[gdpsnake]

Yes, the 10.5's are limited in counter fire since they don't have the range to conduct fire against the 4.5 inch guns for example. However, the bulk of the AI's artillery was 25 pounders and the counter battery fire was extremely (thank god) effective against them. At the end, all but 2 of them were badly damaged/out of action.

Yes, I was confusing the numbers of guns but the purchase points were correct. Thank you for the inputs.

Two reasons I put artillery in my core force:

1). I find that if you don't have artillery assets in your core force you will be overwhelmed. Remember, I am working in the 4000-5000 force size range so the additional purchase points even for an assault rarely allow the buying of more than 2 or 3 off board batteries which is inadequate for any assault. And you will want pioneers to clear mines, perhaps some paratroopers for harassment, etc. I usually see about 2000-2500 support points for an assault and a light battalion of batteries is 600 with a heavy around 800 points. Those batteries don't have unlimited ammo either and over a 40 turn assault you can't spread 1 or 2 battalions of batteries out that long.

2). Units in my core gain experience and when my batteries become veteran or elite they really perform magnificently in counter battery fire solving a lot of enemy artillery issues.

I know many will argue to buy on map artillery assets with a few munitions and I do that to make up for the lack of what I can't buy. The problem is, those on map assets do not counter battery fire and are often taken out by the AI's off board assets meaning one has to have off board assets or be at the mercy of the other side. Nothing works like clearing obstacles with artillery raining down on you - right?! LOL. You want to succeed in a assault? - you have to take out the enemies artillery both on and off board and you need plenty of smoke.

I did not know the AI gets a choice of direct control versus general control in purchase? And these provide discounts? Does a player have that option and how do I use it? Could you reference a place to read up on this in the manual?

Truthfully this seems very imbalanced in game terms since general/direct control for an AI is the about same thing. So the AI gets a much more massive artillery purchase, gets to use it just as effectively either way and pays no penalty because the purchase is 'pro-rated.' I would say that the artillery overload score should be adjusted/based on the actual purchase price of the weapons without any discount.

Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who has/is making inputs. Most appreciated.