Pack Rat
Posts: 594
Joined: 5/8/2000
From: north central Pennsylvania USA
Status: offline
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Using artillery correctly can be one of the most powerful forces in the game. It does take some getting use to. First your spotter or forward observer is going to be the unit that is highlighted as you go into the artillery screen. Try to have this unit as a forward observer which you can buy with your battle points. They have the best artillery rating which you can see by right clicking on the unit, this allows the best response time for your artillery to fire.
Setting your artillery fire is done by being in the artillery screen and highlighting the hex you want the gun to shot at. You then click on the fire button for that gun and a yellow marker should appear. This means the gun will fire there within the time indicated by the numbers. For example 2.o means 2 turns, 1.0 means 1 turn, .1 means your going to see the shell hit as you end your turn. Set the rest of your fire mission. You'll notice that all the numbers aren't the same for arrival time, this means that some gun crews are better at their job than others, and some weapon types are considered fast response. You'll learn what is what through practice and experimenting. Once your gun has finished it's fire mission it remembers the hex it fired at (planes don't). This is very important. To see where the various pieces fired last click the button which says what they are (105mm for example) this will show you the hex. If you now click the fire button and bring up your yellow marker again you'll notice the guns response time is much faster than it was before, again real important. Why you fire where you do is kind of dependent on your style of play. You might actually see the target, you might be firing at on board artillery that has given its position away with smoke appearing above the hex, but let's say you've set up a straight line fire mission with your guns and you can see the enemy troops. This is where the art in artillery comes in  If you set the mission to where they are now and you see by your response time it will take a full turn for the barrage to arrive, this could be a problem to a degree cause they won't be there. So maybe you have to figure out how far to lead them so they will be where the artillery will arrive. This takes practice. But let's say that the first fire mission was right on and you can still see them, they've moved some though and you'd like to hit them again. Now we're going to "walk" the artillery. Bring up your art. screen and find where the guns fired last, don't hit your fire button yet. On the far right of the button row for each piece is a radius button, with the guns last fire hex highlighted hit the radius button and you'll see a red circle 2 hexes around the high lighted hex. Use the mouse and click on the hex you want to move the shot to. You can do this as many times as you want, but after a time or two it is faster, response wise, to just set a new fire mission. This is walking your artillery. Ok I left this part for last because even though you do it in your troop deployment screen it's importance can better now be understood. Preplanned fire hexes. Again this is the art of the artillery. You're now faced with deciding where to put the hexes that are automatic fast response for your artillery. In your artillery screen when setting up your troops there is a button in the lower right called the priority fire button. Click on any hex any where and a yellow marker with a number in it will appear. To get rid of it high light it and click the button again. What you do with these priority hexes is up to you. Do you use them for quick response to where you think the enemy will strike, do you use them for support for your troops when they get to a certain spot, this is up to you. The number of hexes you're allowed is dependent on the size of the map you're playing on the larger the map the more hexes you get to mark. To use these markers go to your artillery screen when in battle and you'll now see them. If you have one highlighted and push a fire button you'll see something like a .1 response time, this is real good and better if there is actually something there to shoot at.  It gives you a warm fuzzy feeling to see that you've set your priority hexes well. Remember that you can walk your artillery off these priority hexes which gives you a wider area of fire. When you set up your priority hexes you can also set your first round of fire when you're setting up your troops. This round will go off before any one can move. It's guess work. Newbies have a tendency to set their units as close to the start line as they can, vets know this. What you set, if anything, for your opening barrage is up to you. I like to blow bridges that I won't use and the enemy will. I like to lay waste to nice smooth raods so the enemy doesn't move as fast. So don't laugh if you see your opponent shooting out in no mans land, they've probably got a plan, it could be the spot they'll drop their airborne Smoke. You set it up the same as you do a normal fire mission only hit the smoke button instead. I know one player who would rather run out of HE than smoke and his style of play proved it to me, I've never beat him or tied him. If your infantry is on foot and you have to cross open ground, smoke it.
I'm sure there are some things I've forgotten and someone will come along to fill in if I have. All I can say is practice. I've been playing since SP1 and it's taken that long to refine it, hell I'm always refining it. You know you've done well with your artillery if your opponent complains. Hope this helps and have fun, you've just discovered the best game around.
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PR
http://electricwar.tripod.com/
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PR
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