Hunpecked -> RE: Is artillery too weak? (6/8/2004 9:13:37 PM)
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Mortar effectiveness in SPWAW varies with the situation. I recall one game (my Germans vs AI Polish) when my 50mm mortars literally massacred several infantry squads. They were stacked and my FO had direct LoS, so it was an ideal situation. [:D] In another game (my Germans vs AI Soviets) I had several baled-out enemy crews in full view of my FO; my 81mm mortars got half a dozen kills that day. [:D] On rare occasions I've seen my mortars damage or kill enemy AFVs, and I've lost some of mine to enemy mortar fire as well (once even to FRIENDLY fire!). [:@] Mostly, though, mortars and light artillery are better at suppression than inflicting casualties in SPWAW. That's as it should be, I think, because the game doesn't generally model situations in which artillery should be good at killing in real life. I suspect many historical casualties were suffered in set-piece bombardments that lasted many times longer than a typical SPWAW game, or in day-in day-out harrassment and interdiction fire. I also assume some of those historical casualties were incurred by service troops, which don't even exist in SPWAW. I would expect reduced arty effectiveness in short mobile actions, which are the ones usually portrayed in the game. Finally, targeting an AFV with mortar fire can't really be considered "gamey" if the AI does it. The only thing worse than having a tank routed by AI mortar fire is LOSING the sucker to a 50mm bomb down the commander's hatch! [sm=00000018.gif] On the other hand it is "gamey" in the sense that it was probably very hard to do in real life; given the difficulties of coordinating fire in WW II, I assume effective indirect bombardment of moving vehicles was generally a matter of luck.
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