US Army OOB

[MarkSheppard]

Are you saying that it will be possible to simulate the various Excalibur,Copperhead, Smel'chak and Krasnopol in the next SPMBT release?

Well, Take US Weapon Slot 76

155mm M777 VT
It's got an accuracy of 10

Simply copy and paste it into a blank slot and rename it to

155mm GPS Guided
and give it an accuracy of 93 (Same as 1000 lb JDAM)

There are only about 15 weapons slots free in the US OOB though...so it's entirely possible that SPCAMO will decide to condense as many of the "guided" artillery shells into a single round for each major calibre; like 155mm Guided, 105mm Guided, etc.

[JaM]

ATGM metod would be better, because you always fire a copperhead to a target, one M109 fire one Copperhead, but with 155mmGPS guided gun for M109 you will always fire 4-5 shots in one salvo...

[MarkSheppard]

Hmm. That's because Copperhead's laser-guided; but with GPS guidance, you can just keep firing them and achieve a high bracket barrage.

[Mobhack]

Hmm - and the accuracy figure is only relevant to the weapon firing in direct fire over open sights. The acc figure for arty weapons is used when an SP mount or field gun is firing direct fire with that weapon.

To simulate laser-designated rounds in SP the ATGM route is probably best (if the observer moves, he tends to lose his shot - so needs to stay still to lase target/ set up the designation kit etc) . It is not ideal, but there is no way to simulate a desigator/missile pairing any other way really. Not without a new game engine.

Cheers
Andy

[MarkSheppard]

It is not ideal, but there is no way to simulate a desigator/missile pairing any other way really. Not without a new game engine.

What about GPS guided rounds? They don't need a designator pairing, you just radio off a string of target co-ordinates over the radio like you would with normal artillery, the only difference is that the shells coming downrange are really really accurate.

I think it could be represented by creating another weapon class which uses the accuracy rating for both direct and indirect fire to represent Excalibur or GMRLS.

--------

Linka

Summarized

Maybe a third of the guns and rocket launchers [In Iraq] are actually put to work.

...

The MLRS has been particularly popular for the last six months, since the new GPS guided rocket became available.
This fall, a GPS guided 155mm shell (the Excalibur) will enter service, giving the M-109s more to do. In most operations, unguided 155mm shells are too inaccurate to use because the fighting is in urban areas. The Excalibur is a different story. The MLRS launchers have used so many GPS guided rockets that these new items are in very short supply, and are rationed.

On the down side, the GPS guided shells and rockets mean that much fewer shells and rockets are needed. It's pretty much, "one target, one shell." With these "smart shells," the number of rounds needed will decline by over 90 percent.

[Mobhack]

It may be better to approach this as a special data item for FOO units (FC or RF or EW maybe with a special code, or a new data item) which brings super-accurate fire IF the target is in LOS of the FOO, for maybe an added 500 points per such an FOO?.

I will look into this, and see if something can be done.

Cheers
Andy

[Marcello]

Mobhack said:
It may be better to approach this as a special data item for FOO units (FC or RF or EW maybe with a special code, or a new data item) which brings super-accurate fire IF the target is in LOS of the FOO, for maybe an added 500 points per such an FOO?.

I will look into this, and see if something can be done.

Cheers
Andy

Personally I would consider good enough just any solution (a separate artillery class,anything) which could make the shells fall within the designated target hex, without dispersion except eventually for occasional malfunctions and such.
Anything more than that would be a bonus,of course.

[MarkSheppard]

It may be better to approach this as a special data item for FOO units (FC or RF or EW maybe with a special code, or a new data item) which brings super-accurate fire IF the target is in LOS of the FOO, for maybe an added 500 points per such an FOO?.

That's actually a pretty ingenious solution in many ways:

1.) Gets around the issue of running out of weapon slots; especially an issue with Russian OOB.

2.) Imposes cost limitations on it, because even the US won't be able to afford Excalibur and GMRLS in every single battlefield and location for quite some time.

[Mobhack]

the next EXE will have GPS and laser RF additions to arty spotter accuracy in calling fires.

Laser RF (rf 20+), if in LOS to the target hex, will tend to reduce initial drift hex. i.e the plot hex will tend to be more on-target.

GPS is represented by an EW value of 15. Art observers with GPS will have initial drift halved, even if the target hex is out of LOS. If the arty skill roll for way off target is failed - GPS will reduce the max size of this effect as well, whether the call was on a priority target or an impromptu one. (GPS accuracy on out of LOS hexes which are impromptu will be about the same as for calls on a registered tgt at the moment).

The most accurate call for arty fire therefore will be an art observer unit/vehicle with laser RF at up to 2 times RF value range who is in LOS of the target hex and who also has GPS. Mostly - unless a skill roll is failed - the max drift here will be 0 or 1 hex max.

The added cost will come from the cost calculator (additions for range finder and for 15 EW points).

This will have to be playtested by the test team to see if it is working etc, (just coded it today), and added to units in the OOB etc. We will also have to look at cost adjustment if these things turn out to be "Thor's Hammers" !

Cheers
Andy

[JaM]

Wow, you never stop surprise me, Andy...