Enemy Artillery AI is bugged

[byzantine1990]

Played a couple scenarios and both times Soviet artillery doesn't do anything. I have not been hit by a single barrage. This was in scenarios Lessons of War and the basic training. Both times it seems like artillery just moves forward with the convoy and gets destroyed.

[Argyll]

Thanks for reporting - sounds like we need to check the Battle Plans on those scenarios to make sure the artillery is set to On Call, and not included in the movement orders.

[Erik Rutins]

Soviet artillery is very much working. It may be a scenario-specific issue.

[CapnDarwin]

The Basics Tutorial, the Soviet Artillery unit is part of the FSE and on the move. It's basically a target. As for the Lessons of War issue, we will need to review the setting, as Erik noted.

[cbelva]

I looked at that scenario last night and it is a scenario specific issue. The arty is part of the maneuver force and which has an assault mission. In the past I remember the arty moving forward but stopping and supporting the assault. We will need to dig into and figure out why it's not working now.

[Argyll]

I made some updates to Lesson of War so we will prevent the issue from happening. But as Charles reports, there might be a larger issue at play.

Here is a screenshot after I made changes, of a CPU vs CPU game where the SPA unit is called in.

image (9).png (798.27 KiB) Viewed 553 times

Essentially, I had to remove the artillery unit from the Force that had the Assault orders. Once it's receiving its On Call orders only, it can effectively be used as fire support and will not advance towards the enemy.

[cbelva]

The developers have been looking at this and working on it this morning. There should be a fix in the first update.

[blond_knight_new]

Lesson of War

Jeez, dont make them better. I think I played Lesson of War last night and that Soviet artillery fire was brutal. It sealed off the 1500pt objective very well.

[byzantine1990]

Just played the first campaign of the Big Red One campaign and still the Soviets run their artillery into my guns.... Three scenarios and I still have not faced a single artillery/mortar bombardment.

[Argyll]

We're taking the reports seriously, even beyond just editing the scenario, there is some behaviour that isn't expected happening as you're pointing out. So we're on the case!

[byzantine1990]

We're taking the reports seriously, even beyond just editing the scenario, there is some behaviour that isn't expected happening as you're pointing out. So we're on the case!

Good to hear!

[blond_knight_new]

Ive only played two games so far. One as the US, one as the Czech's.
So far its been my experience that AI arty and FDC are skilled and deadly. You better keep moving, shoot and scoot, and deploy smoke to block LOS with enemies or you will become an artillery target.
Not saying you're wrong, but Im not seeing what youre describing.

[Jagger2002]

I just played GM Girard as the French. I couldn't win it in Southern Storm but achieved a tactical victory in Cold War. Only 2 russian 122mm batteries survived in the CW scenario and they only knocked out 1 tank, 1 APC and 1 inf. Very, very poor performance by 2 batteries of 122mm Russian artillery. Playing as the Russians in CW, I noticed 2 122mm Russian batteries hitting a hex with a French mech platoon and a SP AT platoon. They were hit simultaneously by both batteries totalling 36 rounds and no damage. My general impression is NATO artillery is just as effective as in Southern Storm but Russian artillery has some sort of problem going on within Cold War.

[Argyll]

Thanks for the additional reports. It's good to identify which scenario, as blond_knight_new pointed out this experience isn't happening for everyone across all scenarios. So we need to replicate and diagnose as a systemic or case-by-case scenario issue.

[BeirutDude]

Played "It Begins" this morning as the Soviets (twice) and I had On Call artillery fire. Not going to say I was thrilled with the size of the on call barrages, seemed kind of anemic for the amount of SPA available but it fired.

[CapnDarwin]

@BeirutDude, welcome back. Was the issue the number of missions or the effectiveness of those fired?

[BeirutDude]

Jim, thanks (FPC:CW actually flushed me back out). Number of Missions was my question about the On Call strikes. It seemed like just one battery dumped about 30 rounds on a target and then they (and the other 5) went for a vodka break! From my memory of Soviet tactics I thought multiple batteries were going to strike a target of opportunity TOT (or as best they could manage TOT). It just didn't seem consistent with Soviet tactics, or at least my understanding of them.

[CapnDarwin]

I'll ping William and see if there is an issue with WP not directing multiple batteries on a target. It could be that we are not clumping RAG or DAG assets into fire groups in CW at the moment.

[WildCatNL]

The FSCC as a rule does not assign multiple missions to the same target.
We did improve the assessment of targets in Cold War, looking at the total number of targets in the hex, and we are applying thresholds to prevent an MLRS being wasted on single sniper sections. However, we haven't done assessments for 'under coverage' of a target, and the need to employ more than a single unit to neutralize an important target.

[Lowlaner2012]

I haven't been here in a long while, but I bought CW and its been great so far, I've been playing since the original Flashpoint, in 2012 I think...

I have noticed that red arty does not seem
to be as effective as NATO arty, I played a small scenario as the French, I had Mech inf units sitting on wooded hills, they were pounded again and again by soviet arty, they or there other brother units in adjacent wooded hills that were bombarded also took no losses, literally no casualties...

That doesn't seem right to me...

One question tho, what impact does having or not having a spotter impact arty effectiveness?

I'll have another look tonight and post a save...