Pre-planned artillery-- when to call it in?

[Jobu88]

I have been experimenting with pre-planned artillery as an attacker & would like to know if others use it much and if so, how you time it.

Do you call it in early in the game to soften up the defender?

Or do you set it for later turns to support the final advance to the flags?

I have tried it both ways with mixed results.

If there's not too many terrain features at the defender's disposal, I will usually time it for, say, Turn 18 of a 25-turn game, with the notion of having it land on those key positions as my boys are making the final push.

If the map allows the defender too many options for where to position his forces for the above approach to be practical, I will sometimes use artillery to clear the route of advance.


But anyway -- I would like to hear other members' thoughts about pre-planned artillery supporting attacks.

[Splork]

I've also used it quite a bit as an attacker. Some thoughts:

I've generally used small caliber stuff - large caliber arty is too expensive to go dumping on one spot where you hope your opponent will be. A good player is also going to be careful not to group infantry close together in the obvious spots where you're likely to dump pre-planned artillery.

Because of that, I usually think of it as an anti-gun weapon rather than an anti-infantry weapon. It's too chancy to hope you can pick a spot where your opponent will have infantry at a time when you need it to land. Small caliber arty is going to allow your opponent to recover too quickly if you guess wrong on the timing. But it's very useful to ensure there any guns in a key patch of woods or two are knocked out.

That all said, if there's an obvious patch of cover that's going to be a strong point, I've used arty in an anti-infantry role. Trying to time it is always the struggle - in general, I figure I'd rather be a turn or two late than a turn or two early - I'd rather have my men waiting there rested and ready to charge in than have them get there too late, after my opponent has rallied.

It goes without saying that if you're planning on using a spotter in the pre-plot role, buy conscripts - no sense wasting points on experience. I've known some people who find that gamey, but I've always viewed it as a fair trade for the limitations of having to pick time and place on turn 1. Although if you start buying 10 connie mortar spotters and preplotting the whole backfield, you might get some funny looks...

[Bert Blitzkrieg]

If I can I buy some conscript FO's so to get the biggest bang as cheap as possible and then target an area which I want to pass/take. Try to estimate at what turn i will show up there and then pre-plan my arty strike(s) a few turns less.
I like to mix medium arty (like 105mm) with the real heavy stuff. The medium arty will prevent a retreat and the heavy stuff is meant for the big kill. If there are enough points of course. Otherwise I only use medium arty.

The light arty I try to use as an opportunity/reason arises (smoke or guns etc) and be flexible with it. it is to light anyway to really soften things up.

[Dog Soldier]

Just curious...
Can the lighter artillery have an increased ROF over the heavy artillery to suppress enemy ATG and /or infantry CC capability so one could drive tanks past a constricted area in the landscape of the defense at speed? Does the CM system simulate such a maneuver well? Or is it more productive to just smoke an area to screen a tank force trying to drive past some defenders to go for a position?

Dog Soldier

[Ratzki]

Light arty deffinetely has the ability to suppress enemy guns but I think that smoke is more effective as it will save in ammunition overall. You may get lucky and KO a gun, but the cost in HE shells usually does not warrent this, plus to suppress a gun you will have to target the gun or near the gun. This will mean that shells that fall both too far in front and too far back will be wasted, but with smoke you will target in front on the gun somewhere between the gun and LOS to you units. This will mean that every shell lands somewhere along this line and is potentially effective.

[Dog Soldier]

Thanks for the information Ratski.

Dog Soldier

[Jobu88]

Speaking of smoke --- is it possible to combine a "Target Wide" order with smoke to increase the coverage of the smoke barrage? If so, how do you do it?