Counter Battery Q

[Air Master]

HI;  I am not sure either.  In two games I am running right now I have batteries with superior range to the enemy waiting to CB but nothing, but in a previous game CB occured with 5 turns of game start.  

FROM THE MANUAL:

How do I fire counter battery fires on enemy off map batteries?

You (the player) do not, your gunners will attempt to locate off map batteries themselves, and allocate any units in range to CB fires.

For a battery to fire CB missions, it needs to be idle (not plotted to fire missions), it needs its crew quality to be good (better than 60 or so, and the higher the better), have HE ammo to hand, and to have equal or better range than the enemy battery in order to be able to reach the target. It also has to pass a chance roll. Off map artillery units range is shown as a number usually in the 200 series or more, 209 is longer range than say 205. Range information is found in the encyclopaedia entry for that battery.

AND

Direct Support is less responsive than normal arty, General Support even less so. The delay is longer for calls for fire, other than onto gold spots or as a pre game bombardment (their main use). Shifting fires costs a little more for these type of batteries and they are less likely to be in radio contact as they are theoretically shared with other formations than yours. As well, they are less likely to fire counter battery fires if left idle.

This is the big one, it appears that if you just buy and leave your artillery as Direct Support then the chance of them firing CB is reduced since they are tasked with supporting the boys.  I always wondered why they had the "artillery under command' option.