ClarkWGriswold Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 According to the CMBN manual, when ordering an artillery/mortar strike you select both the number of tubes to use and the fire mission (rate of fire). I'm curious how these two variables effect the actual rate of fire that falls on the target. For example, how would 1 tube and heavy fire compare to 4 tubes and light fire? Is there some sort of rule of thumb as to how this works? Since 1 tube will overheat faster than 4 (at the same ROF), is there any reason to bother using 1 tube? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magpie_Oz Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 According to the CMBN manual, when ordering an artillery/mortar strike you select both the number of tubes to use and the fire mission (rate of fire). I'm curious how these two variables effect the actual rate of fire that falls on the target. For example, how would 1 tube and heavy fire compare to 4 tubes and light fire? Is there some sort of rule of thumb as to how this works? Since 1 tube will overheat faster than 4 (at the same ROF), is there any reason to bother using 1 tube? Lesser tubes might give you longer firing times perhaps? Not sure if the ammo is counted on a per tube or per battery level. so 1 tube can fire at heavy rate four times as long as 4 tubes ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackcat Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 If it works as per CMSF the fire mision relates not to the rate of fire but to to the number of rounds to be fired per tube. So a heavy barrage lasts longer than a light one. Therefore, a heavy barrage using just one tube will last as long as a heavy barrage using three but deliver one third of the shells. It is possible that using a lower number of tubes produces a tighter impact area, but I have never made my mind up about this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 If it works as per CMSF the fire mision relates not to the rate of fire but to to the number of rounds to be fired per tube. So a heavy barrage lasts longer than a light one. Therefore, a heavy barrage using just one tube will last as long as a heavy barrage using three but deliver one third of the shells. Not quite. In CMSF you specify 3 things: Number of tubes Duration Intensity So if you decide to do a 'short' duration mission, you could still call for 1-3 tubes doing light, medium or heavy intensity bombardment. So ClarkWGriwsold's question stands. And it is one of the more commonly requested improvements for the interface to give some kind of hint as to how many shells you have available and how many a given fire mission will use up. Currently it is all rather guessing / rough judgement from experience. (Incidentally there is one slight difference between using 1 tube firing at a high rate vs 3 tubes firing at a low rate: 1 tube might land a shell eevry 10 seconds, where 3 tubes land 3 shells together every 30 seconds. Same number of shells fired per minute, but spaced out differently in time. That might make some kind of difference in some circumstances...) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broadsword56 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 This is losing me -- maybe we need an "artillery for dummies" guide once the game is out...? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjkerner Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Not quite. Currently it is all rather guessing / rough judgement from experience. That was always a problem for me in CMSF. Trying to figure out when my barrage would end so I could get my troops moving to follow up quickly before the enemy recovered, without getting my guys hit by a still-falling rounds. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadekster88 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 I always figured the number of tubes is what you are looked for as far as saturation over a certain amount of time goes. As in even though 1 tube at heavy may fire more rounds overall than 4 at light, the coverage and density of things exploding on the ground over the same period of time will be different. Not sure that makes sense. Basically are you firing for suppresion/concealment effects or for killing effects is how I look at my missions. Mind you suppresion kills just as well but there's a difference between calling in a mission because you see a company moving through little to no cover and another enemy company entrenched in front of you. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boresite Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 According to the CMBN manual, when ordering an artillery/mortar strike you select both the number of tubes to use and the fire mission (rate of fire). I'm curious how these two variables effect the actual rate of fire that falls on the target. For example, how would 1 tube and heavy fire compare to 4 tubes and light fire? Is there some sort of rule of thumb as to how this works? Since 1 tube will overheat faster than 4 (at the same ROF), is there any reason to bother using 1 tube? CWG, On page 106-7 of the CMBN manual, the user selects target, number [of assets], Mission [type], Type and delay. AIUI, the "actual rate of fire that falls on the target" is a function of the number [of tubes] times the mission (which establishes the initial and sustained rates of fire). I don't know of any rules of thumb for rounds per minute by Rate of Fire. I'm not sure I agree that "1 tube will overheat faster than 4 (at the same ROF)." I believe all tubes would fire at the same ROF and, therefore, overheat at the same rate. That said, since all support assets under a single icon share ammunition, it might make tactical sense to conserve ammunition for later in a scenario and only have 1 tube support a mission versus an entire battery of 4 tubes. I think I'll try and get a better estimation of ROF rules of thumb & support behavior in CMSF and let you know... Boresite 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zukkov Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 eh, if you could judge accurately when a barrage was going to lift it would make it too easy. timing barrages with attacks was always a problem wasn't it? at least until more modern times. i watched a live fire demonstration back in the 80s. one of the things they simulated was infantry assaulting a hill. the artillery opened up and the infantry(mounted on apc's) moved out. the announcer stated that in an actual attack the barrage would continue until the infantry were practically on top of the objective, but in this demonstration they were lifting it early for safety reasons. that makes me wonder how they know when to lift the barrage. is it timing or does the fo observe the advance of the infantry and when they get to a certain point, he calls it off? is there an fo in the house that could answer that? :-p 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmar Bijlsma Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 I'd be amazed if the artillery UI is not more informative this time. It was one of those things pretty much everyone agreed on as being in need of information being shown more clearly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackcat Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 You are absolutley correct Mr. Vulture. I apologise to the board for posting complete tosh up-thread. I can only plead in mitigation that I am getting very old and it is many months since I played CMSF (it got boring against the AI, I haven't got the memory for PBEMs and WEGO TCP/IP isn't avaialble). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredrock1957 Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 I think I'll try and get a better estimation of ROF rules of thumb & support behavior in CMSF and let you know... I believe ROF and accuracy is based upon the Battery firing and its ratings in 'Experience, Motivation, Fitness, Leadership, Supply and Equipment' found in the OOB table when the unit is selected via a QB or purchased by a scenario designer. Accuracy might also depend on the FO's above mentioned ratings... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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