Matrix Games Forums

Hi, I'm playing "Time to Dance" with the Soviets and my arty akatsya which is positioned far away from the main battle field and ordered harassing fire on some hexes cca 10 km away doesn't want to stay where it is. At each end of turn I see that they plan a hasty move order one hex away from their current position. I have each time to re-issue the harrasing fire order.
Huh ? Why that ? Do I miss something ?
Any idea ?
thx

They move to avoid counterbattery fire. In modern war, the exact position of a firing artillery can be found in minutes so the standard tactics is Shoot'n'Scoot

Self-Propelled Arty units will fire missions and then scoot to avoid counter battery fire (basic shoot and scoot procedure). A Time to Dance is a small scenario with limited NATO arty, but other scenarios if you fixed your arty to one spot they would vanish rather quickly.

OK, makes sense.
Thanks !

It keeps your artillery alive so they get to fire more than once. A gamer is not fast enough within the orders cycle to give them Scoot orders after they fire. So, we did it for you! [&o]

Good Hunting.

MR

After auto-hasty moving, will the unit resume the initial harassing fire order alone or will it adopt a screen posture ?

After moving they will go to the On Call state. From there the FSCC or player can issue new fire mission orders.

I really love this feature--it's a great design touch. It nicely balances the control over arty strikes the player has with the realities of having to keep the arty actually alive, and it's pretty seamless. Generally, most of the SOP-style behaviors of the units when they're behaving autonomously is very well handled in this game, which is a tribute to the thought that went into it I think.

I'd agree, I've slowly learnt to trust the AI to pick my artillery fire missions rather than rely on chosen barrage options. There are times when you need that - say prior to a direct assault but especially in the more fluid battles, on-call is a great option to pick

It took me awhile too, but I have learned to trust the AI and normally play with FSCC option on and have found that it done a fairly adequate job. It will chase hq's faster and more actually than I can. I have also found that it will drop arty where I need it before I would get a chance to target it myself. Of course, in my orders phase I will assign specific targets that I want.