegoing on at a time, but by linking the /use/ of artillery to VPs - rather than it's mere presence - the player must think about whether the fire mission he's about to fire is really necessary, or whether there is some other way to skin that particular tactical cat. And, similarly, if an emergency arises there will always be rounds available regardless of how many you've already fired ... albeit at a cost

[Michael Emrys]

Good thinking. Should be adopted if possible.

Michael