A couple of artillery questions

[PKH]

1) After testing a bit with bombarding a hex with multiple artillery units, it seems more effective to do 4 individual attacks than 1 attack with 4 units. This could be just due to the randomness, but I'm wondering if the entrenchment level is only reduced after all 10 rounds of the attack.

When bombarding there is a chance that the whole attack just whiffs and no suppression or damage is done. This seems to happen fairly frequently when I do 1 attack with multiple units against a higly entrenched unit, and very rarely with all units when I do individual attacks on the same unit which is a bit suspicious (I use a saved game to test). It could all be just effects of the randomness, but it has made me wonder if it's related to entrenchment and how entrencment is reduced. If anyone has some hard facts on how this works, I'd appreciate it.

2) Does artillery support friendly units which are under attack inside their range ? I know flak does this against adjacent air attacks, but I haven't found anything about artillery.

Edit: fixed a sentence

[Bonners]

1. That is really interesting and I'd like to know more.

2. Yes, friendly artillery does do counter battery fire against artillery attacks; and I'm sure I've read it supports against ground attacks in its range, but cant find where I read it.

[James Ward]

It sure seems like later bombardments do better.

[The Red Baron]

1) I found the opposite in my last game. I achieved better results when firing all artillery units at once rather than sequentially, as if using multiple units at once had a synergistic effect (I played the Sovs in Uranus.)

2) Artillery does not support friendly units in the same manner as AA. It will not fire on enemy artillery units because they attack an adjacent friendly unit. Counter-battery fire only occurs when enemy artillery units shell a hex in which a friendly artillery unit resides. If you shell an enemy hex in preparation for an attack and you lose 5-15 artillery pieces, you know the enemy hex contains artillery and you're the victime of counter-battery fire.

[PKH]

I ran maybe 15-20 tests and although there wasnt a huge difference, it was enough to make me suspicious. It could just be the randomness, but I'd like to know for sure.

I'd also like to know why artillery don't give support to other units, either bombarding attacking units or counter battery as you said. I can see that it would make attacking a lot harder in some cases, so it might be purely for balancing reasons.

[LiquidSky]

Well...I think of it this way:

Let's say you need a 5 or less on a d10 to get a hit. If I ask you to roll one die 10 times, is that any different then rolling 10 dice at the same time?

But what could complicate this in game? I know that there is an effect if the unit is 'panicked' in that you do increased damage. Is it possible that if you go one at a time, you could hit a unit that is made more vulnerable to a previous hit?

As well, I am not sure how the artillery removes entrenchment/readiness values. Does each artillery just add a set amount, or is there some added just for the strike?

Also to consider is the counter battery fire. Are you letting all the enemy artillery fire at each of your artillery units individually? Or spread out on all of them at once?

[James Ward]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky

But what could complicate this in game? I know that there is an effect if the unit is 'panicked' in that you do increased damage. Is it possible that if you go one at a time, you could hit a unit that is made more vulnerable to a previous hit?

That is what it looks like happens. You fire one artillery and reduce the entrenchment a little. The next knocks it down a little more and so on. By the 4th or 5th shot it seems like you are doing a little more damage. I'm not sure it's worth all the extra clicks though [:)]

[Bismarck2761]

Also, I've discovered counter-battery seems more effective (e.g., worse for attacker) the fewer units one uses. In Tappen_J, the Soviets in Kersh area are mulcherizing my German artillery with counter-battery when I attack in penny packets