Explain artillery to me

[-Ice]

I've just read the Standard Alpha Strike rules and the Campaign rules.  I noticed that the campaign has artillery options so I read that section of the Advanced Options.  So on to a few questions and please remember I intend to play in hex-based games:

1.  What exactly does "positioned off the map 1 turn away from the Defender's home edge" mean?  If I were to attack something at my home edge, it will take 1 turn for the arty shell to hit, and this applies to targets up to 18 hexes away?  If the target is 19+ hexes away from the home edge, it'll take 2 turns, correct?

2.  Does the attacking player have to have LOS to POI when the arty fires?

3.  Does the attacking player have to declare "I'm firing artillery" when he uses arty, even if he doesn't reveal his POI?  Or does he just have to write down his POI?

4.  What's the lowest To-Hit number for off-board arty's first shot?  Assuming Regular (4) skill, are shots done with a To-Hit of 10 (4 [skill] + 7 [indirect fire] - 1 [spotter])?

5.  Assuming POI was selected, one shot made (To-Hit of 10), misses, shoots again (To-Hit of 9), misses, shoots again (To-Hit of 8), hits, gets "locked in", and subsequent shots are automatic hits?

6.  Assuming POI was selected, one shot made (To-Hit of 10), misses, shoots again (To-Hit of 9), misses, shoots again (To-Hit of 8), still misses, but player decides to move the POI a few hexes, does the To-Hit return to 10?

7.  Attacker has artillery assets and a pre-plotted POI at the start of the game.  Should he let the defender know what hex is the POI?  Or does he just have to write it down somewhere and only reveal it when arty shells start hitting the POI?

[NeonKnight]

I've just read the Standard Alpha Strike rules and the Campaign rules.  I noticed that the campaign has artillery options so I read that section of the Advanced Options.  So on to a few questions and please remember I intend to play in hex-based games:

OK, first, gonna assume you are looking at the newest errat with regards to artillery rules:

http://bg.battletech.com/errata/

1.  What exactly does "positioned off the map 1 turn away from the Defender's home edge" mean?  If I were to attack something at my home edge, it will take 1 turn for the arty shell to hit, and this applies to targets up to 18 hexes away?  If the target is 19+ hexes away from the home edge, it'll take 2 turns, correct?

The 'positioned one turn away' is an abstract term refering to off map/off board artillery as travel time. Even if the artillery is described as being 'one hex off the side of the map' it is off map and the shell takes one turn to arrive. so a shot fired on turn 2 arrives turn 3, or one turn later.

If you use both on board and off board artillery, artillery one turn away is one turn away, regardless of actual table distance from the edge of the table.

2.  Does the attacking player have to have LOS to POI when the arty fires?

Nope. See rules for Artillery Spotters. If they have LoS they get a slight bonus to the attack roll.

3.  Does the attacking player have to declare "I'm firing artillery" when he uses arty, even if he doesn't reveal his POI?  Or does he just have to write down his POI?

Yes, otherwise how will one determine when the shells arrive.

4.  What's the lowest To-Hit number for off-board arty's first shot?  Assuming Regular (4) skill, are shots done with a To-Hit of 10 (4 [skill] + 7 [indirect fire] - 1 [spotter])?

(4+7)-1 = 10

If the spotter has PRB, LPRB or BH, then you can get an additional -2, or a -1 if they have RCN, but not both. If the spotter also makes an attack, then you get a penalty of +1 (effectively elimiates the -1 for spotter).

So, assuming no attack, and best bonus, absolute lowest is:

(4 + 7) - 1 (spotter) - 2 (LPRB/PRB/BH) = 8

5.  Assuming POI was selected, one shot made (To-Hit of 10), misses, shoots again (To-Hit of 9), misses, shoots again (To-Hit of 8), hits, gets "locked in", and subsequent shots are automatic hits?

Correct

6.  Assuming POI was selected, one shot made (To-Hit of 10), misses, shoots again (To-Hit of 9), misses, shoots again (To-Hit of 8), still misses, but player decides to move the POI a few hexes, does the To-Hit return to 10?

Correct

7.  Attacker has artillery assets and a pre-plotted POI at the start of the game.  Should he let the defender know what hex is the POI?  Or does he just have to write it down somewhere and only reveal it when arty shells start hitting the POI?

Correct. Only reveals once the shells actually land, but yes, one should have it written down before hand.

[Scotty]

So, assuming no attack, and best bonus, absolute lowest is:

(4 + 7) - 1 (spotter) - 2 (LPRB/PRB/BH) = 8

Until you start including formation bonuses like Artillery and Recon Lances, then you can get it down another -2 with Oblique Artilleryman and Forward Observer (which was errata'd to -1 instead of -2).  That drops it down to TN 6, which you can further reduce by improving the skill of the artillery unit.

[NeonKnight]

Until you start including formation bonuses like Artillery and Recon Lances, then you can get it down another -2 with Oblique Artilleryman and Forward Observer (which was errata'd to -1 instead of -2).  That drops it down to TN 6, which you can further reduce by improving the skill of the artillery unit.

True. But was simply going off straight up artillery rules.

[-Ice]

Sorry, not tackled the errata bit yet.

If you use both on board and off board artillery, artillery one turn away is one turn away, regardless of actual table distance from the edge of the table.

So in a hypothetical map of 5 mapsheets laid length-wise (short edge connects to next map), with the defenders edge being the top-most and attacker at bottom, the shell still arrives after 1 turn?

Yes, otherwise how will one determine when the shells arrive.

It's not that, it's the idea that the enemy wouldn't know arty was coming until the first shell actually hits.  Notes will still be taken, just not as obvious.

Correct. Only reveals once the shells actually land, but yes, one should have it written down before hand.

But do you have to reveal that it's a pre-planned POI or can you just pretend that the attack was a direct hit?

[NeonKnight]

Sorry, not tackled the errata bit yet.
So in a hypothetical map of 5 mapsheets laid length-wise (short edge connects to next map), with the defenders edge being the top-most and attacker at bottom, the shell still arrives after 1 turn?

Well, this is where the rules start to get tricky.  I can't find an area in the rules where it states 'where' off-board artillery is located, just that it's off board. Again, one could suppose there would be a bit of logic to it, and if we take you hypothetical 5 map sheets long table, yourself and your opponent could declare which mapsheet the artillery piece is adjacent to for purposes of being off-board flight time duration (table on page 74). For purposes of this part of the discussion, you would probably be best served to take this part to the errata boards of the forum, and get an official answer.

It's not that, it's the idea that the enemy wouldn't know arty was coming until the first shell actually hits.  Notes will still be taken, just not as obvious.

Well, injecting a little 'real-world logic' here, artillery fire take time, but the light and sound from the artillery firing travels a lot faster and will let you know there is incoming shells. Like in all the movies, where the soldiers here the high-pitched whine of the shells falling, all start to scramble yelling "INCOMING" the know it's coming just not where until it starts to fall.

But do you have to reveal that it's a pre-planned POI or can you just pretend that the attack was a direct hit?

Well, because the use of pre-planned POI has to be determined before the start of play, your opponent would know they are in use, and because Pre-planned POIs do not require an attack role, once the first shell hits your opponent knows where the bad stuff is hitting...unless you could have a real good excuse why your artillery is hitting on an attack roll of 2+ ;)