1.04 Load-Unload Costs for Artillery

[Dan Caviness]

Hey guys...spotted another issue or two in one of our new test scenarios...and wanted to see if anyone else has seen this.

It appears some of the artillery can now load and/or unload for zero APs? We've seen this happen with the heavy artillery units and the rail gun units in the Aachen-West Wall H2H scenario.

So far I've noted the 240mm's, the 155mm Long Toms, and Smedley (thanks Rob!) has noted the German railguns also load/unload for free. I have not seen this with medium or light artillery...but admit I haven't tested all the possibilities.

Just wondered if this is system wide and anyone else has seen it.
If anyone else has created a 1.04 scenario with heavy artillery let me know so I can make sure it's not my program.

We've instituted some Rules of Engagement for our testing to deal with this...being gentlemen and all that...we pinky swore...

1. Assume and take one full turn to load and or unload heavy artillery. I.E., charge yourself the 100 APs it should cost.

2. Don't use water capable vehicles such as the M29 Weasel to move towed artillery over blue water, swamp, etc.

Jason and I have pm'd over this and he is aware.

Regards,

Dan

[K K Rossokolski]

Good find....but surely railguns do not need to unload?

[Dan Caviness]

Nice point KK.
Railguns may not have been locomotive engines, but they never left the tracks.

The way the game plays them they are carried, and cannot be fired while carried. It could be argued that they should be a railed version of SPA...and that makes sense. Unfortunately the game doesn't allow it. In my scenario I used Armored Protection trains as my carriers. They unload, and load, for free.
I suppose you could make that a case for it effectively playing as SPA since the cost is nothing to load and unload, but that wouldn't be consistent with the limber and unlimber costs utilized by all other artillery.

Still...like any heavy artillery piece...I believe any turn they relocate...whether as an element on a carrier or as a self propelled/railed SPA device...they should not be able to fire. I think the game has a viable system, but should charge for the limber-unlimber the way they have it.

All heavy artillery is a bit of a challenge for West Front/East Front/Rising Sun games. Even allowing for the much debated variability of the turn's time frame...(I think I've heard figures from 20 minutes to 1 hour)...some of these big boys took a day to set up. Without special dedicated handling equipment the US 240mm Howitzer took approximately 9 hours set up time. With dedicated and very specialized equipment that time could be cut down to roughly 2-3 hours...but that's still more than 1 turn. So anyway you cut it the game has to deal with it as an abstraction rather than attempt to faithfully simulate the reality of time required.

We're handling it by instituting an informal ROE during our scenario testing, and I'm OK with that.

There are other solutions to the issue, including simply fixing all your heavy guns, or locating them off map since most of them have throws between 90 and 100 hexes.

Of course...it's not really a rail gun then. The rail gun is an anomaly...the big boy that is also somewhat mobile despite it's size.

The big guns were present at Aachen along the West Wall defenses so one way or the other I need them for this scenario.

Regards,

Dan