Artillery support in Tactical Reserve bombard "at will"?

[Shadrach]

I've been playing the Tannenberg scenario, and as WW1 goes, it turns into a battle of fortified lines, with the major killer being artillery. But I find it quite tedious to have to assign bombard missions every turn. According to the manual 'Tactical Reserve' means the unit will give support during enemy attack but not fire on their own.

Wouldn't it be logical that at the level of command we're usually talking here, they would fire on their own if not given direct orders? In ww1 it was said the you could set your clock to the barrages, every single night at a specific time.

I mean, fine, it's the only thing I have to do each turn playing as Germans at the moment, softening the Russian front down to maybe attempt a counter-attack, but still a hassle to assign bombard missions every single turn.

Maybe an idea would be for them to just 'remember' the order and if no other orders were given, just keep the attack up?

I could understand if units were badly supplied, they should conserve ammo, but these fortresses and guns are at full supply all the time.

[Meyer1]

That's not true, artillery units in "tactical reserve" or dig in status will support, if in range, your attacks with half of strength (passing a cooperation check).
If you want to assign them direct bombard missions (those use full strength), yes you have to do it manually.

[Meyer1]

OK, so you are proposing that if you assign a bombard mission to an artillery unit, that order will remain active until cancelled. I think that for most scenarios, it would be more tedious in that way, having to cancel each artillery order in every turn.

[sPzAbt653]

True on the Cancel aspect Meyer1, plus if bombardment orders were retained, such units would run out of supply quickly and would be continuously bombarding with zero effect.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
...plus if bombardment orders were retained, such units would run out of supply quickly and would be continuously bombarding with zero effect.

Ah HA. This would explain what's going on with my Soviet defenders. They have arty behind their
lines but it doesn't seem to help the defenses and this is probably why. A lot of times Elmer
drives his units until they are red and down to 1% supply etc. And the become easy pickens in
combat. After a while. And Elmer will take units that spawn in terrible shape and thrust them
into combat the way they are. It's a wargamming crime.

[Meyer1]

Talking about tedious, I'm playing "last stand in Africa" as Axis against the PO, and having suffered the allied air superiority for a while, now for some reason if favors me with a 7:3 ratio. So wanting to take advantage, I'm planning to bomb the allied airfields, but now I have to change each air unit range (I have it limited in order to avoid excessive losses) to do so.
Wishing there was a way to reset the range of several air units at once.
Oh well, "new game problems" [:D] (couldn't change the range in III)

[Oberst_Klink]

LSiA is a nice one I'd be tempted to play against a humanoid bipedal...

Klink, Obest

[sPzAbt653]

Oh well, "new game problems"

As you suggest, it is a nice problem to have. If it is an issue when restarting certain scenarios, the player has the option to use the Editor to set ranges that will be used each time a scenario is started, thus saving time during those in some case tedious first turns !

[Meyer1]

ORIGINAL: Oberst_Klink

LSiA is a nice one I'd be tempted to play against a humanoid bipedal...

Klink, Obest

It's a really interesting campaign (poorly covered by history I think). Don't wanna take a look at the allied side before ending the game, but I find it puzzling that the designer gave to the axis air units such low proficiency...

[Meyer1]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Oh well, "new game problems"

As you suggest, it is a nice problem to have. If it is an issue when restarting certain scenarios, the player has the option to use the Editor to set ranges that will be used each time a scenario is started, thus saving time during those in some case tedious first turns !

Indeed. Just thought it would be great if one could change the ranges with the context menu. Even one unit at a time, would be way easier.

[Oberst_Klink]

It can be adjusted, like the AD and MRPB

Klink, Oberst

[Meyer1]

ORIGINAL: Oberst_Klink

It can be adjusted, like the AD and MRPB

Klink, Oberst

I know, but I don't want any spoilers that would ruin my SP experience [8D]

[Shadrach]

ORIGINAL: Meyer1
OK, so you are proposing that if you assign a bombard mission to an artillery unit, that order will remain active until cancelled. I think that for most scenarios, it would be more tedious in that way, having to cancel each artillery order in every turn.

OK good point [:)]

What I'd like to suggest then, is basically have the Artillery AI do some "at will" fire at nearby enemy units, taking several factors into the calculation, like:
- Supply level
- Larger units and huge stacks would be the priority, i.e. largest threats to the own units.

If direct orders are given during the turn, of course they would not do this.

It would be similar to the way On-call artillery works in Command Ops 2, available artillery is given fire missions by the AI commanders, and reduced a lot of the tedious micromanagement load on the player.