Air and Artillery by the Map Optional Rule for D85

[Volcano Man]

...Take all 8 art units in 1 division and fire all at one hex...

The issue is not massing artillery in the manner you describe, it is being able --if the user so wanted to-- to mass every single artillery unit on the map from say, five soviet armies, and put them in one area and use it as a death ray to annihilate everything in its path. Will someone do that with this rule on? It has been done in the past in some campaigns over the many years. But really, that is not the point; I was only mentioning it in passing yet people seem to get so uptight about things! ;)

The good thing on this rule is it lets u drop art mines anywhere on the map, the only thing u have to think about is how damn far can that M109 fire.

Actually, you do not need the rule for that either. All alternative artillery fire (FASCAM, and NBC) can be executed at map locations without the need of spotting.

One further comment: per U.S. Army artillery tactical doctrine, field artillery units always have a mission (DS, R, GS, GSR) and are NEVER in reserve.
So if an INFANTRY DIVISION were in reserve, with no organic spotters on line to see potential targets, that divisions entire DIVARTy would be unable to fire at all, even if many good targets were within range of all the DIVARTY M109 "Paladins". That situation would be total nonsense!

I agree with the principle of what you are saying. However, I don't think the issue is whether or not an artillery unit CAN execute a strike by grid coordinate, surely they can do that since most of the artillery strikes I have every called are done that way anyway. The issue is the chain of command and how communication goes up and down between a specific artillery unit of a certain organization and a unit that is requesting artillery from the same organization. I don't think that a unit in a seperate corps could easily request an artillery strike from a neighboring corps, much less from a diferent division -- or at least I have never seen that happen. On the other hand, in the real world artillery units can be reassigned and tasked out where needed and this is represented *sufficiently* with corps level assets. Divisions can be assigned or even corps level assets can be assigned to different corps depending on how an OOB is organized in the game. I stress "sufficiently" because it is not perfect but I think it realistic enough given that what it is trying to accomplish.

What it comes down to is abstractions though due to making a wargame. Obviously the artillery model could be improved quite a bit but to say that a unit should be able to make a radio call and summon corps and divisional artillery from any unit in the area, especially if the unit calling for fire isn't part of any of those organizations, is just as much nonsense. I guess in the end it really doesn't matter, it just depends on how the game is played. Smaller scenarios certainly would not have an issue and if you play a reasonable opponent there would not be anything gamey to worry about. But really, most people apparently play only to win anyway and if they can get away with it they will do it.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the rule. I have played with it on in the past but I generally prefer not to use it because (by not using it) it encourages unit integrity. Most veteran PzC and MC gamers will tell you that these games need everything they can muster to encourage unit integrity and keep people from scattering units all over the map and, in this regard, many rules have been instituted over the years to do help in this area.

Anyway, I only mentioned the issue in the original post to provide the other side of the story of what can be abused with it and therefore why it is an optional rule and not a default one. I do agree with what you are saying about US FA units being tasked out when their divisions are in reserve, I do not mean to imply that I disagree with the principle of what you are saying, I guess I am only saying that limitations must be made in a wargame or otherwise it wouldn't make sense (in the real world) to have artillery units assigned to any specific organization in the first place.