Artillery

[choppinlt]

I could present an argument that WWII artillery was the weapon system with the greatest impact on both the tactical and operational levels of combat. With that in mind, I have spent a lot of time and effort to replicate its impact. Only artillery units have the ability to fire at long ranges to strike enemy units. This is accomplished through special orders known as Fire Missions. There are two basic types of fire missions: planned and reactionary. Planned missions are set to be executed at a player-specified time and place. Reactionary missions are only executed under certain circumstances that develop during the action phase; therefore the timing and placement of these missions are not planned.An artillery unit is available to perform a fire mission if it is in C2, unlimbered and ready to fire, in range of the target, has enough ammo, and not performing another mission. Fire missions are subject to significant variations of artillery availability and effectiveness due to national doctrines. The level of support from a given artillery unit can also have a significant impact on its response. The 3 levels of support are General, Direct, and Dedicated. General Support are artillery units at the Division level (and sometimes the Corp level). Artillery units attached at the Brigade/Regiment level are considered Direct Support. Artillery units that are attached to a battalion/battle group are considered Dedicated Support. For example a light field artillery battalion assigned at the Division level may be attached to subordinate commands like an Infantry Regiment, or a specific battle group/battalion.

The Fire Missions currently available are:

Counterbattery is a reactionary fire mission that directs an artillery unit to stay silent until an enemy artillery unit is detected firing. If the enemy artillery unit is in range, the unit will fire a significant amount of ammo to prevent the enemy from completing its fire mission.
Registration is a planned fire mission where an artillery unit is ordered to “register” its guns to better support a friendly unit defending a position. Registration takes a significant amount of time, but requires small amounts of ammo. If the artillery unit moves, all registration points are lost.
Opportunity (Op) fire missions are reactionary missions that artillery units are available to perform when no other orders are being currently complied with. When a unit detects a moving enemy unit it will make an Op fire mission request from available artillery units to hit the enemy unit. Available artillery units will then decide whether or not to answer each Op fire mission requst.
Interdiction is a planned fire mission that directs an artillery unit to hit “choke-points” located in a area to slow/prevent enemy movement and/or resupply for a period of time. Options will exist to destroy bridges.
Area Fire is a planned fire mission that directs an artillery unit to hit known (or suspected) enemy positions.
Stand Down is not a Fire Mission, but it is an order that may be issued to direct the unit to not fire at all for a player specified period of time. This order may be given to prevent a unit from performing a fire mission for a specific period of time. This is necessaru because it is assumed that unlimbered artillery units are ready and available to respond to potential fire missions. This order can be used to keep the unit "quiet", to insure the unit can rest and perform maintenance, and/or to allow replenishment of ammo without chance of further depletion.

Artillery units may be issued a primary and secondary mission. Over 50% of the batteries in the unit will carry out the primary mission, and the rest will carry out the secondary mission. E.g. an artillery unit has 3 batteries with the primary mission of Op Fire and the secondary mission of Counterbattery. Therefore 2 batteries are available for Op Fire, and the remaining battery can respond to firing enemy artillery units that are detected and within range.

Artillery may not move and fire at the same time. Towed artillery units must limber to move, and unlimbered to fire.

Let me know your thoughts and comments.

[choppinlt]

So here is a rough sketch of some of the concepts in play illustrating Op fire. You are looking at 2 US infantry regiments with 2 infantry battalions each and each RHQ. Then you see the DHQ and 4 arty units. 111 FA is attached to the 175th, and 110 FA is attached to the 116th (i.e. Direct Support). 224 FA and 227 FA are in General Support since they remain at the division level. All arty units are ready for fire, in C2, and have full ammo.

You will see that every infantry unit has its footprint and ZOC visible. You will also see the thick red arrow lines coming from 5 of the 6 German battalions; this denotes their movement vectors. Finally note the black dashed lines between the US infantry battalions. This delineates the Zone of Action (ZOA) of each battalion. This is important because a unit will only make a Fire Mission Request against a moving enemy unit in its ZOA. Please note that none of these lines will be visible during game play (unless toggled on).

During the detection segment the US units detect 6 german units, and 5 are moving. So 5 Fire Mission requests are made as follows:

1/175 has FMR against 3/915 and 2/915
3/175 has FMR against 1/915 and 3/914
2/116 has FMR against 1/914 (2/914 is NOT moving, so no FMR is made)
1/116 makes no FMR since no enemy unit is moving in its ZOA

1/175 and 3/175 are in C2, so 111 FA can handle 3 of the 4 requests. FMR 4 is then bumped to DHQ since they are in C2 where either 224 FA or 227 FA would receive the request.

2/116 is in C2, so 110 FA is sent the FMR.

Each receiving arty unit determines whether to execute the request or ignore it.

OK, so this is the rough concept and will need thorough playtesting, tweaking and is sure to evolve, but you can see that put a little thought in to it. I hope the grognards are licking their chops knowing that all of this is part of the process, but I don't want to frighten any casual players or noobs. You don't have to know everything I said to effectively play the game. These processes occur due to a few simple choices made by the player when giving orders.