Battlefield Support Missiles and Rockets?

[thatguy96]

I can quickly understand why these aren't included in the stock game (debatable usefulness and it would require sucking up more OOB and more importantly weapon slots), but has anyone attempted modding something like this?

Most battlefield rocket and missile systems had a conventional warhead similar to that of a large aircraft bomb, so I wonder if it would be overly difficult to mod an off-map rocket battery set to ROF 1 (or whatever seems appropriate given information on number of launchers per battery and reload times etc) with an extremely limited number of rockets with relatively high accuracy and payloads (doesn't warhead size over a certain amount create splash damage into surrounding hexes?) I've just been browsing through the US Army monographs on the history of systems like Lacrosse and Honest John and got curious if anyone has experimented with such things as off-map assets.

[Marcello]

Accuracy ratings do not effect indirect fire. Else we would have had things like Krasnopol and Copperhead a long time ago. You can test it, jacking accuracy up to 90 or what not and in indirect fire dispersion will stay the same. That's why in order to simulate smart shells FOs have been beefed up some versions ago with additional ratings.

[thatguy96]

Alright, I didn't know that, further explains why no one is experimenting with this.

[Marcello]

On the other hand the built in game artillery accuracy may actually be too high to represent, let's say, your run of the mill north korean export SCUD which could fall anywhere on the map.

EDIT
300mm rockets with unitary warhead are already in the game.
You could tinker a bit with them to simulate certain weapons but as I said there are code limitations which restrict how much you can wander off...

[thatguy96]

I might if I find the energy or the inclination. If even just for experimental purposes. I've spent a fair amount of time creating unorthodox weapons in terms of code limitations hehe.

[Suhiir]

Unorthodox?

I've made a Daisy Cutter delivered via C-130.

That count?

[thatguy96]

Heh, yeah, I did that. Did you create a weapon for it? I created an ammo carrier unit with crew set to zero so you could use it as intended (kinda maybe hehe).

I've created psyops loudspeakers, CS grenades, I tried leaflet bombs (ends up being the same as CS cluster bombs, so I just stuck with those, I could add them in later if I wanted heh), and other things I'll likely think of. Its fun to see what you can get away with if you accept certain game realities. Oh yeah, WP marking rockets, manually emplaced booby traps, and air dropped sensors.

[PlasmaKrab]

Sorry for jumping the thread late, not much online access these days...
But plenty of time to sort out OOBs, so I tried this one out not long ago.
I modded FROG-7 and SS-21 offmap batteries into the Algerian OOB for testing both end of the accuracy range.
Values were as follows: range according to formula for potential further use, HEK=HEP=255, WHS according to aircraft bomb ratings, accuracy 1 and 255 respectively.

Debriefing:
-Accuracy has really NO influence. None. Same CEP for both models. I reasoned that systems of that ilk had quite short unsupported service lifes so were phased out quickly, so one could pretty much time the ingame service dates with that of FO units of suitable technology level.
Even then, I haven't found the change in accuracy caused by top-notch FOs (including allied para OPs from OOB 13...) to be worth the bother and reflective of the accuracy of modern missiles.
In both cases, FROGs are basically in the ballpark (or out of it, if you prefer), but the 50m CEP of the Russian SSMs of the last 20+ years are nowhere to be found.

-HE effects are unimpressive at best. I tested the weapons first against assorted clusters of entrenched troops, and the lethatlity was close to zero. Effects on morale were better, routing a wide zone of good troops where it would have been taken several batteries of medium arty for the same effect.
Against softer opponents, it has to be mentioned that I happened to wipe out whole squads of moving troops regulary, but I still don't consider that worth the overall bother and potential tactical incoherences.

-I included them also as teh ultimate CB units, but haven't manageed to test that yet. In the case of backwater FROG/Scud users, the experience levels won't even raise the question in any case.
I have kept the ATACMS in the Cold War Mod in any case, and it turns out to be of less use as a regular MLRS latoon at game levels.

-I have kept them as 93-code offmap MRL batteries (can't remember the class right now), with 2 launchers/weapon slots per unit (that's for Soviet stuff with doctrinal 4-launcher battalions), ROF=1 and 1 or 2 TEL loadout depending on the estimated reload-refire time (anything over 2-3 minutes gets zilch available reloads, same for regular MRLs as far as I'm concerned).
Which means that you end with 2 to 4 missiles per battery, tops.

To sum it up, the exercise is rather pointless in usual combat terms, but you can include thm in custom OOBs where room allows, being understood they are for scenario use only. A specific text file could be interesting to have in that case.

[Suhiir]

My Daisy Cutter is aircraft delivered, has basically no accuracy, has rather limited effects on anything but soft targets in the open.
But it's fun !

WC=11, Acc=1, WepS=2, WarS=255, HEP=20, HEK=255

[thatguy96]

Suhiir said:
My Daisy Cutter is aircraft delivered, has basically no accuracy, has rather limited effects on anything but soft targets in the open.
But it's fun !

WC=11, Acc=1, WepS=2, WarS=255, HEP=20, HEK=255

Yeah, I thought about the "big bomb" weapon option, but with the seperation of OOBs for my pack, I had more free unit classes again to fool around with such things. So I went with an option that would allow the use of the game's paradrop mechanic.