[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by RERomine

It does get a little difficult keeping things too historical, unless I want to turn the game into a research project. I know what the Germans had, but not when, where or how many they had.

Technically speaking, all war games are designed with an ahistorical angle to them. The losing side of a battle has a chance to win, different equipment is present than in reality, numerical odds are different, etc. During WWII, it was figured it took five Sherman tanks to destroy one Tiger, but in the game you can't get three Shermans, must less five for the price of a Tiger.

I figure the AI tends to go ahistorical in generated campaigns most of the time, anyhow. Otherwise, it wouldn't be using 34 artillery batteries, including twelve 7.2in, to support an assault against my reinforced battalion. Dealing with 48 7.2in howitzers wasn't fun, but it wasn't unexpected. For the first time in a defend, I bought bunkers and hid all my infantry in them until they were actually needed in the fight.

Part of the ahistorical aspect is my fault. My preferences are for "AI Tank Heavy". Since I have mine set that way, I have to go ahistorical to deal with the numbers of tanks the AI throws at me. That's all fine. The objective is to have fun and not recreate history, right?

48 7.2 inch are but 6 batteries. The British use 8 gun batteries for mediums and field arty. Some gamers seem to get confused with the 2 by 3 or 4 gun platoons/troops which make up a battery, especially those whose armies only use little 4 gun batteries. So if you PBEM a UK player and agree a max of 2 batteries - expect 16 tubes from your opponent to your 8 tubes, that is historical and not cheating on his part.

Artillery is unlimited in the assault, which is historical since the attacker has all the time he needs to bring up equipment, like at the Somme say.

What we don't have in SP is the British and Commonwealth multiple battery fires onto impromptu targets (this is available in the old Wargames Research Group WW2 tabletop rules with reinforcing batteries, and "fire blows"). So no ability to call for an "Uncle target" unless you have bought all the divisional artillery, which would be rather expensive. It would need some way to create a "Fire blow" unit containing all the divisions/Corps/Army guns but only 5 rounds gunfire (hence much cheaper than buying all the div's guns with all the ammo assigned to your front for the entire battle which is the SP way, as all arty is "under command") to drop into a 250 by 250 metre square all in one turn.

http://members.tripod.com/~nigelef/m...tery%20Targets

From 1943 onwards, this really is the preferred .uk anti-Tiger response though, rather than trying to duel them with Shermans.
"Uncle Target, Uncle Target, Uncle target. Tigers at grid ABC123"... And if anyone still was present after that, then "Hello One this is Two, repeat .. "

NB although the Americans could produce concentrations like the British, it was not a routine tasking for impromptu targets. The BCE system pulled all guns off their current tasking to shoot the concentration which was something the US were reluctant to do. Also BCE arty observes were implicitly authorised to order such fires, so no joining a request queue at the "Fire Direction Centre" to try to wheedle some idle batteries as in the USA system, the hammer was dropped on the FOOs say-so with every tube in range from the Regiment (bn)(Mike target), Division (Uncle), Corps (Victor), Army (William) or Army Group (Yoke).

But the AI pick lists do reflect the arty of the participants, so expect the BCE, USA and USSR AI pick lists to be strong in that arm.

Cheers
Andy