On board artillery spacing

[Weasel]

I was wondering what you guys think about on board artillery spacing? I know that myself, and all my opponents, always put at least 5 hexes between tubes, which is inaccurate. In real life a tube may be 50 yards from it's neighbor, but not much more then that or else command and control breaks down.

Do you think that some form of restriction should be created to go along with the FOO rule, for example 4 tubes in an 4 X 4 area max or something like that? This would also force the buyer to purchase transport for his tubes too, which would also be more realistic, after all the boys didn't push that 155mm there.

I know Shortreengage and myself tried a restriction a long time ago, I think it was max 2 hexes between tubes.

I am just noticing that with the FOO rule on board CB is not really an option now.

[Chipmunk]

What's the FOO rule?

I used to put an ammo dump or truck in a hex and put my onboard artillery around it in the six surrounding hexes but I was quickly disabused of that practice.

[jadpanther]

I bet you had alot of CB fire on your positions..........lol

Jad

[Vesku]

I was wondering what you guys think about on board artillery spacing? I know that myself, and all my opponents, always put at least 5 hexes between tubes, which is inaccurate. In real life a tube may be 50 yards from it's neighbor, but not much more then that or else command and control breaks down.

Do you think that some form of restriction should be created to go along with the FOO rule, for example 4 tubes in an 4 X 4 area max or something like that? This would also force the buyer to purchase transport for his tubes too, which would also be more realistic, after all the boys didn't push that 155mm there.

I know Shortreengage and myself tried a restriction a long time ago, I think it was max 2 hexes between tubes.

I am just noticing that with the FOO rule on board CB is not really an option now.

I'm using realistic spread all the time, max three hex apart. In peace time it's 50 meters and during war about 100 meters between pieces but the modern equipment can have any distance within the range of it's gun and still fire accurately, GPS makes things easy.

Guns are positioned more or less abreast, they are not firing over each other if it can be avoided. For a 4 gun battery normal war time deployment would be that a section has two hexes between guns and sections 4-5 hexes between them. Trucks would be 6-10 hexes behind guns. That's WW2 deployment from manual.

[AlienXXX]

I would normally have 3-4 hexes space between arty units.
If ammo re-supply is allowed an ammo truck would sit next to a gun and then, in time, move over to re-supply the next gun, and so on.

For WW2 I do not think it is realistic to have more spacing between arty units. In wooded areas I guess they should be closer. Ideally, guns should be in view of at lest another unit of the same squad.

I would place trucks far enough that they don't get blasted by CB fire. But close enough they can get to the gun position within 1 turn.

The existence of transport or not for each gun/mortar should be agreed as part of the rules by both players.
In a meeting engagement it is assumed both forces are mobile, so transport for arty (or even for all units) should be required.
In an "advance" or "assault" the player being attacked could have one or more fixed positions. I would not expect guns placed in fortifications to move around during the time of an assault. For these cases, transport should not be allowed.
However, for the purposes of a player vs player battle in SP, it may be unfair to forbid the player being assaulted from moving his guns away from CB fire. Realism a side, I guess that the arty transport should be agreed between players before game.

[Grumbler]

I'm not fighting a 'real war', I'm playing SP. So if I'm using motorized vehicles, I keep the formation within C&C range. If I'm using fixed arty guns, I put them in rough hexes and hope my opponent shoots at them. A dug in turbe is very hard to kill, and for game purposes, a unit that starts and ends it's turn in the same rough hex gets the same defensive bonus as one that is entrenched. The only difference to me is that with fixed guns I buy ammo trucks and send them position to position to reload, while with mobile guns I buy fixed ammo supply and send the guns to them to reload. What I buy depends on the terrain. If I have lots of rough to hide in, I'll get the fixed guns, if there isn't much rough, I'll buy the mobile guns.
As far as spacing, I always keep my formations together. By together I mean all the units within the 5 hex C&C range of the zero unit.

[Vesku]

I used to play SP too, now I'm fighting a real war :)

[Grumbler]

Keep your head down, never volunteer and let your Sergeants do all the work.
:smg:

[Weasel]

I was wondering what you guys think about on board artillery spacing? I know that myself, and all my opponents, always put at least 5 hexes between tubes, which is inaccurate. In real life a tube may be 50 yards from it's neighbor, but not much more then that or else command and control breaks down.

Do you think that some form of restriction should be created to go along with the FOO rule, for example 4 tubes in an 4 X 4 area max or something like that? This would also force the buyer to purchase transport for his tubes too, which would also be more realistic, after all the boys didn't push that 155mm there.

I know Shortreengage and myself tried a restriction a long time ago, I think it was max 2 hexes between tubes.

I am just noticing that with the FOO rule on board CB is not really an option now.

I'm using realistic spread all the time, max three hex apart. In peace time it's 50 meters and during war about 100 meters between pieces but the modern equipment can have any distance within the range of it's gun and still fire accurately, GPS makes things easy.

Guns are positioned more or less abreast, they are not firing over each other if it can be avoided. For a 4 gun battery normal war time deployment would be that a section has two hexes between guns and sections 4-5 hexes between them. Trucks would be 6-10 hexes behind guns. That's WW2 deployment from manual.

Well since you are the HERBIE of the group (nickname we call our gunners) I take you as authority. So it would not be outrageous to state max 2 hexes between guns?

[John(txic)]

I think you will find that (in WinSPWW2/SPMBT at least) if you space the guns too far apart, they lose contact with the 0 Unit and are thus often not availble to fire.