Help Seeked...

[Lorenzo]

Hi,

thanks to everybody who took his time to answer my previous questions on the C&C system. I now have problems with artillery; I tried the "Frozen Souvanto" scenario and realized I can't cope with those big guns. Here are my questions:

1. At start many fire icons of guns on the artillery menu are shadowed. Does it depend on the fact that they aren't there yet (i.e. they arrive as reinforcements), that they have already received their orders (i.e. they were scheduled by the designer), that they're out of radio contact, or what?
2. I noticed that several fire icons appear on the map, often in groups of 2, 3 or even 5, resulting, I suppose, from pre-registered targeting. Is that so, and in case it is, do pre-targeted guns fire on themselves (without the player's intervention), or should I give them orders to open fire? And how can I do so? Should I re-select every single target hex?
3. I noticed that mortars can fire both direct and indirect. I supposed that they could only fire indirect in reality. Is this historical?
4. At the beginning EVERY gun in the scenario is scheduled for minimum delay (0.1 or the like). As soon as I assign the first fire mission ALL guns immedeatly shift to very large delays (1.5, 2.2 …). What's the rationale behind all this?!?

Cheers,
Lorenzo

[David F. Wall]

Taking your points in order:

1) The two most likely reasons for the guns being unavailable is lack of radio contact or lack of ammunition. It's not unknown for scenario designers to give artillery only enough ammo for an opening salvo, and certain kinds of artillery (rockets) use all their ammo in one shot.

2) Well, that depends. Sometimes scenarios come with an opening bombardment from one or both sides. Pre-assigned targets have no further bombardment assigned after the original, and if you want to hit those targets again you must assign units to fire on them.

3) I'm pretty sure direct fire by mortars is historical, though I can't speak with any authority. It's been my impression that direct fire by mortarts is not terribly accurate.

4) The guns start at minimum delays because it takes almost no time to fire on the same target as before. As soon as you change the target, the delay increases. By how much depends on the kind of artillery, the ability of the spotter, and the ability of the artillery. The numbers you mention suggest that either you're using someone inappropriate to spot for artillery, or the experience of spotters and gunners alike is remarakably low.

Apologies if these don't address the questions you were actually asking.

DFW

[x6ftundx_slith]

The things I have found with arty are:

1) You really need the right person to do the job or it will take a long time. I mean like a FO (forward observer) or a HQ unit. Using these speeds up my arty requests 10 fold.

2) In some scenarios pre-dertermined hexes are set for bombardment (thats the 1,2,3,etc.) If you want you can just click on these and it will tell you which arty is assigned to this hex. The trick I have found is just assign it to this hex again (in the next turns) and the delay will be 0.1 but then just adjust it from there and it will be faster than normal. You can 'correct' arty up to 2 hexes away from the target.

hope this helps

Commando Solo

[Wild Bill]

Good answers, guys! Don Llewellyn's tutorial team is working on a couple of teaching scenarios on the use of artillery, along with a ton of other items found in SPWAW. They look good so far!

Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

[USMCGrunt]

Lorenzo

In regards to your question about mortars firing direct. "Direct" in this case is really the wrong term to use. Mortars by nature fire a shell in a lobbing arc at the target. In SPWAW, it's a 2D world, so it appears the shell flies straight at the target. This just really simulates the mortar team firing independently on a spotted target within visual range. Yes it is possible and I have even seen mortars used to very good effect on slow moving targets (Advancing troops). As far as hitting a swift moving target..... Well everyone gets lucky sometimes.

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USMCGrunt

-When it absolutely, positively, has to be destroyed overnight.

[Bonzo]

There were mortars that were designed for direct fire, the Canadian 2" for one. Generally these DF mortars have one thing in common, a trigger. while you wouldn't usually DF at moving vehicles, it did come in handy when firing on buildings, allowing fire to be directed at loopholes, windows & doors with either HE or smoke rounds.

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Robert (Bonzo) Lindsay, Coordinator
28th (North-west) Battalion Headquarters
Main http://nwbattalion.tripod.com
E-mail nwbattalion@icqmail.com

[Lorenzo]

First off, thanks to all of you who answered my plea. For David and SMCGrunt...

>) The guns start at minimum delays because it takes almost no time to fire on the same target as before. As soon as you change the target, the delay increases.

Yes, but why do ALL guns go to such delays as soon as I edit ONE of them? Maybe a bug is there, or (more likely) I misunderstand a game routine.

> it's a 2D world, so it appears the shell flies straight at the target. This just
really simulates the mortar team firing independently on a spotted target

Good answer, I was misleaded by my unexperience as well as by the sound - it really sounds like an AT Gun. Maybe the Matrix wizards could insert a hiss preceding the explosion, or something like that.

Lorenzo

[Redleg]

Frozen Suvanto was my creation. The Finnish OOBs were being changed for a long time. The new OOBs ruined the scenario quite a while back. It needs to be redone. It will be but I am thinking I should wait for version 5 so it doesn't get messed up again.

Besides, I have a lot going on right now.

Anyway, the new Frozen Suvanto will be scaled down to about a battalion-sized battle that can be played in an hour or two.