Realistic Artillery Management - FOO Rule

[Cross]

I've been convinced - by those more learned than me - that although a FOO could handle two target areas simultaneously, it was the exception not the rule.

So one target area, one FOO; is probably a realistic limit. But for me this still leaves the matter of 'sheafs' (US) or dispersed artillery, rather than the single hex concentration.

Personally, I think the FOO rule helpfully addresses gamey artillery, but goes too far by only allowing a FOO to target a single hex.

In my mind, the most standard and useful artillery strike is a line.

I bet many of you remember when all SP artillery rounds landed in this pattern:

*
-*
*
-*

For those of you who don’t, IIRC every round would land in that line pattern without exception; the line may have been off target but once the first round hit you knew where the rest were going. I prefer the way it is now, but my point is the importance of the 'line'.

The current FOO rule forces you to have about four FOOs if you want to pound a front of 500m, say a tree line. Which is just too far from realistic.

If one were to agree to a rule that allowed a target area (one of my earlier suggestions) it may prove difficult to police, but how about allowing a player to plot artillery within a 100M of one another?

This way you can choose any pattern you like:

Line
Linear
Bracket
Tight circle
Wide circle

This would allow a player to replicate real life strikes, without permitting plots all over the map.

From a policing standpoint, it wouldn’t be much different than the current situation. The only thing you’d be looking for is artillery landing close to adjacent.