Laser ordinance guidance /designation from ground?

[Basileus]

I see what you mean, RAEME_Dave, make the firing unit off-map, and use the FO unit to guide the round. SP3 didn't have off-map artillery other than naval and fixed wing air, and I had difficulty creating an artillery unit that can toss HE as well as Copperhead. Since these guided munitions are worthless without the designating unit, I just mounted the Copperhead directly on the FO. While this impacts reality in that if the FO gets nailed you lose four Copperheads, or if the FO fires four Copperheads then it's out of ammo, it was the best compromise considering SP3's limitations. With WinSPMBT and off-map artillery, I suppose we could make say a four-round Accuracy 90 off-map unit and pair them up with a conventional tube off-map unit in the formation? The only problem with that is, if you give the conventional tube a fire mission and use the Copperhead unit in the same turn, you're effectively doubling the ROF of the same artillery formation (same problem if the FO unit fires in the SP3 version). Also, nothing stops the Copperhead off-map unit from map-firing on its own (won't hit well, but it can do it), whereas an on-map Copperhead firing unit would represent the necessary laser designate. One more thing, an off-map Copperhead unit will need a low ROF to reflect guiding individual rounds, or it will fire a flurry of Copperheads each round toward a target hex; an on-map firing unit can fire one at a time at a target, and using weapon slot 3 or 4 would keep ROF down. For these reasons, I'd recommend an on-map launch unit, in a mixed off-map/on-map formation so you don't buy FO units with Copperheads and no supporting off-map artillery units (one can always cross-attach the FOs to the supported line maneuver units during setup). What do you think?

Basileus