To Counter Battery or not to Counter Battery...

[RERomine]

I'll throw in 2 cents.

The thing about counter battery is it can take guns off their primary mission: supporting the troops at the broken end of the bottle. As you pointed out yourself, lots of people like to keep their artillery moving so counter battery can be a waste of time. Sometimes, it's not. All you can do is watch to see if the enemy artillery seems to be moving. If it's not, it's worth taking trying. With on-board artillery, if you can manage to suppress or get larger guns moving by firing counter battery with smaller guns, all the better.

By constantly pressuring the enemy troops with yours will often keep counter battery to a minimum. It's not forced, but seems common. I've got a non-ladder game going and my mortars have been firing for a lot and moving during during brief lapses. The enemy's flank is giving in so rather than firing counter battery at my mortars, my opponent keeps fire on the front. Again, it's a matter of supporting the troops at the front against "sure" targets rather than possibly wasting it firing counter battery at mortars that might have moved. All of my mortars have moved, some by truck and some walking, but they have moved.

Some people start a battle moving artillery and then when they don't see counter battery coming in, they get "lazy" and stop. I've been guilty of that myself. Generally speaking, if I have something that has fired before, has a cloud hanging over it and isn't firing now, I should move it. If it's mission critical at the moment, I keep it where it's at.

Something similar to what you also mentioned, I have positioned my artillery in a large diamond formation with a supply point in the middle. When they need to resupply, they move to the supply point and do so. No firing allowed from an immobile source of supply.

One thing you mentioned that I don't do is keep my guns near the edge. This is assuming you don't plan on moving the guns. You mentioned some advantages, but one major disadvantage is if the crew happens to be retreating or routs, they are GONE. I had four 12-man crews run off the edge of the map before. Not one casualty, but the guns were just as worthless as they would have been had they been destroyed. With a little distance between the guns and the edge, you do risk getting hit more, but panicked crews can be rallied and returned to their guns, after the counter battery is done. While they are away from their guns, the guns might as well be protected by an electro-magnetic shield because unmanned guns can't be damaged.

This isn't as big a problem with SPAs. If artillery hits close enough to rout them, they will probably be immobilized or the gun knocked out. They usually don't rout unless they take damage. Being mobile, I've never had that problem with them running off the edge of the map, however because I keep them out of trouble.

With mortars and towed guns, I usually only buy enough transport to move half of them. The half with transports with them fire first. Once I'm ready to move, I load them, move as far as the transport will take them and then unload. If the other half has started firing, the transports move to them and prepare to repeat the process. Otherwise, I can just prepare to fire the ones that just moved again. You get the most distance from the original firing point if you are moving mortars. Small guns don't get moved as far as mortars, but farther than large guns. I only use large guns (150mm+) during battles where I don't feel I will need to move them. Doing it this way allows me to save a few purchase points by making more efficient use of my transports.

The bottom line is there is no hard, fast rule on whether or not to use counter battery fire or to use measures to protect against counter battery. It's a guessing game. You have to watch or know your opponents tendencies. If you've played them enough, you will know what they are likely to do. Changing your own tendencies might allow you to win the guessing game during a critical battle or a point in a battle. In the end, it's all a gamble.