11 replies to this topic

[PaintedWolf]

I was wondering, is artillery a lot more effective when massed? Say I bring a single Long-Tom or even 10, I can imagine that is not very effective unless you are prescient of the opponent's movements. But I also read that if you bring lots, like say a Battalion, it is way more effective because you can saturate an area, so even if the shots scatter, they will overlap and you end up hitting a massed enemy force. Is this true?

[Egomane]

Artillery in Battletech is deadly if massed.

If you bring only one Long Tom, it will prevent your opponent from bunkering up and it is deadly against anything on the ground that isn't a mech. That alone is a massive boon.

Several tubes will lay waste to an oppenent who isn't prepared for it. Even more so, if you are able to buy pre-programmed coordinates for your Artillery, which will be automatically hit, as long as the artillery doesn't change it's position.

Just remember: Artillery doesn't know friend or foe, only targets.
I once managed to scatter an Arrow IV missle for 17 hex (a whole map) right to the feet of my own mech.

[PaintedWolf]

[Dakkaface]

PaintedWolf, on 03 March 2014 - 12:50 PM, said:

I was wondering, is artillery a lot more effective when massed? Say I bring a single Long-Tom or even 10, I can imagine that is not very effective unless you are prescient of the opponent's movements. But I also read that if you bring lots, like say a Battalion, it is way more effective because you can saturate an area, so even if the shots scatter, they will overlap and you end up hitting a massed enemy force. Is this true?

Yes. Lorewise it's uncommon though, because artillery is not computer assisted and gravity/air resistance/Coriolis effect is going to require different calculations on each world. Hence most merc companies and attacking forces will eschew artillery in favor of more conventional forces. It'd be a smart thing to stock up on and train in for garrison forces though.

[Nathan Foxbane]

Depends on the ammo you use too. Regular artillery armed with Copperheads use the Arrow IV homing missile rules. You can imagine what several Long Toms lobbing Copperheads down range are capable of on a single target. But as Egomane pointed out scatter can be hell. Things also change if it is on board combat or off board. Off board your artillery can strike with impunity barring counter battery until they run out of ammo. On board they have to fire point blank LoS at anything under 15 hexes, and those rules are never fun.

[Skylarr]

Category:Artillery Combat Vehicles

Category:Artillery Support Unit

Edited by Skylarr, 05 March 2014 - 06:06 PM.

[PaintedWolf]

Skylarr, on 05 March 2014 - 06:03 PM, said:

Category:Artillery Combat Vehicles

Category:Artillery Support Unit

My favorite is probably: http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Destrier

2 Long-Toms, plus 2 Arrow 4s plus Hardened Armor.

[Karl Streiger]

PaintedWolf, on 05 March 2014 - 08:26 PM, said:

My favorite is probably: http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Destrier

2 Long-Toms, plus 2 Arrow 4s plus Hardened Armor.

Only problem is that 37tons of armor on a tank is worth hardly 12tons of standard armor on a Mech

[Nebfer]

PaintedWolf, on 05 March 2014 - 08:26 PM, said:

My favorite is probably: http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Destrier

2 Long-Toms, plus 2 Arrow 4s plus Hardened Armor.

Err artillery wise it only has the Arrows, the Long Toms are the direct fire snubed nosed versions.

Karl Streiger, on 06 March 2014 - 12:46 AM, said:

Only problem is that 37tons of armor on a tank is worth hardly 12tons of standard armor on a Mech

I'm not aware of Tank armor being of less value than mech armor, let alone it being 1/3rd the value, though this is hardened armor, so it has closer to 600 points of regular armor (max it could have is 740 in any case).

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Though most of the larger IS units do run with a company to a battalion of artillery in some cases up to a regiment.

Edited by Nebfer, 06 March 2014 - 09:41 PM.

[Karl Streiger]

only in terms of armor on a location. with the normal hit distribution and the few hit locations a medium mech can take out an assault tank - although I admit I can't remember if there are specific rules vs critical hits when using hardened armor.

ferro lameor may be the better choice because lbx cluster pellets doesn't deal damage.

[Craig Steele]

OP, sure Arty is more potent when massed, no more so though than massing your PPC's.

Its how you use the weapon system that matters. Arty has it's place and can be extremly effective when used correctly. It can allow you to lay down fire in area not normal reachable by your mech weapons so in that sense it is a big multiplier (ie, the enemy has no cover option)

In BT Lore, Artillery is most often attached at the Regimental level. RCT (Davion and later Steiner) have Artillery Battalions attached at the RCT level. While not canon, there are some mechs in old BT Magazines that are all artillery (2 x sniper / Long Toms / Thumpers) and would be deployed in Lance formations. In canon Clan Wolf designed an Omni mech (the Naga) which always deployed 2 x Arrow IV systems as a minimum in Star formations. So thats 5 mechs with 2 launchers each, which one TAG could direct all fire onto a single target for 200 damage, every 10 seconds for a minute from off the tactical board.

Nicholas Kerensky template for the Clans touman included artillery at the Galaxy level in Binary / Trinary formations.

So it most certainly has a place, can be extremely effective when massed but is not to be sneezed at in double tubes either.

[Strum Wealh]

Craig Steele, on 07 March 2014 - 03:05 AM, said:

OP, sure Arty is more potent when massed, no more so though than massing your PPC's.

Its how you use the weapon system that matters. Arty has it's place and can be extremly effective when used correctly. It can allow you to lay down fire in area not normal reachable by your mech weapons so in that sense it is a big multiplier (ie, the enemy has no cover option)

Indeed - massed fire from anything is generally more effective than a singleton.

Though, PaintedWolf's question ("Is artillery a lot more effective when massed?") seems to be focused on the degree/rate of growth in effectiveness as the number of units increases - e.g. "Is bringing twice as much artillery generally more than twice as effective, for numbers large enough to be generally considered 'massed'?"

After a certain point (or under certain conditions), a few well-placed guns used at the right time will be far more effective than a large number of guns where the majority may go unused if the target is destroyed in a small opening salvo.