Counter-Battery Fire

madflava13 · Post by **madflava13** » Mon Feb 26, 2001 7:23 pm

I'm new here, so forgive me if this is a silly Q. Also, I looked in the archives and couldn't really find an answer...
My Question is this: Is there any way to "force" counter-battery fire? I'm playing a WW2 Campaign as the Germans... I'm in 1940, North Africa, and have yet to see one of my batteries fire a CB mission. Even when I leave them idle for a couple turns this does not happen. (I've tried all sizes of Arty too...) Any thoughts?
I actually have a second Q as well.. Has anyone else had problems downloading the manual off the Matriz website? I can't seem to get it to work for me... Thanks for any help you all can provide.

Dedas · Post by **Dedas** » Mon Feb 26, 2001 7:29 pm

I have no idea how to make the batteries to do a CB mission, but Ive heard that its done automatically. (Never seen it though)!

About the manual... never heard of the problem...sorry!

edppcli · Post by **edppcli** » Mon Feb 26, 2001 8:23 pm

In order for CB fire to work you requirethe following
1) The largest possible calibre of artillery- as 1940 GE I beleive this is 150mm
2) This artillery must remain uncommited , that is to say you cannot use it for any fire missions.

After that it's all up to the computers algorithms. Remember this is for your offboard artillery CB firing against enemy offboard artillery. If you want to counterbattery on screen gun positions you have to spot, and adjust them yourself.

edppcli · Post by **edppcli** » Mon Feb 26, 2001 8:23 pm

In order for CB fire to work you requirethe following
1) The largest possible calibre of artillery- as 1940 GE I beleive this is 150mm
2) This artillery must remain uncommited , that is to say you cannot use it for any fire missions.

After that it's all up to the computers algorithms. Remember this is for your offboard artillery CB firing against enemy offboard artillery. If you want to counterbattery on screen gun positions you have to spot, and adjust them yourself.

timc · Post by **timc** » Mon Feb 26, 2001 9:06 pm

Counter battery file works. Edppcli has the method exactly right. Keep in mind that according to the manual, counter battery fire against off-board artillery is based on the possibility of sound and flash ranging the firing units. That would be a very iffy proposition.
It seems that the counter battery unit must be larger caliber than the target unit (I'm not sure about that, but based on observation). In my long campaigns I never saw any counter battery fire against the awful Italian 305mm naval guns until I played an amphibious assault. Then my 14 in and 16 in naval guns routinely fired CB. On one turn I saw four ships firing at the Italian 305mm.
The question you have to ask as a commander is "Which do I need more, counter battery or close support?" and allocate your firing batteries accordingly, keeping in mind that you may not get any results from counter battery. I've found that if enemy off-board artillery is hurting me badly, like when I'm trying to breach a minefield, counterbattery is a useful investment of resources.

Pack Rat · Post by **Pack Rat** » Tue Feb 27, 2001 12:56 am

I believe I've had counterbattery fire occur with all my usable guns commited. I keep all my guns commited to fire missions, at all times. The only exceptions for me is when I'm trying to load ammo for on board units and don't want my position given away. Range is key however in succesful fire and if you don't have it you won't get it.

Some one should be able to verify this.

It would be impossible to search out all the comments we've had on this forum concerning wish lists for this subject, but trust me they have been brought up.

------------------
PR
http://electricwar.tripod.com/

madflava13 · Post by **madflava13** » Tue Feb 27, 2001 2:05 am

Thanks for all the advice guys... I guess I will just have to wait and see...

Flashfyre · Post by **Flashfyre** » Tue Feb 27, 2001 5:18 am

Unlike modern warfare (with arty radars and satellites spying), counterbattery fire in WWII was, at best, a hit-or-miss proposition.

Unless someone (a spotter plane, ObsPost on a hill, etc.) could see the smoke and flash from enemy arty, counterbattery fire just didn't happen.

As for in the game....it is true that the larger caliber guns on each side will attempt CB fire, if uncommitted to a fire mission, AND they are unsupressed.
Also...it seems that the in-contact status doesn't matter. I had a battery of US 150mm CB fire on some German 105s, but my guns, though uncommitted, were also out-of-contact with my forces. Yet they still performed a CB mission.

------------------
The Motor Pool
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BruceAZ · Post by **BruceAZ** » Tue Feb 27, 2001 7:08 am

I don't know if this really has anything to do with it but I notice that I never seem fire CB when I do not have a FO available...

Give that a try.

Bruce
Semper Fi

Alby · Post by **Alby** » Tue Feb 27, 2001 8:55 am

Originally posted by Pack Rat:
I believe I've had counterbattery fire occur with all my usable guns commited. I keep all my guns commited to fire missions, at all times. The only exceptions for me is when I'm trying to load ammo for on board units and don't want my position given away. Range is key however in succesful fire and if you don't have it you won't get it.

Some one should be able to verify this.

It would be impossible to search out all the comments we've had on this forum concerning wish lists for this subject, but trust me they have been brought up.

Hmm I just played online game and left 2 155FG batteries idle for counterbattery fire and they not once counter fired...oh well sometimes they do sometimes they dont...