SP III ARTILLERY TIPS
Basic points to be aware of.
1/ Using your H.Q. troops as 'spotters' will get a quicker response from your artillery units than any other unit until dedicated artillery spotting and command units become available (FIST-V, ACRV2 and MOAV units). It's important to remember that you will have a limited amount of orders available to your H.Q. troops - probably not enough for every artillery piece you have.
N.B. the FIST-V or MOAV units that are attached to some western tank or mechanical infantry company's don't have as high an artillery command rating as the ones bought separately from the 'misc.' screen.
2/ Units don't have to be able to see the enemy to command arty to fire at them. Units that have a high artillery command rating give more accurate results. Prior to the dedicated FIST type units,. SAM, AA, & anti-tank guns are the best units to use to call in fire.
3/ 0.0 - 0.2 delay = rounds arrive at the end of your turn.
4/ 0.3 - 0.5 delay = rounds arrive at the end of your opponents turn.
5/ Hits in the same or adjoining hex as enemy units will cause suppression even if no units are destroyed.
6/ If a mortar or arty piece moves, it can no longer fire that turn unless you cheat using cheat 2 below. If you set the unit to fire before moving it will still fire from its new position.
7/ Ammo trucks/dumps never re-supply smoke ammo.
8/ Gun crews never leave their guns and retreat/surrender . Mortars sometimes retreat one hex but will never surrender.
9/ Guns in burning hex's are usually destroyed at the rate of one per turn but can sometimes be rallied enough for them to still fire.
10/ A fire in a burning hex can be put out by further H.E. rounds in the same hex. So once you get a hex burning that contains an enemy gun try not to hit it again with further rounds.
11/ When attacked from an adjacent hex the gun (in ready condition) always gets the first shot, often destroying or pinning/buttoning its attacker.
e.g. During a test whilst writing this I used twenty one TO 62 flame tanks (7 groups of 3) to attack 18 x 155mm howitzers (a battalion in 3 groups of 6 in the centre of a forest). I entered the adjacent hex's with the tanks and by the end of the turn all 3 hex's were burning but I lost 10 tanks doing this. The guns were all destroyed by the fires without further attacks during the next 4 to 5 turns.
12/ IMOP. MLRS/URAGON and AP firing arty are so deadly they should be limited to a figure agreed by both players. In the usual large meeting engagement games I've found 12 or 16 tubes maximum is plenty. FASCAM is too deadly to be used and a real game spoiler, unless in special games where for example the opposing force is far superior in numbers.
Tactics
13/ If you are using howitzers try not to fire until you've spotted the enemies main arty and started to apply counter battery fire. Only allow your units to fire repeatedly from the same hex once enemy counter battery fire is no longer a threat.
13a/ In modern games when you are Player 2 don't open up with a pre-game bombardment if your opponent has quick reaction arty, or you'll end up on the wrong end of counter battery fire when your opponent shoots at the puffs of smoke your arty barrels produce. (FIST-V and MOAV give a 0.0 to 0.2 sec delay anywhere in range).
13b/ Don't place ammo trucks near shoot and scoot stuff, but place it somewhere your arty can reach. One method is the 'diamond' technique - Place ammo at 12 o'clock, arty at 3 o'clock for first fire mission, SPA then scoots to 6 o'clock , fires, scoots to 9 o'clock, fires, scoots to 12 o'clock reloads. Move ammo to fresh area. Fire arty. Continue the waltz !!
13c/ When using shoot and scoot arty tactics and enemy counter battery fire is a danger make your arty fire at 0.3 to 0.5 second delay (click on a hex near the target and use the shift fire button to use up time moving the cross hairs over the target). This lets your arty fire at the end of the other players turn and he cannot then counter fire before you move during your own turn.
13d/ When using towed arty don't place their carrying trucks in the same or adjacent hex, if they get hit the burning wrecks will cause suppression to the arty units themselves and effect their accuracy or pin them in place.
13e/ Try not to fire from hex's near other important units as any enemy counter battery fire directed at your arty could hit nearby units causing kills or suppression.
13f/ Don't forget the simple mortar, 90% of the rounds a mortar fires usually hit the targeted hex, this causes high suppression of the enemy units making them an easy target for direct fire next turn by your own units.
13g/ Always place a couple of pre-targeted hex's behind your enemies lines where you guess his arty will be. This allows quicker counter battery fire or air attacks to be made.
13h/ My main artillery priority early in the game is always counter battery fire, 'do it to him before he does it to you'.
BUGS, CHEATS & GAMESMANSHIP
Make your own mind up and agree with your opponent wether any of the following should be allowed.
1/ Self spotting artillery.
If you click on the actual unit that is going to fire then enter the bombardment menu and select a target hex within its range you will get a 0.2 delay which gives immediate artillery fire at the end of your turn.
2/ Forcing out of contact artillery to fire.
Units that are out of contact or have moved (shaded out in the bombardment screen) can be forced to fire by using the shift fire button.
3/ Ammo Growth
Certain units that are capable of firing armour piercing rounds suffer from a bug that causes the amount of AP ammo rounds carried to rise. After the units have fired, the amount of AP rounds available rises to 256 rounds which is more than enough to last an entire scenario without the unit re-supplying. I believe the cause of this is due to that if the ammo load and rate of fire uses up the rounds so that the unit has exactly zero left, the bug doesn't happen. Only if the rate of fire tries to drive the rounds available to a negative number does the bug happen. Due to this, the bug doesn't always happen every time.
I've found units that are always effected are the French GCT and the W.Ger Pzh 2000, believe me these units become the most deadly on the map because of this bug, AP arty rules modern SPIII games!!!
The 25lb howitzer also occasionally suffers from this bug too, but I've found the AP rounds have little or no effect so I stick with HE anyway for this unit.
4/ Fast re-supply of ammo
When either a unit is taken to an ammo truck/dump or an ammo truck is taken to the unit, it takes two turns for the unit to start re-supplying. This is because for the first turn one of them is still classed as moving. The trick to this is to park a platoon of trucks in the same or adjacent hex as the ammo truck or dump. Take the guns or mortars to the hex and unload them , load them in the platoon of trucks and unload them again. As the platoon of trucks hasn't moved the guns or mortars will also show as unmoved and will show an increase in ammo when examined next turn.
5 Diverting incoming enemy air attacks
The computer A.I. for some reason has a raging hunger for trucks. Nearby moving trucks will almost always be attacked by enemy aircraft instead of your valuable arty or MBT's. If trucks are moved the maximum they can each turn (faster moving units are seen easier by the planes) but kept near the arty pieces they will cause any incoming planes to divert and attack them.
Needless to say never leave arty onboard trucks or in the same hex as trucks when enemy air is around......
Craig Leeming
17.10.98
