The role of artillery support

[Sensei.Tokugawa]

It seems that unless the artillery assets have range of one hex they cannot be used in the direct support role for an attack That means that the range 2 guns can only perform a preliminary bombardment prior to any attacks and it's impossible to add them to the combat planning setup which is a bit odd given that turns are two-day ones, at least in the Stalingrad to Kharkov '42 - '43 campaign.

[Vic]

Hi,

Right.

With artillery you have to chose if you want to use them for a bombardment <b> or to join them in an actual attack <a> on the hex. In 99% of the cases you will not have the action points to do both with the same unit.

When they join in an actual attack on the hex they are actually moving into that hex with the rest of the units attacking it. When they use bombard they stay in the hex where they are and leisurely pump shells into the target hex.

You'll have to imagine that those range 2 units need actually to be in contact with the target hex in order to participate in a land attack for reasons of communication and coordination with the other troops.

Best wishes,
Vic

[Sensei.Tokugawa]

Aw, yes, I must have overlooked that possibility while considering the situation and perhaps the fact that they would move on the attack and occupy the attacked location should that be vacated by the enemy made me think it's not supposed to work that way - I am accustomed to manoeuvre warfare so that kind of automated action seemed odd, but given the hex scale it doesn't have to be only direct fire. I guess I lacked some imagination to dig that. By the way, did I mention that those DC I / DC II games are awesome? I am keeping my finders crossed for DC III and "Barbarossa". Thanks for the explanation and pointing to that possibility above.