Dug-in Infantry, Artillery Bombardment, Kills and Casaulty Reports

[jivemi]

Greetings SP fans. Just finished an assault battle wherein a platoon of Merkavas expended all their HE ammo (save for 4 HEAT rounds) against maybe a dozen obstinate squads and RPG guys on a short ridgeline (four hexes at the top, plain Earth). As the tankers were thus engaged a crescendo of bombardment--perhaps a dozen tubes from 105mm Howitzers to 203m Batteries--crashed down on the target group over the course of 6-7 turns.

Ultimately friendly grunts riding APCs had to finish off the die-hards who refused to abandon their positions even though--for a couple of turns anyway--a few of my units were within the requisite 200 meters (but not in LOS) for enhanced flight encouragement (please see old thread below, Andy's reply post #3). During the entire course of this engagement I did not receive a single message indicating that ANY entrenched casualties had occurred from bombardment (which included 155mm Guns); just one or two routers who had already been driven out by direct fire.

Likewise, since I had plenty of arty, suspected enemy positions were subjected to sustained bombardment by heavies without ever receiving a casualty message. When friendly troops were in sight and range of enemy occupying these areas they seemed to fire back with undiminished fury and effectiveness (the ATGM dismounts were especially unpleasant). Once again direct fire from tanks or APCs, then close-and-personal infantry, was necessary to kill or drive them out. Bombardment was useful only for suppression.

Also have had experiences where my dug-in infantry were on the receiving end of sustained heavy bombardment over 6 turns or more without taking a single casualty. Even rockets--although not CM in these cases--caused nary a scratch.

My questions are:
1) Do 155mm and higher arty (as mentioned in the thread) actually cause casualties among dug-in infantry or dismounts (AT/ATGM teams), or must the targets first rout out of their positions?
2) Do you always get a casualty message (my message delay is set at 1/2) when they're caused by bombardment? IIRC units getting hit sometimes diminish in size or disappear completely w/o a corresponding message of confirmation.
3) With regard to friendly troops being within 200 meters to lower morale among the target(s), do your guys have to be in LOS of the enemy while this saturation bombardment is going on?

Here's the thread link: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44251

Thanks for your kind attention and happy gaming!