Artillery WAAAY too cheap!

[Mustang]

What does IIRC mean?

Still, rocket artillery with cluster munitions is extremely effective, and one batallion will probably rout a 1,000-point tank platoon if it's fairly bunched up. How do you determine cost for units? Is it by their effectiveness or availability in the actual army using them? If it's by effectivness, 250 points is way too cheap for any MLRS or cluster munition launcher.

[hoplitis]

IIRC = IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY
I dont think you can buy soviet/russian rocket arty with bomblets/minelets with 250 points. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Mobhack]

the base cost 4 4 off-map uragan platoon is 665 points.

The on-map uragan is 96 points (8 rounds) per launcher, which is fine considering that is about 1 fire opportunity. Add ammo trucks costs for repeat firing in the game, plus time to motor off the firing line to resupply (unless you stand still beside the trucks, waiting for the inevitable CB fires ! - a move to the ammo trucks, wait a turn, maybe 2, a move to a new firing point, then time to plot the new bombardment etc.

Andy

[JaM]

Mustang:You look at this from wrong side. You didnt purchased 6.battalions, you purchased fire suport from them.They will fire one or two fire mission for you, so you are paying for fire mission, not for whole battalion...

[hoplitis]

JaM
correct way of putting it but there is a catch. On map arty are targets (and under certain circumstances off map arty too)and on game terms they are units that can perform other tasks (they can take an objective hex etc).So they must be "managed" all way through the game. In the case of Mustang's 6 battalions I'd suggest that if he didn't buy ammo trucks or something equivalent and after using his one or two fire missions and enjoying the "big bang", to seriously consider moving them off map. It is not a retreat it's a permanent tactical redeployment LOL.
And by the way it would be nice if Mustang lets us know the outcome of the battle.

[Mustang]

Well, I'm writing an AAR, but the other guy hasn't replied to my email for two days. I resent my email just a few minutes ago in case it didn't get through. But other than that, it's no that great. I don't think I'm ever playing a PBEM meeting engagment again- there's no fighting, both sides just stay on the defense and attrit the enemy. Still, my arty has been devastating him.

Mustang:You look at this from wrong side. You didnt purchased 6.battalions, you purchased fire suport from them.They will fire one or two fire mission for you, so you are paying for fire mission, not for whole battalion...

Still, I have 3 batallions of infantry supported by 6 batallions of artillery. I should have bought a single ammo dump- I move away from it, fire of all my ammo, move back to it, them move away and fire some more. Because you only need one ammo dump to supply all of my six batallions, I could have had a ridiculous ammount of firepower on hand. IMO the Uragan is way too cheap and should be bumped up to about the price of the MLRS. Even if I was the divisional main effort and was recieveing tons of artillery support, I don't think that I'd have six batallions always on call. IMO off-map artillery should be a lot cheaper because it isn't just dedicated to you and is supporting a lot of other forces also.

[thatguy96]

I still say that counter battery fire and other tricks of dealing with on-map artillery more than make up for the price and effort of moving artillery around. I've taken out whole batteries during games by air-dropping units behind the lines and with counter-battery fire during games. Helo gunships skirting the sides of the map are also an issue.

There are ways around being caught in this kind of barrage, and if your opponent isn't doing it, its because its the AI (which rarely engages in counter-battery fire) or because your opponent is a masochist.