[jivemi]

My understanding is that arty overload was added to penalize players or scenario designers who rely excessively on indirect fire to paralyze opposing infantry in (mostly) defensive battles or meeting engagements when enemy infantry are out in the open and especially vulnerable. Bear in mind that there is no penalty at all for assaulting forces while the overload for advancers has a threshold of 30% before kicking in.

What's especially annoying is trying to clear or advance cautiously through minefields while the defender, armed with knowledge of your whereabouts through mineclearing reports (even a slow advance by regular infantry will usually dig up one or two), proceeds to target the area with salvo after salvo while your guys are critically exposed.

---Spoiler Alert---

A case in point is SPWW2 Scenario #550, Pakfront Kursk. The German player has no pioneers so is obliged to advance prudently along the main VH path with sufficient forces until almost inevitably blundering into Russian mines with ordinary sloggers. One may try one's luck by going off-road yet perils can lurk even there and in any event time is relatively short--32 turns--plus some objectives are deep in the rear.

The harrowing situation described above occurred in due course in a recent attempt at this hard nut. It took 6 or 7 turns to pass through the mine barrier, clearing only a couple hexes--by accident due to being pinned rather than by design--while being subjected to barrages of various calibers which not only attrited the infantry but damaged a couple tank's weapons as well. One even blew up when it mistakenly moved onto a mined hex in Buttoned status rather than Ready (my bad).

Despite these setbacks the Germans managed to recover and eventually seize all objectives by Turn 30. Unfortunately losses incurred during that first and subsequent doleful episodes were sufficient to prevent a VP margin of 8:1, final score being 3838:500. Rats!

But hey, wait a second. The Russian arty overload penalty of 251 points put the German over the top at 4089, which seems fair compensation for time and material lost in the Twilight Zone of being practically immobilized in a minefield under indirect fire. And while it may not be historically accurate it does even out the odds for a competitive wargame. Won't suit everybody but it sure suits me. Cheers!