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How much of a thing was it in WW1 and what did it actually involve in detail?

At the moment with the 2 hex range for artillery in the main campaign, counter-battery fire is a fairly rare phenomenon (quite often it happens over the top of Maastricht!). In my very basic artillery and trench mod where the artillery units have been reduced in number to represent just the heavier guns, I have increased the range to 3 hexes to see if counter-battery fire can become a bit more commonplace.

What I am wondering is - what actually are we talking about with counter-battery fire. Is it one side's big guns firing at the enemy's big guns, or is it big guns firing at enemy field artillery, or is it both these things?

It was pretty common. Prior to an attack, the attacker would identify the locations of the defenders gun emplacements using spotting aircraft. During the attack these positions would be targeted along with the trench lines, silencing them, so that they could not fire on the advancing infantry. It was quite an integral part to the offensive, since letting the enemy fire on your exposed infantry would result in massive casualties.

As to what type of targets were fired upon, I believe everything that had a known location was targeted. You really don't want to leave anything unmolested and free to fire at your exposed forces.

ORIGINAL: ThisEndUp

It was pretty common. Prior to an attack, the attacker would identify the locations of the defenders gun emplacements using spotting aircraft. During the attack these positions would be targeted along with the trench lines, silencing them, so that they could not fire on the advancing infantry. It was quite an integral part to the offensive, since letting the enemy fire on your exposed infantry would result in massive casualties.

As to what type of targets were fired upon, I believe everything that had a known location was targeted. You really don't want to leave anything unmolested and free to fire at your exposed forces.

Thanks for this, ThisEndUp. I thought it might be something like this. Increasing the hex range to 3 will make Spotting more important. I rarely buy the Long-Range Aircraft Tech at the moment, but if guns have longer range then it will become more worthwhile to buy.

Currently it doesn't make sense to have your artillery fire at the enemy's artillery. It doesn't actually stop them from firing back at your attacking infantry as far as I can tell. Not to mention the counter-fire from the enemy artillery doesn't hurt very much, at least before they reach tech 2.