Re: Some Thoughts on Artillery

On Sat, 7 Mar 1998, Paul O'Grady wrote:

> A couple of thoughts and suggestions on artillery since my last game
> watching my "priority on call" heavy artillery battery ignore calls
for
> fire from my 'specialist' Forward Observer for 3 turns.
>

This has bothered me about DS2 occasionally as well - one artillery
battery on-table, no other commitments, and one of the half-dozen units
on-table with it can't get it to fire?
 
> I havent tried out these yet (next week hopefully) and would
appreciate
> some feedback.
> 
> 1) Registered Targets and Final Protective Fire (FPF)
> All operations are covered with fire plan overlays and registered
targets.
> Obviously more when you are in defence or assaulting a position than
when
> advancing to contact, but obvious defensive positions are registered
for
> rapid engagement.  This isnt really reflected with the current "call
for
> fire" rules in DSII.
> 
> Calling Fire onto Registered Targets gains a +2 bonus on the call,
with die
> types as detailed in DSII rules.  Forces receive d4 registered targets
in
> meeting engagements, d6 when attacking and d6+2 when in a defensive
> position.
> 

So how do you mark RTs? Chits on the table means your opponent avoids
the
chit like the plauge - rendering your RTs useless...Marks on a map would
work, but is more open to abuse...best solution could be RT Chits plus
twice that number of Dummy RT chits.

RTs are the only way I can think of to attack areas presently out of
line-of-sight of all of your forces - which is the biggest problem I
have
with using arty - the enemy staying out of sight, or my forces reluctant
to expose themselves to return fire...

> In attack/defence scenarios, the defending player also gets a FPF
target. 
> This is the "enemy on the wire, save us PLEASE" fire mission.  In real
life
> (as I remember it), this is the absolute priority mission for the
Battery
> and guns are loaded and layed on the FPF firing solution at all times
when
> not engaged in another mission.  Call for a FPF mission overrides all
other
> calls for fire (except the guns firing over open sights in the defence
of
> their own position).
> 
> The defender may plot a single FPF target within 6" of one of his main
> position (be reasonable about this).	Calling for fire on the FPF
gains a
> +4 die mod.
> 
> 2) Deceptive Rounds
> Isn't it annoying that you finally get you call for fire in and then
the
> unit under the markers simply buggers off ?  I know that this is
adjusting
> rounds etc...but I have a cunning plan....
> 
> Some guns/tubes/whatever can also send a few errant rounds to try and
> deceive the Enemy's combat data systems.
> 
> A Battery may utilise one or more of its guns to fire these errant
rounds. 
> Each gun so employed may not be used in resolving the fire mission,
but can
> place 2 (maybe one ?) artillery markers as per a normal mission.  When
> revealed, these markers do not cause any damage or a "under fire"
marker
> (not enough rounds). They are used to simply spoof your Enemy as to
where
> your fire is going to land- he may still work it out though
> 
> - Hopefully, these suggestions may make your artillery support more
> effective.  If not, well the guns might be firing on someone else's
FPF
> after all !
> 

The Deceptive Fire idea is interesting - most of the time, however, I
don't have the spare arty tubes for it...oh well.

> Happy Fire-planning and thanks in advance for any comments,
> 
> Paul O'Grady
> paulog@one.net.au
>