Author Topic: How do I do use artillery?  (Read 2213 times)

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Offline MaxKaladin (OP)

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How do I do use artillery?
« on: February 20, 2021, 02:17:54 PM »
I'm stuck.   I'm doing my first opposed invasion and I must be doing something wrong.   My artillery just.  never.  fires.   I have an artillery unit that's "Long Range Bombardment".   It's part of my unit hierarchy and I've tried setting it to both rear echelon and support and it doesn't fire.   I've made it subordinate to an armored unit that's on Forward Attack and is engaging the enemy but the artillery doesn't fire.   I've checked and it is not set to non-combat.   There are FFD units in my formation, including the armored unit, though they're all being used for orbital support from my fleet, if that makes a difference.   

I assume I need to set them to support a specific unit somehow, but I can't figure out how.   I've read something that seems to indicate I need to make them subordinate to another "superior" unit and the only one that I can do that with that's actually a combat unit (and not an HQ unit like my regiment HQ) is the armored unit.   The rest don't have enough HQ capacity.   Does it matter that both units are commanded by majors?  (If this is how it is supposed to work it it is clear I need to set up my HQs to have excess capacity.   I build them to have enough for their subordinates only and no excess).   

When I set up my orbital units, I get a separate category for "Orbital Bombardment Support" that shows each ship with an arrow pointing to the unit it supports.   I can't find any way to do that for artillery?  Is this because I'm using long range bombardment units?

This is driving me crazy because I'm getting slaughtered and have sub-1% hit rates and I suspect some of it has to do with entrenchment.   You deal with entrenchment with artillery and mine won't shoot.   
 

Offline CowboyRonin

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Re: How do I do use artillery?
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2021, 03:01:01 PM »
It's going to sound a little weird - you drag the artillery unit to the combat unit you want to support (just like you were attaching it to an HQ), and drop it.  It will show up under the supported unit, indented and in blue (IIRC).  This indicates the support relationship.  I know I've gotten that part to work before, but I'm not sure if the combat logs are entirely clear on what happens in action; it's possible that it will group the artillery effects in with the supported unit's direct fire action and make it tricky to tell that it's the artillery doing damage.
 

Offline Andrew

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Re: How do I do use artillery?
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2021, 03:49:48 PM »
Never been great at using artillery but FFD are jsut for orbital support , which makes them decorative as orbital support is largely harmless.
You are getting slaughtered by a combination of Hostile environment penalties and defensive fortification, possibly superior tech as well but the hit chance is caused by the environment and fortification.  You need a very large numerical superiority and tech advantage to pull off invasions in hostile environments, the alternative is to develop the hostile environment techs for your troops but that makes them more expensive and only helps if you have the right hostile environment techs. Artillery will have the same hit penalties as the rest of your troops and so only helps as more shots to give you a few hits.
 

Offline Barkhorn

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Re: How do I do use artillery?
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2021, 04:36:04 PM »
You deal with entrenchment with artillery and mine won't shoot.
Maybe in real life, but in Aurora artillery gets no special advantages against fortification.
 

Offline nuclearslurpee

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Re: How do I do use artillery?
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2021, 05:45:23 PM »
You deal with entrenchment with artillery and mine won't shoot.
Maybe in real life, but in Aurora artillery gets no special advantages against fortification.

Though correct, it is worth noting that artillery generally performs the best out of all weapon types against Static unit types. Not for any special reason, it's just how the unit and weapon type stats match up.
 

Offline captainwolfer

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Re: How do I do use artillery?
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2021, 11:20:51 AM »
I'm stuck.   I'm doing my first opposed invasion and I must be doing something wrong.   My artillery just.  never.  fires.   I have an artillery unit that's "Long Range Bombardment".   It's part of my unit hierarchy and I've tried setting it to both rear echelon and support and it doesn't fire.   I've made it subordinate to an armored unit that's on Forward Attack and is engaging the enemy but the artillery doesn't fire.   I've checked and it is not set to non-combat.   There are FFD units in my formation, including the armored unit, though they're all being used for orbital support from my fleet, if that makes a difference.   

I assume I need to set them to support a specific unit somehow, but I can't figure out how.   I've read something that seems to indicate I need to make them subordinate to another "superior" unit and the only one that I can do that with that's actually a combat unit (and not an HQ unit like my regiment HQ) is the armored unit.   The rest don't have enough HQ capacity.   Does it matter that both units are commanded by majors?  (If this is how it is supposed to work it it is clear I need to set up my HQs to have excess capacity.   I build them to have enough for their subordinates only and no excess).   

When I set up my orbital units, I get a separate category for "Orbital Bombardment Support" that shows each ship with an arrow pointing to the unit it supports.   I can't find any way to do that for artillery?  Is this because I'm using long range bombardment units?

This is driving me crazy because I'm getting slaughtered and have sub-1% hit rates and I suspect some of it has to do with entrenchment.   You deal with entrenchment with artillery and mine won't shoot.
In the top left of the ground forces tab, there are 6 check boxes. Make sure the one labeled "show support" is checked. If your artillery unit is properly supporting another unit, the artillery unit's name on the tree will be blue while the supported unit's name should be orange.

Steps to have artillery support:
1. The artillery either needs to be a superior unit in the hierarchy (IE an HQ unit), or needs to be directly subordinate to a unit that is higher in the hierarchy and not be commanding any other units. Also the artillery unit's command rating needs to be higher than the unit it will support so that it isn't made a subordinate instead of being assigned as support.
2. Drag the artillery unit onto the unit you want to support. The artillery will now fire when the supported unit attacks.

Example:
I have 3 companies of 3125 tons, that are subordinate to a battalion HQ unit. The battalion HQ unit has artillery in it. I can drag the HQ unit onto one of its subordinate companies, and it will support them. Each battalion is subordinate to a brigade HQ unit. The brigade unit has artillery in it, and I can drag the brigade HQ unit onto one of the companies in the hierarchy under it. I then have a Division HQ unit, and while the division HQ has no artillery in it, in addition to the subordinate brigades the division HQ also has several artillery battalions attached directly to it (each artillery battalion is a single 12,500 ton formation). Since the artillery battalions are subordinate to the division, I can drag them onto companies that are at the bottom of the division's hierarchy.