Pyske
Topic Author
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed 12 Apr 2023, 21:59

Artillery Rules

Mon 29 May 2023, 03:13

Continuing his run of awesome luck, my son's group ran right into an artillery supported sniper ambush. I'd like to sanity check my reading of the indirect fire rules.

Situation: Sniper and spotter are ~30 tactical hexes away when the encounter starts. Howitzer is a 152mm located ~300 hexes away.

Round 1: Spotter calls in a location adjustment from the artillery's pre-plotted "zero". I'm assuming the general area is pre-plotted, since this is an ambush. Rolls a success.
Round 2: Gunner fires. Flight time is effectively zero for a gun 300 tactical hexes away. Gunner rolls 0 successes, so the shell deviates, rolling 1 hex in direction 5, a (very!) near miss. Fortunately, when the sniper fire started coming in to pin them in position, everyone hit the deck -- that plus a little luck means no significant injuries. Everyone in the blast, whether wounded or not, rolls for suppression (and it's no harder for the heavy weapons sergeant who is directly under the blast than for anyone else in the area).
Round 3: Spotter call in an adjustment based on the fact that the squad is (perhaps foolishly) advancing toward the sniper position. Recon check for spotter rolls an extra hit, but this has no game effect.
Round 4: Gunner fires, with 1 hit, resulting in an on target delivery. Each PC rolls for shrapnel hits. One PC takes a shrapnel hit at a C explosive level (based on her hex being 1 away from the epicenter, and her prone position). It hits torso armor, doing no damage because of the Armor +1 of explosions modifying the 1 point of armor from the vest.

Does all that sound correct according to the mechanics as you understand them?
 
paladin2019
Posts: 432
Joined: Mon 07 Dec 2020, 09:16

Re: Artillery Rules

Tue 30 May 2023, 05:48

Round 3 should be a new call for fire, not a correction, because the targets are no longer in the same place.
  • And the target hex should be where the spotter expects the PCs to be, otherwise the hex they are probably leaving in round 4 is the target.
  • They are also moving for the additional -1 to hit. The same applies to the aiming roll.
 
welsh
Posts: 200
Joined: Sun 29 Nov 2020, 15:53

Re: Artillery Rules

Tue 30 May 2023, 14:40

Round 3 should be a new call for fire, not a correction, because the targets are no longer in the same place.
I don't think that's necessary. "Drop fifty, fire for effect." Although ideally, the fire should be landing where the party will be when we fire for effect, so this actually reflects an error by the spotter.
  • They are also moving for the additional -1 to hit. The same applies to the aiming roll.
I don't think a DM should apply to artillery fire? It is always targeting a hex, and the hex is stationary.
 
paladin2019
Posts: 432
Joined: Mon 07 Dec 2020, 09:16

Re: Artillery Rules

Tue 30 May 2023, 20:19

Round 3 should be a new call for fire, not a correction, because the targets are no longer in the same place.
I don't think that's necessary. "Drop fifty, fire for effect." Although ideally, the fire should be landing where the party will be when we fire for effect, so this actually reflects an error by the spotter.
Then the PCs are simply out of the area of effect of the attack when it lands; they have two rounds to move. You can't use an adjustment to target a hex other than the first one.
 
kcdusk
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon 24 Oct 2022, 23:09

Re: Artillery Rules

Wed 31 May 2023, 00:10

  • They are also moving for the additional -1 to hit. The same applies to the aiming roll.
I don't think a DM should apply to artillery fire? It is always targeting a hex, and the hex is stationary.
I wonder if the -1 reflects the PCs having to guess which hex to target? The hex isn't moving. But you have to target the hex the spotter thinks the target will be in.
 
welsh
Posts: 200
Joined: Sun 29 Nov 2020, 15:53

Re: Artillery Rules

Wed 31 May 2023, 17:10

Then the PCs are simply out of the area of effect of the attack when it lands; they have two rounds to move. You can't use an adjustment to target a hex other than the first one.
Obviously, the attack is going to fail if the PCs move out of the hex before the fire comes in. And chasing a moving target with indirect fire is the wrong way to use indirect fire. But that wasn't the question.

The question was, can you move the intended point of impact using a correction, or do you have to call a new fire mission. And the answer to that one is, yes, you can use a correction, unless we say the artillery is already firing for effect, in which case it's a new mission.

Not sure that really makes a difference in game terms, because the rules for calling for fire are so simple & quick. Would you really make the spotter roll for Recon again, to move his point of impact a few hexes? Is that the difference here?
 
paladin2019
Posts: 432
Joined: Mon 07 Dec 2020, 09:16

Re: Artillery Rules

Wed 31 May 2023, 19:04

The question was, can you move the intended point of impact using a correction, or do you have to call a new fire mission. And the answer to that one is, yes, you can use a correction, unless we say the artillery is already firing for effect, in which case it's a new mission.

The answer is no, you can't. Regardless of call for fire procedures in the real world, in the game, corrections are used for improving to hit chances on the original hex.

CORRECTIONS: If an attack from a mortar or howitzer misses its target hex, the firer can correct the fire for a subsequent shot. Correcting counts as aiming (a slow action) but can only be done toward the same target hex as the previous shot. Each correction gives a +1 to the next attack against the same hex, up to a maximum bonus of +3.
 
welsh
Posts: 200
Joined: Sun 29 Nov 2020, 15:53

Re: Artillery Rules

Wed 31 May 2023, 19:34

I stand corrected. :)
 
Pyske
Topic Author
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed 12 Apr 2023, 21:59

Re: Artillery Rules

Wed 31 May 2023, 21:24

This is a funny side thread, because I mentioned an "adjustment" with a new recon roll, not a correction. :)

I think I could have compressed this into a shot every round, by having the spotter act on the same round as the gunner (at an earlier initiative), but that seemed too fast for artillery spotting and adjustment to me. Is there something that prevents an artillery shot on every time the artillery gunner's initiative comes up?
 
paladin2019
Posts: 432
Joined: Mon 07 Dec 2020, 09:16

Re: Artillery Rules

Wed 31 May 2023, 21:34

I think I could have compressed this into a shot every round, by having the spotter act on the same round as the gunner (at an earlier initiative), but that seemed too fast for artillery spotting and adjustment to me. Is there something that prevents an artillery shot on every time the artillery gunner's initiative comes up?
Aiming an artillery piece is its own slow action. If the arty crew must constantly change targets, they can, at best, get 1 shot off every other round. If they are simply repeating fire at the same target hex, they can shoot every round. But the rule with any incoming fire is "Get off the X!"

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