DAR: Alam Halfa Ridge

[RERomine]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

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.

One learns something new every day, but in one of these thread somewhere, you mentioned you use to be FA in the Canadian Army. I figure their organization is somewhat similar to what British used. For clarity sake, it was 136 tubes of artillery which seems to be a lot to throw at one battalion, but on the receiving end, one tube is going to seem like a lot. I like "Fast Artillery Off", so when the AI started to fire, I could go eat dinner. Anyhow, my men were happy to be hunkered down in their bunkers.

The way we get around the PBEM problem is to specify a percent limit of total allocated points. Leaves little room for misunderstandings.

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.

The AI and players generally sling artillery everywhere, on targets of opportunity or what have you. All of this with one FOO to boot. It was something discussed on one of the ladders as being unrealistic and artillery guidelines were created for P2P play.

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 .. "

It makes more sense to do it that way, because I wouldn't have wanted to be in the first four Shermans of the five Sherman approach. One TV show actually had a computer graphics recreation of this tactic. Basically, the first four tanks sacrificed themselves to allow the fifth to get in position for a killing shot. I wonder who thought that one up?

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

Trust me, I expect it. As a player, you adopt certain "procedures" when playing against the AI. One of those is not to stay put where you can be seen for any length of time. When I stop and engage with one of my units, a mental timer starts. By the time it gets to the third turn, I'm starting to think about relocation. The trick is to remember where you've already been. It wouldn't make any sense to move one unit where another just left. All you get there is artillery hitting a target it wasn't actually after, but hitting one none the less. In the defense, this really isn't much of an option. I'm going with fire trenches and bunkers now. Basically, since I can't avoid the incoming mail, I try to survive it.