Enjoying this and some questions

[Fallschirmjager]

This was not even on my radar screen a few days ago. I knew Matrix had acquired the rights to work on old Talonsoft games and I knew work was being done on TOAW but I did not realize it was this close to completion.
I purchased the game and for the first time it is finally clicking with me.
It is thanks to the very well written manual and the excellent tutorial text files.
I finally understand alot of the nuances of the game that had escaped be before.
Very nice work!

And now some questions

1. Artillery, this is something I still do not get.
When I have artillery in the same hex as other units and I set it to attack, how does it go about attacking?
Does it actually try and move forward and attack in a conventional way? Or does it stay back and support the attack by lobbing shells?
I can not for the life of me figure this out. I know I can bombard a hex and I do that from time to time. But I cannot find a way to bombard a hex at the same time other units attack.
The reason I am so confused is losses. My artillery units seem to take losses for reasons I cannot explanin if they are simply supporting the attack.
For example, last night I had a unit that contained 122mm Soviet made guns support and infantry regiment in its attack.
The attack finished and I won easily. However my artillery unit lost a hand full of guns and a few trucks.
How did I lose these? The enemy units only fire support weapon were 81mm mortars that had no hope of effectice counterbattery fire.
So please help a confused soul [:(]

2. Tactical reserve. How does this work?
The way I think it works is when I set a unit to this, it automaticly comes up to support a defense in a place where a breakthrough might occur.
Do I have this correct? I also assume like in real war that these units may never make it through some sort of problem.
Can these units be used on the attack as well?
Say an attack that may not succed but will if I have one extra unit throwing its weight into the attack?

3. Planned attacks.
Is there any reason not to ever use this? Does it act any differently than me just ordering an entire stack of units to attack?



Thanks for any help [:)]

[Siberian HEAT]

1. Artillery is just like a normal unit if you attack an adjacent hex. It takes much more damage because of this. It is usually best to protect them in the rear, or if they only have a range of 1 dig them in on the front line (for an attack) or use the T reserve setting so that you can move them back later in the turn. For new players, especially with units that have a lot of range, the best setting is usually to just dig them in so they support your attacks and help you on defense.

2. Tactical reserve. You have it correct. It will come from ONE hex behind the lines to support a defense only. It will never move up on your own attack. Be warned a savvy opponent can also attack a decoy hex, draw your reserve there, and then attack the real hex...so you have to use these with caution. Likewise, the L reserve is much worse as a unit will travel many hexes to defend a hex...but is much more succeptible to being drawn to hexes you never intended.

3. It is usually not a good idea to just use an entire stack to attack. Instead you want to pick and choose which units you want, leaving some in the hex on defense for the inevitable counterattack. I prefer to just pick and choose out on the map, rather than using the planning dialogue. There are a few reasons I could go into, but the main one is simplicity. You get a better picture of the battlefield out on the map, rather than using the planner.