How to make progress despite heavy arty bombardments?

[MarkShot]

Some of the scenarios feature massive amounts of arty. Like you are against 10 gun batteries (including rockets and heavy flak) and this is not counting mortars.

How are supposed to make any progress under the type of barrages that that creates? I find that that kind of fire power can turn back an attack or cripple a defense even when the OPFOR only has one or two broken units in contact. Locating and neutralizing OPFOR arty generally isn't feasible. Trying to move through cover and at night may buy you some small respite, but it still doesn't do much for you once you have made contact.

So, how do you expert players handle it?

Thanks.

[coralsaw]

No expert here, but I'll humbly contribute.

Arty is a Royal Pain in the @rse, as in real life, I suppose. I've repeatedly asked the Panther chaps for a "Mine" command that would take the troops underground a-la vietkong, in vein though. Beyond that:

1. Arty's biggest problem is lack of ammo. Make him spend it where he shouldn't. That means conducting faints and probes, and sending recce units to establish contact with the enemy fast, and hope he'll be trigger happy.

2. If he can't see you, he can't shoot you. FUPs get badly affected, so buckle up outside his LOS, and provide security to a forming force. I'll usually take recce troops or engineers (which I shouldn't, but...) and defend in front of the FUP in a wide front, to not let the enemy scout my main force.

3. Attack or approach away from killing zones if possible. Obviously, big guns have big radii, so that's only good in either long-term scenarios or against mortars.

4. Mechanised or armoured forces fair better when bombarded than poor roof-less grunts. Lead with recce units or even armour in open ground.

5. Don't mass the troops together. If you expect heavy artillery, establish a wider front and attack in successive lines to minimise disruption.

6. Attack with the most cohesive, better trained formations first, they'll take it much better than green troops.

7. Avoid open ground and attack through the woods if possible. Unless it rains big time (105s and bigger) and treeburst kicks in (in which case you're stuffed anyway), you're better of in the woods.

8. Conduct attacks in smaller formations. Batallion is good enough. You don't want your full Regiment replanning in the middle of open ground if one batallion gets hammered up front. Best to attack or probe with the batallion and let it bunker down, and follow up with the bigger attack if coordination in a larger scale is needed.

9. Go arty-hunting only if you have fast agile forces and are almost certain where the target could be parked. If you find them you'll either make them relocate and thus waste time, or at a minimum, make them defend themselves and take their muzzles away from the main force.

10. Night is for resting, and in any case time is always too precious, so I won't wait, special circumstances excepted. If it rains, grin and bear it.

/coralsaw

[JJKettunen]

Originally posted by MarkShot
Some of the scenarios feature massive amounts of arty. Like you are against 10 gun batteries (including rockets and heavy flak) and this is not counting mortars.

You say 10 gun batteries are a massive amount of arty? That's only 3 arty Bns and a battery...

On a related note, is the German artillery in the game just as fast and flexible as the allied artillery? For mortars this would be fine, but not for the heavier stuff...

[MarkShot]

Well, I am neither a historian or a hard core war game (although I do play AA and CM(BO/BB)). So, to me a lot of arty is simply a lot arty unit icons on the map all pounding on me at the same time.

Dave could probably answer questions about setup times, time on target, reloading, etc... But I can testify to the fact that it hurts!

[JJKettunen]

Originally posted by MarkShot
Well, I am neither a historian or a hard core war game (although I do play AA and CM(BO/BB)). So, to me a lot of arty is simply a lot arty unit icons on the map all pounding on me at the same time.

When 30th Corps arrives in the historical campaign, it comes eventually with 6 arty regiments and 2 batteries. That equals 56 batteries of artillery. Now that is a massive amount of artillery.

[Mr.Frag]

Was playing last night until about 4am

It was a true nightmare of a slugfest. I managed to blow almost all the river crossings so the only path left for 30 corps was right up to Arhem.

Between all my arty pounding everything trying to get into south Arnhem and all his atry pounding everything of mine in north Arnhem, you could actually watch strength numbers going down on troops as they were dieing that fast.

I lost count, but I seemed to have about 100 88mm, 50 odd 150mm, and 50 odd 105mm, not including the various oddball rocket troops and mortars.

200 guns raining down shells into a fairly small area is just scary.

[JJKettunen]

Originally posted by Mr.Frag
Was playing last night until about 4am

You too!

Originally posted by Mr.Frag
200 guns raining down shells into a fairly small area is just scary.

200 guns equals 50 batteries.

[Mr.Frag]

4 guns to a battery eh? One always wonder where they came up with the numbers for things like this? I guess it was the range that an arty officer could yell and be understood back in the cannon days

[JJKettunen]

Originally posted by Mr.Frag
4 guns to a battery eh? One always wonder where they came up with the numbers for things like this? I guess it was the range that an arty officer could yell and be understood back in the cannon days

In fact a battery could have 2-6 guns, but 4 is the most common number. An arty Bn has usually 12 guns and an arty regiment 36.

[Arjuna]

Originally posted by Keke
In fact a battery could have 2-6 guns, but 4 is the most common number. An arty Bn has usually 12 guns and an arty regiment 36.

Batteries range from 2 to 8 depending on nation, service and gun type. German and American Bns typically have 3 x 4 gun batteries - ie 12 guns.

But Regiments are another fish. American and German usage means simple three Bns. However, the British use the term Regiment to mean different things. In relation to arty units it normally means the equivalent of what the Germans and Americans would refer to as a battalion - in that it usually has two, three or four batteries.

By way of example a Br Mdm How Regt has two 8 gun batteries - ie 16 x 5.5" or 4.5" guns. A Br Fld How Regt has 3 x 8 gun batteries - ie 24 x 25 pdrs. ( The latter is effectively equal to two American or German Bns - at least in terms of number of guns ).

[Kevinugly]

Artillery, queen of the battlefield:). It certainly is in RDOA but it does balance the game quite well with the Germans having much more than the Brits to compensate for weaker and less numerous infantry and armour. I enjoy the game more playing as the Germans as I can lure the AI 30 Corps units into 'killing zones' buffered by mostly '2nd line' troops keeping the more powerful units in reserve for the counter-attack.

Playing as the Brits I do find it more of a struggle although I do normally score a victory in the end.