*note* These questions are pertaining to On Board Artillery, but can easily expand to include Off-Board artillery.
From the 2nd Printing of the Alpha Strike rules, page 75:
Subsequent Attacks on the Same Point of Impact: Once an artillery attack successfully hits its chosen POI, the coordinates become “locked in”, and the artillery weapon may continue to attack that same POI without requiring to-hit roll until it changes targets. Artillery attacks do not “lock on” when the target is a unit.
Does this mean that particular POI is locked in for the rest of the scenario, or only as long as the On Board Artillery shoots at the POI?
I.E. On Board Artillery attacks POI-A, and succeeds in hitting, thus locking it in. Can the On Board Artillery then switch to another location, and later switch back to POI-A and automatically hit it? And if so does it matter if the On Board Artillery moves around or not, it will always be able to hit POI-A?
If the answers to the above is YES, does this mean the On Board Artillery (and by nature off-board Artillery) can store multiple 'locked-in POIs'?
It appears, from the second section (
Pre Plotted Points of Impact) in ALPHA STRIKE, the answer would be
YES.
Pre-plotted Points of Impact: If the scenario permits, players with artillery units may start an Alpha Strike game with a number of pre-plotted points of impact that their artillery units can already hit automatically (as if they successfully “locked on” as above). The number of pre-plotted POIs the players may have can be subject to scenario rules, an agreement between the players, or even the use of the Battlefield Intelligence optional rule described later in this chapter (see p. 82). Pre-plotted POIs must be marked on the board during setup.
Thanx.