Artillery

[Poor Old Spike]

Spotters
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub1/spotters.jpg



http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/scat1.jpg



http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/scat2.jpg



http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/scat3.jpg



http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/scat4.jpg

[Poor Old Spike]

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/scatnorm.jpg



http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/scatwide2.jpg

[Poor Old Spike]

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/arty1.jpg

[Nemesis Lead]

Great post Spike!

The impact zone can vary by type of artillery. This is good to know when you set up TRPs.

As far as the "gun line".......it is cool to play scenarios where the shells fall at right angles to the direction you are moving (i.e., horizontal strikes instead of vertical strikes).

I once played in tourney where I was fighting for the top of a hill. I had an infantry company in trees and my opponent had 2 infantry companies in trees 50 meters away from me.

I was losing the battle, but called in 105mm artillery on his tree line (again only 50 meters away from me).

He was annihiliated and I lost only about a squad to friendly fire!

[Poor Old Spike]

..As far as the "gun line"....it is cool to play scenarios where the shells fall at right angles to the direction you are moving (i.e., horizontal strikes instead of vertical strikes).

Yes mate I think it can also be done according to which map edges are set to 'friendly' or 'enemy' in the scen editor, so that your troops can advance behind a sort of 'rolling barrage' just in front of them as long as you get the timing right..:)
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http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/fireplan.jpg

[ER_Chaser]

POS, I think your great series of work should earn you some sort of service medal here. I just do not know how it is handled up there :)

For the last post, the "turn 1" arty is called pre-planned artillery fire in the manual. By default it is set to be fired right away. It is accurate (with no error added). But it can only be set on turn 1, and once set in motion, cannot be cancelled or interrupted (even if the FO is killed or withdrawn during the firing or before the firing phase). It is also very important to know that one can press "Q" key to delay the planned arty strike in this mode, press it once will add 1 minute (turn) delay to it and you can plan as many as you like.

[Yushal]

WOW, that little bit about radios allowing spotters to be transported. Excellent bit of information!

[Poor Old Spike]

These guys look like they're unwinding wire from spools for telephones or to arty batteries..

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub1/arty-wire.jpg

[2054172]

POS how does the quality of the spotter effect accuracy?:smoke:

[Colonel Talvela]

POS how does the quality of the spotter effect accuracy?:smoke:

It doesnt .......

[McIvan]

Actually I think it slightly affects the spread of the incoming arty. From memory, a higher class spotter gives a somewhat tighter pattern.

[RedDevil (FGM)]

.................

[2054172]

Hey Wayne, I was under the impression the higher the skill level of the spotter, the more accurate his call will be on target. Also I'm not certain, but I think it cuts down on his response time when changing/adjusting the strike.

That makes sense, I should be more accurate the higher the spotter is. Time does make a difference as POS points out.:smoke:

[Poor Old Spike]

SPOTTER QUALITY DOESN'T AFFECT ACCURACY

This test confirms what Talvela said earlier. The 3 spotters are Elite/ Regular and Conscript and are calling in fire on the 3 crossroads.
Although quality affects delay (2/ 3/ 5 mins), it doesn't affect accuracy as the bottom post-barrage pic shows, as all the rounds have impacted on target with about the same pattern.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub3/arta.png

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub3/artb.png

[Tripps]

I was under the belief that a higher quality spotter was more accurate when the target was out of LOS?

POS, could you re-run that last test but block LOS?

[ER_Chaser]

In CMBO, it might be, Tripps. But In BB, arty out of LOS is waste, even if Elite. Well, sometimes worse than that, it may land on your own side.

[Tripps]

In CMBO, it might be, Tripps. But In BB, arty out of LOS is waste, even if Elite. Well, sometimes worse than that, it may land on your own side.

Yeah you may be correct there, I am stretching my memory back a bit :)

Besides, I have yet to use a spotter since i've been back :devious:

[Colonel Talvela]

SPOTTER QUALITY DOESN'T AFFECT ACCURACY

This test confirms what Talvela said earlier. The 3 spotters are Elite/ Regular and Conscript and are calling in fire on the 3 crossroads.
Although quality affects delay (2/ 3/ 5 mins), it doesn't affect accuracy as the bottom post-barrage pic shows, as all the rounds have impacted on target with about the same pattern.


Actually, looking at the spread pattern it does look like Randy and McIvan were right and I was wrong - quality of the spotter does affect the accuracy (the elite impact pattern definitely looks a little tighter to me). Doing that test again with 500 rounds instead of 60 would probably be more inciteful.

[Poor Old Spike]

WITH NO LOS, ARTY IMPACTS WAY OFF TARGET EVEN WITH HIGH-QUAL SPOTTER

As before, the 3 spotters each target a crossroads, but this time thick woods block their LOS..
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub3/artc.gif



And all 3 barrages drift far from the designated impact points, Conscript is worse and drifts completely off the map..
Conclusion- even the Elite drift is bad, so having a good quality spotter won't help much..
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub3/artyd.gif

(PS- And delay times were longer without LOS, elite=3 mins, regular=5 mins, conscript=8 mins)

[Tripps]

It would seem then, that quality of the spotter does effect the impact then?

I mean, no consolation if it lands on your own guys! But there is an obvious difference from the screen shot there...

[Poor Old Spike]

It would seem then, that quality of the spotter does effect the impact then?

The tests speak for themselves mate, people can interpret them however they like..:)
For me, my reading of the results is that a high-qual spotter will certainly reduce delay times, but his scatter pattern is hardly any better (if at all) than lower-qual spotters, and a high-quals drift is about the same as a regulars.
So my own personal conclusion is that high-qual spotters reduce delay times but thats about their only advantage, so in QB's I think I'll buy regular spotters rather than pay big bucks for a high-qual.

[Colonel Talvela]

I wanted to test the spotter experience-accuracy relationship more, since I dont know if POS 60 round test would give a significant number of impacts.

So here it is another test. elite vs conscript. 3 150 round 81mm spotters in each group.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm122/SithCM/arttest.jpg

Concript result:
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm122/SithCM/artconscript.jpg

Elite result:
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm122/SithCM/artelite.jpg

Personally, I dont see a difference. If anything, the elite group has more outliers, but perhaps a slightly more concentrated oval. Doesnt seem signficant to me (anybody want to do some technical analysis and calc the actualy variance - yuck)

I think I have changed back to the position that experience doesnt affect impact spread accurac - which in my mind makes sense. why would spotter experience have an affect on where the art lands once you call in FFE?

[2054172]

So the moral of the story...if you have time buy cheak low quality spotters.:smoke:

[Colonel Talvela]

So the moral of the story...if you have time buy cheak low quality spotters.:smoke:


I dont know what cheaking is - some strange canadian deviousness I assume?

[Nemesis Lead]

To me the quality of the spotter you take depends on whether or not your spotters will move and come under fire.

Regular or better spotters can take a little HMG fire. Greens or conscripts are less able to.

The tests show that most other features are the same.

Conscripts with TRPs or preplanned strikes are great fun.

[GenSplatton]

So the moral of the story...if you have time buy cheak low quality spotters.:smoke:
I don't know about that. How often can you really afford to wait five minutes for your artillery to start falling? While I'm sure there are situations where you can (assault or attack), I'm thinking it's rather prohibitive in a QB ME. Now, for preplanned, conscipt is the way to go for sure.