Artillery Ammo Problem and Proposed Rule Changes

rebel15nc

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I have almost finished playing the main battle scenario of Sharpsburg (That’s Antietam to you Yankees). As the South, I have run completely out of artillery ammo for the first time ever in a game. I can understand my army running out of ammo but I now realize that the current rules do not simulate the issue very well. For instance, A P Hill’s Division is just arriving from Harper’ Ferry. He has arrived with several artillery batteries that also have no ammo. Now, I am quite sure that Hill would have left the guns way behind if they had no ammo. The easy fix of this laughable situation is to have the overall Ammo level increase when Hill arrives. (Or when any other major reenforcements arrive in general)

A better fix would be to have the current supply wagons carry artillery ammo just like they now currently carry small arms ammo.

If that will not work, how about having several new units per army that would just carry the artillery ammo? These could be referred to as Supply Trains if you like. Perhaps you could have one per division or one per Corps.

Either way, the current rules for ammo do not reflect CW reality all that well. My understanding is that batteries in general would normally limber up and move to the rear for resupply of their limbers when they ran low on ammo. As an example, consider E.P. Alexander on July 3, 1863 reporting to Longstreet during the artillery fire before the Picket / Pettigrew / Trimble assault: He told Longstreet that some of the Union batteries on Cemetery Ridge had been driven off by his fire and now was the time to advance. In reality, the Union guns were going to the rear for ammo and were to be replaced by some other guns.
 

rahamy

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A portion of the artillery ammo that is assigned when a scenario is created is held back for every battery that is off map at the beginning of a scenario - to the tune of 4 rounds per I believe - and as the units arrive on map those are added to the pool. My guess is those units arrived on map & you fired off the extra ammo prior to realizing you were that low.

If you have a game file that can illustrate something different please send it to Support at hpssims.com
 

krmiller_usa

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I also suggest one of the first things you do is set the range for Auto Defensive fire for artillery to Medium to reduce those long range shots that have little or no effect and waste ammunition. I normally set my troops to Min for anything other than very short scenarios.
 

trauth116

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I also suggest one of the first things you do is set the range for Auto Defensive fire for artillery to Medium to reduce those long range shots that have little or no effect and waste ammunition. I normally set my troops to Min for anything other than very short scenarios.
I'd point out too, that a lot of times the Union player can have a, virtually, limitless ammo supply in many scenarios so what Ken mentioned is critical when playing as the Confederate side, but not always a factor ( and in come cases it is to your advantage as the Union player to leave the arty defensive fire at max... however too, small arms ammo is a different thing altogether.).
 

Lord_Valentai

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The only solution would be to have artillery wagons to go with supply wagons. Then artillery would run low and out of ammo like infantry (with increased chances natch). It'd require a major redesign though.
 

rahamy

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The only solution would be to have artillery wagons to go with supply wagons. Then artillery would run low and out of ammo like infantry (with increased chances natch). It'd require a major redesign though.
We've proposed that change a couple of times in multiple engines and JT has shot it down each time saying its too much effort for little return, and also not all players will want the increased detail and management burden it would bring. So while I would like to see it, it doesn't appear we ever will - unless I learn how to code C++ one day!
 
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I've never been a big fan of probability-based ammo supply. With infantry I don't think I know a way around it, but with artillery I would want to see wagons have a specific number of shells -- and then you get into the nightmare of worrying about the calibers of each shell...

But I've also always wanted to see the ammunition wagons stick around after they exhaust their supply, and to see genuine supply wagons that have to be dipped into a couple of times a day for fatigue recovery purposes. The idea being that all these extra persistant wagons would clutter up the roads behind the front lines and cause traffic jams. But then an army on the move would really look like an army on the move.
 
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