Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: CptHowdy

I would like to be able to give my arty units more than 3 barrage orders in a turn. currently I can order my arty to barrage a hex 3 times and all 3 barrages will arrive in about a 10 minute time period, usually at the beginning of the turn. if I have a command cycle of 30-50 minutes that means I have arty on call and being directed by the AI for the rest of the turn. I know we have shoot and scoot and that is fine but at least let me order my arty to continue to pound the same hex for the duration of my turn. it can move all it wants just keep firing where I told it when possible!! I let the AI give fire orders but a lot of times I find it lacking such as using suppressing fire or firing on empty hexes when I have enemy spotted in more dangerous positions.

quote:

ORIGINAL: MONKIE
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5) reduce the time of the artillery visual effect and highlight the hex which is being fired upon.
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quote:

ORIGINAL: kipanderson

... but FOW needs a tweak together with limits on the total amount of ammunition per type of artillery for a given scenario.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mam Russian

Air burst effects for artillery as well as illumination rounds for night combat.

quote:

ORIGINAL BROJD

A bonus (maybe in reduced waiting time) when Arty is given Direct Support orders to their own HQ units. In the game, this encourages the reality that artillery units usually support their own formation and it recreates that faster call-for-fire and approval process for organic units.

quote:

ORIGINAL Iron Mike Golf

Arty control measures: CFL, FSCL. These would be modeled by affecting delay. In-scenaro artillery TRPs. By this I mean, I should be able to make a target list and update throughout the scenario. These would take time to become effective and would reduce time to fire. Registered targets. These would be like what is currently in the game now, but would be the fastest arty missions. Also, it would require expending rounds (arty units start with fewer rounds) and accuracy/effectiveness would be increased. Should only be applicable to units set up in a defense.

quote:

ORIGINAL calgar

Artillery

1.) Ammo indicator, also for non-standart ammo
2.)Smoke screens to be fired for a certain amount of time.
3.) "Overwatch" for GSR Indicating an area, that is to be overwatched. Arty that is dedicated to the GSR will start firing once enemy units cross this area.
4.) An Fire Support Tab, similar to the aforementioned Engineering Control Window. Showing the total of available Indirect Firing Units, which missions they have and how much high value ammo there is left.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Iron Mike Golf

Be able to set the amount/mix of HE, FASCAM, and Smoke for arty units in the scenario editor (and illum, RAP, etc once these are implemented)as well as being able to set replenishment rates for those special munitions.

quote:

ORIGINAL: pzgndr

I'd be interested to see how all this is treated in the game, specifically: call for fire delay times, adjust fire versus fire for effect (FFE), setting TRPs, setting/shifting priority fire(s), effects for smoke and illumination rounds, etc.

quote:

Original: Tazak

A. FOO - if/should they be separate units, or modelled with existing HQs as sub-units. If they are modelled should fire missions be brought to bear quicker and more accurate.
B. Mortars - quicker reaction times compared to standard arty guns
C. Counter battery fire controlled via arty/mortar locating radar systems - although suspect this may be more of a option if GSR is introduced.

quote:

ORIGINAL: calgar
Smoke

To get closer to real life we would need to be able to specify the time for how long we want the smoke screen to be up. Usually, to get an idea, you would fire four rounds of smoke (155 mm, DM35/DM45) to set up a 500 m screen (so one hex....) and would then start to fire 2 rounds per minute to maintain the screen. Strong winds should make it impossible to set up smoke screens.

Ammo Related Issues

Could it be that you currently only see percentage of HE ammo? It would be necessary to see the other ammo types too. The stocks of Smoke shells seem to be to low. SmArt and Illum rounds are currently not in the game. SmArt should be highly effective against hard targets that are immobile and are in the open. Illum rounds should illuminate its hex and all adjecent hexes. DM26 rounds cover roughly 900 m if handled correctly.

Off-map Art

Some Art units should stay off-map, dependent on the scenario. Maps are often too small to justify the guns to roll up on the battlefield. An ArtBn can easily need a positioning area as big as 29 km^2

Counter Battery

The longer the guns fire, the higher the chances to pin them down. Otherwise is counter-battery fire more a job for Div level units (at least in Ger...) and neither a soviet RgtCdr nor an allied TF/Bde/Bn Cdr should be bothered with that. I think a fair amount of abstraction is OK. At least for me.

Fire Missions

I would change the terms that are currently used to "disrupt" (x1) "destroy" (x2) and "annihilate" (x3). That would bring the terms closer to real life. Suppress should be a seperated fire mission, similar to a x2 mission in terms of ammo usage, but again for a given time frame like smoke, or illum. By the way, how is suppression handled in the game? effects? impact on speed? do mines cause suppression?

quote:

ORIGINAL: calgar

I would recommend a UI similar to the one in Steel Beasts. Input: enemy unit type, desired effect/fire mission, cover, maybe ammo to be used, allocation of firing units. Output: Ammo consumption, Time on Target, overall mission time.

I think the implementation of such UI improves the immersion of being a Cdr talking to your FDO and figuring out what to do. Talking about immersion, I don't want to open a new thread for this: Does someone know if there are any plans to implement overlays? e.g. fire support overlay, obstacle plan etc...

Thanks Tazak for addressing the suppression issue!

EDIT: A Sync option would be great, so to be able to sync the start of a fire mission with, let's say, another unit crossing a waypoint.

Another addition to my point "Fire Missions": Mixed barrages (Smoke/HE) to prevent the enemy from peeking through the screen. Another one would be "Overwatch". the effect would be that you allocate a certain area to an Radarsquad or FO and they call in fire once the enemy is moving through it. Could be used to overwatch minefields for example.

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ORIGINAL: el hefe

So for FASCAM capability within the direct support battalion, we could deliver one 400m x 400m minefield with ammunition at the battery level. Usually, there was enough ammunition at the battalion ammo trains to provide for an additional FASCAM minefield but those trucks would have to pushed to the battery, unloaded, etc.

As the FASCAM battery, we could cut down on the preparation time if we had a pre-planned FASCAM minefield that was rehearsed and part of the maneuver plan. Then, we could already have the target data computed, rounds unloaded and guns laid on their respective targets.

After shooting this massive amount of rounds, our battery ammunition levels would easily be down to 50-60% and would require an immediate ammo push from battalion.

As far as Redstorm, I feel that the FASCAM minefields are way too easy to employ. A prepared pre-planned and rehearsed FASCAM minefield would take the battery approx. 45 minutes to fully emplace. A hasty FASCAM minefield could easily tie up the battery for an hour and a half.

My NATO opponent in Fulda, emplaced (I believe) six FASCAM minefields within the first three hours of game time. Six FASCAM minefields would have left NATO with no other targets to engage and would have consumed a massive amount of on hand ammunition in which NATO would have to seriously cut back on other kinds of artillery missions.