Question: Infantry vs Artillery

[Warmonger]

For the first time I had infantry engage artillery units. As a result there were a number of remarkable incidents.

The artillery were in a series of clearings surrounded by woods. They consisted of numerous 105mm and 75mm howitzers and 80mm mortars. The artillery were noted by smoke when they fired. It took a long time (30 turns) for the infantry to work their way to the artillery having to defeat some protecting forces on the way.

When the first infantry unit got to the edge of the first clearing it spotted a 105mm 8 hexes away. It fired its primary weapon, rifles, at the artillery. A message came out that the 105 was destroyed.

Question: is it reasonable long range rifle fire could destroy a large gun like the 105?

The 8 man crew was apparently destroyed as well. I've seen multiple hits but never 8 at once, especially at long range.

The artillery units had their gun as a primary weapon and rifles as secondary. As the action went on I noted that almost none of the artillery fired their rifles. The infantry were able to move adjacent to each unit and blast them. Of 12 105s one fired both its main gun and rifles; of 12 75s 2 fired their rifles; of 9 mortars 4 fired their rifles.

Since this was late in the game I'm guessing most of the main guns were out of ammo. But should this influence firing their secondary weapons? Or is there something else which would cause this kind of behavior?

[Mobhack]

Any hit on a team can kill it - teams are considered bunched up around the weapon. Killing all 8 is rare, however.

If artillery is plotted to fire indirect then it probably will not return fire - too busy servicing the guns.

[MasterPiece3000]

Most arty units are not trained to engage infantry. I noticed that most arty units in this game if far enough away from the action rarely have a combat arms team 'guarding' them. For the most part this is also true in real world situations. The same is usually not true if the artillery is light in nature such as small mortars that may be closer to the action due to their range. Many times they'll have a squad or two assigned to that unit for the purpose of engaging any enemy ground units that may try to eliminate the artillery. I will sometimes assign some of my reserve squads to guard the heavy artillery if I can sacrifice them. Most of the time the AI will simply start shelling my heavy artillery instead of sending scout or infantry troops after the artillery. I usually do the same unless I have a scenario that has a lot of turns involved. Most of the time I bombard the enemy's arty but I also may send a scout or squad out to locate the enemy as well. Even a scout team can bring havoc to artillery units that are not guarded. IMHO I don't think it's a glitch in the game. I feel it's fairly realistic to what you experienced.

[DRG]

A "destroyed" crew i.e "Casualties" ----for any infantry type unit can mean everything from they are all dead to they all ran away and are no longer considered "effectives".

Don

[troopie]

Artillerymen receive the basic rifle training all soldiers receive. But they are NOT infantrymen. They will die or gap it if engaged by actual infantry. Also they generally do not have rifles ready to hand. They are too busy servicing the guns, as was pointed out. Your result is very realistic.

troopie

[mkr8683]

Originally Posted by troopie

Artillerymen.. are NOT infantrymen.

Unless they're in Iraq. Everyone gets to kick in doors whether it fits their MOS or not. One of my MRAP gunners was a commo guy!

Matt