Artillery rate of fire
 

Hello all,

Planning a bombardment on behalf of the HQ unit (A0) instead of a spotter takes a lot of time, 3.3 turns in my case. It is natural and understandable, but what evades me is why subsequent salvos also take 3.3 turns instead of, say, one.

I thought that once planned and ordered, artillery should be able to fire additional salvos at the same target with no special delay caused by HQ coordination.

Re: Artillery rate of fire
 

You have to use the shift fire mission button to maintain that Bombardment and you play a slight penalty to shift fire depending on the observers rating. If you just pick a new area to drop arty you are starting a new bombardment and therefore start over from the beginning

Don

Re: Artillery rate of fire
 

Repeat missions, as Don says take little delay.

a) once its finished a mission (ammo buttons all up):
a.1) - select the piece on the arty menu, and then either press the HE/Smoke/DPICM button to fire at exactly the last point or
a.2) Use the shift key and the circle comes up, situated on the last target hex, to allow shifting.
(don't do a and then b, as a and b each have a delay)

Both of the above are repeat missions - and so the call time is much reduced. However if you simply plot a brand new X,Y and press the ammo button then that is a completely new request for fire (as you describe doing in your post).

Several shifts may put the delay past 1.0 - thus delayed a turn, but that can often be less waiting time than requesting from scratch.

b) If the battery is in the process of firing, i.e. the ammo button is still down, then the shift key is available to adjust the current target point.



This method can be used for a continuous creeping barrage, if you have not programmed one pre-game or for an impromptu walking barrage, or to search around a spot.



There is absolutely nothing new in this - Artillery has been that way since Steel Panthers 1 came out in 1995ish..

Re: Artillery rate of fire
 

Ah, I see now. After the initial mission is completed, the target hexes are shifted by some 2-4 hexes in random directions probably to emulate the aiming error. If I don't touch them or use the shift command the delay is small indeed.

Thanks, question resolved.

Re: Artillery rate of fire
 

I was confused because the UI is somewhat counterintuitive. After a bombardment mission has been completed and the ammo button is up, the delay shown against the artillery unit represents the time required to plan a brand-new mission, but if I press the ammo button it drops back to the correct value of 0.1-0.2 turns for a repeat mission.

Is this behaviour or repeat missions themselves described anywhere in the manual, for I couldn't find it? If you won't mind my imperfect English I might volunteer to improve the manual, after I have obtained a full understanding of artillery in winSPWW2 of course, which will take time.

Wrting instructions from the learner's perspective has its advantages.
Well, I have never played the original SP.

Re: Artillery rate of fire
 

I always thought the Interface was Very intuitive...
The Game Guide page "Playing WinSPWWII -Tutorial" gives a quite in-depth explanation, including spotter aircraft, shifting fire, continued missions, etc. As the guide says:

"...you should know that the bombardment screen is much more difficult to describe than it is to use. The explanation is long-winded but once you’ve done it, the great interface will make it a breeze to use..."

Re: Artillery rate of fire
 

Well, I said why I didn't find it so, and I do not ascribe that to my idiosyncrasy. The presence of a selected hex on the map in bombardment mode seems to be the only indication of a possible repeat mission, if it be the right term.
In my copy, this section is only eight paragraphs long and does not mention continued missions. Would you please quote the relevant fragment so that I could determine whether I am totally blind or my manual is obsolete?
I had read this text and it had made me wonder where the long explanation was.

Re: Artillery rate of fire
 

The bottom line to all of this is although occasionally a new player may have difficulty at first understanding how some features work in the game after using it once or twice it's easy to understand and use otherwise we'd be hearing about it more and after 17 years dealing with player issues I can tell you it's very, very rare

Don

Re: Artillery rate of fire
 

That is why I suggested to do the simplest thing, i.e. to modify the manual, not the game itself. It would help those without a Steel Panthers background.

Re: Artillery rate of fire
 

I will review the instructions and, if I feel there needs to be more clarity. I will add it

Don