Issues with artillery against ships

[IckyATLAS]

Kuban MAP location Yuhznaya beach. Artillery is positioned behind the sand beach. 

For the test sake I have put a few lefh18 and one ml20 artillery unit, plus a M232 firing point (on top of a cliff) set to be german to fire at an uncoming ship (destroyer) that is russian. Prior to action all artillery is set with a ForceComplete set to Low.

Behavior is strange.

The M232 will react and fire towards the incoming ship if a CheckArea MCU is either :

1) Attack Ground mode in which it will pepper the area at random.

2) Aim and shoot  at the incoming ship and finally sink it after multiple hits if in Attack Ground Targets mode.

At this point nothing to say this piece of artillery performs very well.

 

Now the Lefh18 and ML20 will fire only in the Attack Ground mode. They will again pepper the area with hits.

But if set in Attack Ground Targets mode then nothing happens at all. The Attack Area icon is high enough to be on line of sight of the barrels.

And if there is no CheckArea MCU at all then again nothing happens.

 

I have also tried to use the Attack MCU direct linked to the target ship and object linked to one lefh18 artillery piece, but it will not react.

How can we make those artillery pieces to fire to a given target and not just all around and hope for a random hit. As the object moves it is nearly mission impossible or a lucky strike once in a life

 

I am short of ideas on this.

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

I guess you mean AttackArea instead of CheckArea?

On 10/1/2021 at 6:24 PM, IckyATLAS said:

Now the Lefh18 and ML20 will fire only in the Attack Ground mode. They will again pepper the area with hits.

But if set in Attack Ground Targets mode then nothing happens at all. The Attack Area icon is high enough to be on line of sight of the barrels.

And if there is no CheckArea MCU at all then again nothing happens.

- Are the ships themselves in line of sight of the artillery? If they can't see the target, how are they supposed to shoot at them?

- Are the artillery pieces able to hit the target at all (there might be a hill in the way)?

 

On 10/1/2021 at 6:24 PM, IckyATLAS said:

As the object moves it is nearly mission impossible or a lucky strike once in a life

Well, for indirect fire, that's indeed a major real-life issue. If you can't see the target, you need a separate spotter. There's always going to be issues with communication and time delay which does indeed make artillery rather ineffective.

 

If you definitely want to damage the destroyer, try a Command:Damage MCU. Otherwise, just build a number of AttackArea MCUs (set to Attack Ground) along the path of the destroyer, and trigger them as required.

[IckyATLAS]

1 hour ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I guess you mean AttackArea instead of CheckArea?

- Are the ships themselves in line of sight of the artillery? If they can't see the target, how are they supposed to shoot at them?

- Are the artillery pieces able to hit the target at all (there might be a hill in the way)?

 

Well, for indirect fire, that's indeed a major real-life issue. If you can't see the target, you need a separate spotter. There's always going to be issues with communication and time delay which does indeed make artillery rather ineffective.

 

If you definitely want to damage the destroyer, try a Command:Damage MCU. Otherwise, just build a number of AttackArea MCUs (set to Attack Ground) along the path of the destroyer, and trigger them as required.

The destroyers are in line of sight of Lfh18 artillery (range 10-11 km) and at a distance compatible with the range (6-9 km). If I use AttackArea with the Icon  altitude in line of sight, still if Attack Ground Targets only is checked they will not fire. I tried with all priorites low, medium high no difference.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, IckyATLAS said:

The destroyers are in line of sight of Lfh18 artillery (range 10-11 km) and at a distance compatible with the range (6-9 km). If I use AttackArea with the Icon  altitude in line of sight, still if Attack Ground Targets only is checked they will not fire. I tried with all priorites low, medium high no difference.

Hmm, then maybe the big artillery pieces don't have the AI to attack specific targets, only Attack Ground.

[IckyATLAS]

49 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Hmm, then maybe the big artillery pieces don't have the AI to attack specific targets, only Attack Ground.

Very possible, and this is probably true for other pieces too. The AI to attack a specific target does not seem to be for all active units. For destroyers it works well and you can do nice sea battles or coastal pounding. If you put a tank on the shore and the range is right it will attack and follow the ship. I tried a Tiger against the destroyer and it works.  

I have the feeling that Command Attack works for mobile units and not fixed units but I may be wrong.

Command Attack works perfectly with the coastal gun the M272. It has a long range and will follow and sink a fast moving destroyer. Un fortunately these guns were not available in the Kuban theater.