Artillery Question

[Menschenfresser]

This is probably not the best way to use artillery, but I was wondering:

Imagine a front line, a normal one. If I have an arty unit with a range of four and I move it and dig it in on the front line facing the enemy, and the enemy attacks the next turn with an infantry regiment, and his artillery is dug in three hexes behing his line (meaning it is in range of mine and will support his attack, but isn't directly attacking my hex), will my artillery fire a counter barrage against his, or will it only fire on whatever unit is directly attacking my hex?

Does that make sense?

[JMS]

If the cooperation levels are the adequate (and comms check doesn't fail), yes.

[Mantis]

But your arty is (potentially) susceptible to flank attacks, and could end up getting the hell kicked out of it.

[Menschenfresser]

But your arty is (potentially) susceptible to flank attacks, and could end up getting the hell kicked out of it.

True...as I said it isn't the best use of artillery. But my mind was wandering and I had this vision of a new, if foolish, tactic to put a quick hurt on an opponent's arty. I have no idea if it would be effective though. The potential for disaster is quite high.

[Bob Cross]

This will not result in counterbattery fire. Supporting a ground attack (whether direct or indirect) does not incur counterbattery fire. You only incur counterbattey fire when you bombard an enemy artillery unit with your artillery. That usually makes such bombardments bad ideas.

[Menschenfresser]

I understand that, but just to make clear, does it also apply when a dug in artillery unit is in the hex being attacked?

[Kraut]

I understand that, but just to make clear, does it also apply when a dug in artillery unit is in the hex being attacked?

From my experience: if you have an combat unit together with a arty dug in in a hex and the enemy attacks this hex with supporting artillery, your artillery in that hex will be hit but the enemys artillery supporting the attack will NOT suffer counter battery fire (even if his artillery is in range of your dug in arty), so you loose guns but your enemy don't.
The only exception is if his arty is also directly adcecant to your units (maybe because his rty has a range of one), than they'll suffer losses, too, but not if they support the attack from range.

[ER_Chaser]

I throw in my 2c with Kraut and Bob ... :p

[MikeJ]

One thing to note about bombarding artillery - artillery is quite suspectible to being dug out I've found. So while bombarding enemy artillery from a pure losses point of view is usually not worth the trouble, attacking particularly strong enemy artillery to dig it out (if its dug in and not on tactical/local reserve) to prevent it from taking part in nearby combats can be useful, as you have full control of your arty during your turn.

I don't think it applies to LR/TR deployed units, but airstrikes (for sure, maybe artillery too I don't remember) can retreat them (even if they don't actually move anywhere) and prevent them from taking part in combat.

While I'm here and so I don't start another thread, I'll clear my backlog of turns I owe soon. I bought the expansion packs to Morrowind last week and have been spending my free time on that rather than TOAW.