Matrix Games Forums

I think I've popped a vital vein in my head or something, because this has completely slipped my memory:

Counterbattery fire - do OB arty automatically fire at enemy OB arty, if they are not assigned a target?

In other words, if you leave a battery without target, will it target the enemy OB? :p

No. It does increase its chances of CB fire if you do not target the guns elswhere, but not guarantee it.

Goblin- A Goblin shoots at the shooters;)

Ah, it works in that fashion.

Thanks Goblin!

For that matter, counter-battery fire will occur even when you DO use all the arty that can be assigned that turn. Presumably it uses a unit that was 'greyed out' but who knows. I often see counterbattery fire this way during the .5 moment.

Go figure.

Question: Do many players leave at least one long range Arty unit unassigned in order to register counterbattery fire? I always seem to have too many other jobs for them. Is it effective enough to warrant the sacrifice? Also, I find the best use of airstrikes is to attack concentrations of the enemys arty (less possibility of blue on blue fire and a good look at his rear areas). Also, in game terms, does counterbattery fire use up any of your ammo?

Originally posted by willy
Question: Do many players leave at least one long range Arty unit unassigned in order to register counterbattery fire? I always seem to have too many other jobs for them. Is it effective enough to warrant the sacrifice? Also, I find the best use of airstrikes is to attack concentrations of the enemys arty (less possibility of blue on blue fire and a good look at his rear areas). Also, in game terms, does counterbattery fire use up any of your ammo?

I never leave any batteries unassigned if i have targets or even suspected targets. As i said, i even see counterbattery fire doing this. The reason, of course, is as you say "I always seem to have too many other jobs for them". Even when i spend ALOT buying arty, there never seems to be enough. If i dont have armor concentrations to target strike aircraft on, i do use some to target arty, but strike aircraft do awesome damage on infantry, so i try to target inf concentrations if there is any way to do it, keeping in mind that aircraft dont 'LIKE" to target inf.

I assume it uses ammo, never checked tho.

Are some nations more inclined to CB fire than others?

I've had Scharfschütze's stinking Marine Corps CB my arty TWICE in three turns!

Meanwhile, I have never ever ever ever (repeat as needed) seen my own arty CB.

I think range is the critical factor here. May even be in the manual... but I am 100% sure I have read this either there or here in the forums.

I actually do leave batteries unassigned to do CB.

When I began playing, I was annoyed to see my big guns waste precious ammo on CB, but after taking some and watching the results on my own arty (tubes out of action, loss of ammo, whole batteries or even battallions(when the HQ is hit) out of contact for several turns) I am now very happy to see my arty deal out CB.

Belisarius: Seems I got you really bad last turn... 3x6 hits while CBing!!!:D

Your 150mm´s are actually firing CB, too, despite being beaten on range.
Are you unaware of this? Not that they would be doing much damage...

Originally posted by Scharfschütze
Belisarius: Seems I got you really bad last turn... 3x6 hits while CBing!!!:D

*groan* :rolleyes:

I don't know if they are still effective, but unless matrix took them out the numbers for Off boad counter battery fire are in the back of the SPIII manual. I've tested a little bit and from what I've seen it makes no difference if your units are firing or not. Range does matter, but it does not appear to be the main factor. Back when the range would be shown for arty fire, I trianglated the ranges and determined that my arty was firing from about hex 112,49 on a 100x100 map. I was going to try different size maps and see if the location of my arty moved. I never could figure out what to do with the data so I quit testing. I did discover that the range will sometime drop to 5 for your off board arty. I never did figure out why, and it didn't appear to affect c/b availability, although I've never got a fire mission out of an off board battery with a range of 5. It could be coincedence, but I set all my ranges at the end of every turn anyway.
T