BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Player Boards => Fan Articles => Topic started by: Scotty on 06 July 2015, 20:45:22
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Here it is, ladies and gentlemen. This is the article I have been waiting to write for two months. Today's article is on the effective selection and use of artillery in an Alpha Strike game. So go ahead and strap in, because this one should be a good one.
I went over a little bit of this with the Catapult article, just a few days ago. This will be going significantly more in depth. So you guys get the best picture of how to use artillery I can provide, I'm going to go pretty deep into the mechanics of it, and after that it'll be time for unit selection and actual use on the table.
Artillery has recently been the subject of a pretty major errata, which can be found here (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/357573/Alpha%20Strike%20v2.1%202015-06-06.pdf) (PDF link) for anyone who wants to check it out. It begins on pg. 3, and adds quite a bit to the game, both in terms of adding artillery to the Alpha Strike standard rules, and making it much easier to use.
In standard rules, artillery has a maximum range of 42”, unless using Extreme Range rules. This is a lot of what makes it easy to use, since it's similar to making a standard weapon attack. The major difference on that front is that artillery is always considered to be made at Long range, with regards to to-hit modifiers. Snub-nose artillery, like the Thumpers, Snipers, and Long Toms you'll find most frequently fielded on 'Mechs use normal range modifiers.
Artillery may be fired either directly or indirectly, and unlike normal IF do not require a spotter in order to fire. Direct fire artillery may choose a unit to target, or a point of impact (hereafter abbreviated as POI), while indirect artillery attacks may only target a point of impact. What's the difference, you ask? Direct fire attacks use the attacker's skill, terrain intervening, the defender's TMM, and are automatically at long range (unless they're snub-nose field pieces, which I'll stop referring to now unless it comes up specifically). Indirect attacks use the attacker's skill, are automatically at long range, and add +1 for firing indirectly.
What gives? That sounds like direct fire is always worse than indirect, at first glance. A little deeper digging shows this isn't the case. While direct fire uses a lot more modifiers than indirect, often times a savvy player can keep those all at zero. If all else fails, there are even ways to switch between the two on the same target! When firing directly, it's entirely possible that there will be no terrain in the way, and that the unit's TMM is equal to or lower than the indirect modifier. You also can't use the bonuses provided by a spotter on a direct fire attack (with the exception of TAG and homing/copperhead rounds), which adds up pretty quick when you start bringing in spotters with Specials like PRB. There's also, technically, nothing preventing you from laying a POI directly adjacent to the spotter's base and circumventing the TMMs that way, but I think as a GM I'd rule that as a little bit of rules-lawyering and not allow it. Your mileage may vary.
Indirect, however, can only target a POI, unless there are homing rounds and TAG involved. When firing indirectly, having a spotter with the Specials PRB, LPRB, or BH will reduce to to hit number by a point for most artillery weapons, and will reduce it a full two points if the weapon is an Arrow IV launcher. Score one for the Arrow IV. Indirect is, ironically, more accurate against targets that are fast, or hiding in woods or behind hills. The presence of the spotter bonuses you can get makes it generally easier and better to fire indirectly than directly, though some exceptions do exist, usually if you don't actually have a spotter available.
If you hit the target, be it a unit or POI, an area of effect template is placed on the spot, with the size depending on the particular artillery piece used, and the ammo fired out of it. Most artillery uses a 2” template by default, which includes everything except Long Toms, which use 6” templates. Any true artillery (excepting Battle Armor tube artillery) is also capable of firing cluster ammo, which increases the size of the blast template. Templates that were 2” become 6”, while the Long Tom's 6” template becomes a monstrous 8” across. Damage is reduced by 1 for cluster shots, and that modified damage is again reduced by half outside of the normal size template (rounded down), however, which means that, as per the letter of the rules as they stand right now, all cluster ammunition not fired out of a Long Tom is utterly useless, and the Long Tom loses a point of damage in the 2” center in order to deal a single point of damage outside of 6” and inside of 8”. There's a rules question pending on that one. There was errata submitted on this very subject while I was in the middle of this article. If the damage is modified to 1, then damage outside the center template is reduced to 0*, not just a flat zero. This also includes the shots for Thumpers, which previously would be modified down to 0 by the cluster shot and deal no damage. They now deal a 0* across the entire 6” template.
But what happens if the attack fails? If you were using homing rounds of any sort, the attack misses and is never heard from again. If you were using anything else, it drifts. On each template is a series of numbers, from 1 to 6 on the perimeter of the template. Each of those represents a direction that the shot can drift. Oriented the '1' to the 'north' of the map, and roll 1d6. Whichever number comes up is the direction that drift occurs. As you can imagine, this can be problematic if you have units in the area. Once the direction is determined, roll another d6 for the distance. Tube artillery drifts however many inches appear on the die. Missile artillery drifts double that distance. The Oblique Artilleryman SPA reduces that drift by 2 inches, to a minimum of zero. Yes, that means that it's absolutely possible to have an attack 'miss' but still land exactly where you wanted it to. Welcome to the joys of artillery.
Units inside the blast template take damage. Duh. That includes units that may be hitching a ride on anything caught in the blast zone, but does not include units currently underground, inside buildings, and some units underwater, depending on how deep they are. Please note that I may be incorrect on this one, as the rules as written only mention units' bases as they relate to the template. I've taken the liberty of assuming that artillery damage resolves similarly to bomb damage, which make specific mention of those exceptions. Of note, artillery damage cannot deal damage to the rear of a unit. All damage is treated as being dealt from above, regardless of where the template is placed in regards to the unit.
Everything above happens whether you're using standard rules or advanced rules, pretty much interchangeably. Where it gets really interesting is in the advanced rules, where flight times start coming into play, along with varying ranges for each artillery piece. Most of it is still too far to be a real consideration on a normal table, but it can affect flight times.
Post errata, artillery now requires a flight time longer than same-turn when the POI is farther than 42” away, rather than the previous 34”. This is a good thing, allowing artillery attacks to land the same time as LRMs fired from the same place. Beyond that, however, flight times increase to multiple turns. Beyond 42”, all the way out to 90”, artillery shots will land one turn after they're fired. Beyond 90” out to 170”, artillery shots will land two turns after they're fired. If you're using on-board artillery and your table is longer than 170”, I cannot comprehened the size of your playing surface and my advice does not matter at all. Also on the subject of range, it should be noted that Battle Armor Tube Artillery, such as found on the Centaur Battle Armor, has a maximum range of 68”. It is still subject to the 42” same-turn impact, but it cannot make shots further than two turns before impact.
Any spotting for an artillery strike must happen on the turn it's fired, not the turn it lands. This makes first-turn attacks with artillery rather difficult, but I suspect that's part of the entire idea. Coupled with spotters only being able to stop for a single artillery attack per turn, and I'd say that it's a good balance decision, even if it doesn't line up exactly with what we expect from real life artillery units. Considering how much artillery I use in my games, this is a good thing, and prevents artillery from being utterly overpowered. When artillery lands, regardless of the turn it happens, the the attack resolution is the same.
With a 42” same-turn flight time, there are some fun things you can do. This is the first part of the article where I'll actually get into genuine tactics to use for artillery (finally!). With some proper maneuvering, it's possible to land multiple shots from the same artillery piece on the same target in the same turn. The effect, I must say, is immensely satisfying. It relies on being able to predict enemy movements, but I'll take care of that in a minute. As it so happens, movements in Alpha Strike are much easier to predict than in standard scale BattleTech.
Speaking of which! The simplified movement system in Alpha Strike lends itself to very easy use of artillery. This isn't a knock on players, but most people are really predictable when it comes to moving in Alpha Strike. This is a natural consequence of the method of movement. Imagine, if you will, a single enemy unit on the table. For our example, this unit will have a potential move of 8”j. Alpha Strike units are not required to move their full distance in order to get their full TMM, but for some reason everyone I've yet played against nearly universally moves the full distance every time regardless. I'm not immune to this, but it makes for some interesting interplay.
Back to that unit. Picture an imaginary circle around it. That represents how far it can move in a given turn. Let's also imagine that your artillery is exactly one turn flight time away from hitting anywhere near it. There may be terrain nearby. If that's the case, your job actually just got easier, especially if you also have units in the area. Cover is a powerful tool, and if given a chance to have partial cover and a full TMM, anybody I know jumps at it. This is exactly what makes predicting artillery easy.
Keep imagining that circle, and picture, after that unit moves next turn, which direction it will go. You don't have to be precise to the quarter inch, just within an inch or two. Knowing your opponent also helps, but it's arguably not necessary for a good barrage. Drop your shot wherever on that circle you see that unit going the next turn. There's no real need, 90% of the time unless your opponent knows what's getting shot at ahead of time, to try to measure and guess how far along that line it will move. As mentioned before, Alpha Strike makes moving easy, and makes moving at full speed easy. Predictably easy. It's still more difficult for faster things, but be on the look out for nice spots of cover within easy dashing range of things like hovercraft and scouts. Pay attention to places that will give your opponent a concrete advantage when engaging your troops, and then take it away from them with artillery.
That's the mechanics of artillery, and a brief snippet on how to use artillery with multi-turn flight times. But what units do you pick to bring along, and what sort of tactics should you filed them with? Well, this is going to be my favorite part of the article. As of this paragraph, this article has officially surpassed 2000 words, so that should tell you a little bit about how much I enjoy artillery in general. If this is my favorite?
So, what makes a good artillery unit? That, in large part, depends on what you want to do with it. I'll go over the three primary methods of using artillery first, and then go into how different kinds of artillery slot into that.
The first, and arguably the simplest, if not exactly the easiest method for utilizing artillery is have it truly off-board, or hang all the way in the back for the entire game. This keeps it the safest, but it also keeps it from being able to react as much to the changing battlefield. Shots must be made a turn or two in advance, and fire can't be shifted quickly from one flank to another as the tactical situation demands. This is, by far, the most conservative way to play artillery, but it does keep them relatively safe from direct harm. This is the method I like least. Unless you're taking special care to keep them moving without actually advancing up to the front, they're also far and away the most vulnerable to counter-battery fire, and enemy aircraft ruining your day. It requires a lot of baby sitting to keep mostly safe, and that draws still more away from your lines. This is the method I'd use if your games are gargantuan affairs, and you have 200-300 points of artillery alone, where weight of fire is more important than accuracy or response time.
The other two methods are similar, but differ primarily in how the artillery units react to the enemy. The second is to advance the artillery behind the main attack force, keeping the front within single-turn flight times. This artillery is much more reactive than predictive, dropping artillery with deadly accuracy exactly where it's needed on a turn by turn basis. Being this close to the front generally minimizes the risk of taking shots from enemy aircraft, which will have to expose themselves significantly in order to go after your guns, but it makes it much easier for enemy headhunters to engage given a brief gap in the lines. This is my personally preferred method of providing support to my units, but it definitely takes a different kind of artillery unit to pull it off. The main draw is the same-turn flight times, and being able to adjust immediately to enemy positions without having to guess where they'll be next turn. This particular method works best with more mobile pieces, and those with a bit more armor than the rear echelon pieces that exemplify off-board artillery.
The final way to play artillery is by far the most aggressive. This uses similar types of units to the previous one, and keeps up right there on the front. The entire point of this particular method is to use the fact that non-infantry units with the ART special can make a weapon or physical attack the same turn they make an artillery attack. These units thrive at medium range, engaging with their own guns and providing artillery support for their lance on the front lines. It's particularly satisfying to open up holes in an enemy's armor, and follow up with another attack to start generating critical hits, or to use an Arrow IV launcher to land an Inferno IV in the line of the enemy's approach, forcing them to slow down or take damage in order to get good positions. These artillery units are the very definition of close fire support.
Those are the three basic ways to use artillery, largely split between just how involved you want them to be in the main battle. I, personally, prefer the latter two, but then again I'm recklessly aggressive. There are artillery pieces that work best for one or the other, and that's where we're finally getting in this article. Artillery as it relates to force composition.
Rear echelon pieces are cheaper, pound for pound, than forward acting, mobile pieces. Movement and TMMs can inflate the cost of a unit, and so do extra armor. The fearsome Mobile Long Tom is 28 points, and offers the only canon method to get a genuine Long Tom artillery piece on the table in Alpha Strike. The Sniper artillery piece is 32 points, and has enough armor to shrug off a few counter-battery shots or air strikes. Also of particular note here are infantry towed field artillery guns. They're generally too heavy to transport with anything short of a dropship or small craft, but they're cheap as hell and their artillery works just as well as any one else. The pieces you generally want for off-board and rear area pieces are these ones. They're inexpensive, they have a good throw weight, and they don't need to move quickly or often.
Units that work well for the other two methods generally tend to perform similarly. The primary difference is in application. These pieces, typically 'Mechs or super heavy tanks, carry enough weapons and armor to take fire on the front lines and provide close fire support. 'Mechs like the Catapult -C3 and -C5, the Anvil -8M, Loki Mk II B, and Urbanmech -AIV embody these units. Also very, very useful for the easy of transport is the Centaur Battle Armor. Being able to drop a 1 point template just about anywhere on a normal map in a package that can be carted up near the front by your own 'Mechs before they engage is invaluable, and one of my personal favorite artillery units.
Organizationally, these ones are a bit of an odd duck. You can still put them in Artillery Fire Lances and use Oblique Artilleryman to make your artillery fire more accurate and drift less. This is good for units just behind the lines, as you're less likely to hit your own units. The other way you can do it is to group your artillery units, particularly units like the aforementioned Catapults and Anvil, into your line combat lances. They won't get bonuses to their artillery attacks, but fitting one into a Battle Lance gives you a reroll on a particularly crucial shot, and gives your opponent things that are more immediately threatening to shoot. Plus, you're close enough that you can then turn to engage whichever units lost armor that turn and start dealing crits, or you can open up holes for your lance to capitalize on. Fitting one of those units into a Striker Lance lets your artillery close the gap to same-turn flight times quicker, and helps manipulate the range to keep your unit out of danger, or behind cover when an indirect shot will be easier than a similar direct fire shot at a weakened or hard to hit target.
That takes care of organization and actual use of artillery, so now let's get into alternate ammunition and other things you can do with artillery. Cluster ammo, in particular, is probably the most useful alternate for your pieces to carry. Not only do you gain increased splash for your shots, making a difficult shot more likely to do damage anyway by accounting for splash, you can also use it to damage more units and gain increased damage output in general. It's particularly useful for parking multiple vehicles at range.
Units firing cluster ammunition may also engage in a special type of attack, targeting airborne aerospace targets. Of important note, an Artillery Flak attack may be made against an airborne aerospace target that is in the Inner Ring, not just the central zone or over the ground map. Shots against aerospace targets that are not in the central zone are made at a +2 to hit, but that's still more teeth than anything else on the ground has against air support. If the attack hits, it does damage as if the aerospace fighter had been in the center template of a hit. That is to say, minus a point of damage, down to 0* out of a Thumper. An attack that misses explodes harmlessly. Each attack must be targeted at a single craft, and does not splash.
An important thing to note! If a fighter is hit by an artillery flak attack, it must still make a control roll for taking damage. If the fighter is in the Inner Ring, it falls back to the central zone. This does not count as ending its movement in the central zone, and it cannot make a ground attack the next turn. Aerospace units (that cannot hover, which is most of them) must move at least one space on the radar map per turn if they're not engaged, and unless they can move two spaces per turn (requires a MV of 10a at least) they can't actually get back into the inner ring and then to the central zone in the same turn. It's possible, with some luck, to keep a fighter falling between the Inner Ring and Central Zone in perpetuity, unable to conduct an attack run.
Air Defense Arrow IVs work similarly, though as written there's some... distinctly odd interaction with range bands. Aerospace fighters conducting attacks on the ground map are treated at short range, targets in the central zone that are not currently over the ground map are at medium, and targets in the Inner Ring are treated as long range. Then, on top of that, the attack is made at a -2 to hit. The damage, as listed in my copy of Alpha Strike, is 2 points. I don't see any errata for that as it stands, but it doesn't seem to have been changed with the general decrease in artillery damage seen in recent errata.
Homing and Copperhead rounds work effectively identical to each other. A unit must be successfully hit with a TAG attack in order to be struck by a Homing or Copperhead round, but if the TAG was successful, then the target number is 4, period. Damage listed is 2 points, which is likewise not touched by errata as far as I can tell. If a Copperhead or Homing round misses, it explodes harmlessly away from the fight, and does not drift or splash. This is the shell to use if you're concerned about hitting your own, or if your artillery unit has TAG for itself. You don't have to declare the attack until after you've resolved the TAG, so you can hedge your bets, so to speak, on whether you can get things done with little collateral, or if that's not going to be possible. It's the most conservative ammunition to use with artillery, but also the one with the least... well, not potential, because you can still hurt something with it, but it spreads the pain the least.
The other munition that I have much experience with is the Inferno IV. Inferno IV missiles hit or miss like any other round, and drift on a miss. Wherever the POI ends up being, the ground in a 2” template (sound familiar?) is set ablaze as if it were on fire. Anything that travels through that area suffers one point of HT, which includes taking damage if they're a vehicle or infantry unit that doesn't have Fire-Resistant armor. This fire is treated as a regular fire, including the rules for spreading it, and the rules for smoke as a result.
Flechette ammunition deals double damage against conventional infantry and wooded terrain, Smoke ammunition drops a 6” template of smoke, regardless of weapon used. The inner 2” is heavy smoke, the rest out to 6” is light smoke. Good for obscuring LOS or giving your units some cover from aerial attacks or attacks they can't respond against. Illumination rounds cancel out any darkness modifiers, if you're using those, in a 6” area, and burn for 10 turns but do no damage.
Thunder and Thunder-Active are available only to Arrow IV launchers, and land 2” minefields with a density of 2 wherever they hit (and they do scatter on a miss). That's not a huge minefield, and 2” is pretty easy to go around in Alpha Strike, so I'm not convinced of the utility of them, particularly in a game where facing and direction changes are free. They definitely lose a lot of the luster compared to their ilk in the standard game.
That... well, I think that covers just about everything. How artillery works, tactics for using it, units that fit those tactics and how to organize them, and finally alternate artillery abilities and ammunition.
A big thanks for everyone who reads this articles. They mean a whole lot to be able to write and have the support. This is one of my favorite things in Alpha Strike, and I'm happy to be able to put all this down on paper. Up next: the Malak, on Friday.
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Direct fire at a point isn't rules lawyering, it's intended.
In my D&D group, it's called "pocket mule". If the rules say it is better for you to target a mile standing next to your target, rather than the target, then we assume there is a "mule" there. That is better than the alternative of bringing an actual mule to shoot at :). (And yes, we did bring a mule for a while..).
The only reason to direct fire a unit...
1. A buildings or other unit with no TMM but has LG or other easier to hit modifiers. Or just no modifier so you can avoid the +1 indirect modifier.
2. You can't see the ground for direct fire at it. Behind a hill for example. Or you can see the unit above the trees but not the ground it is standing on.
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Direct fire at a point isn't rules lawyering, no. I'd consider direct fire at a point deliberately and immediately adjacent to one solitary unit in plain view I'd call rules lawyering.
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That's the entire intent. You direct fire where the units are. No point firing where they aren't at.
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Direct fire is fully capable of targeting a unit, though. That's what happens when you 'direct fire where the units are'. Deliberately sidestepping what's obviously an attack at a single target in order to miss the TMM sticks sideways with me.
EDIT: I guess what bugs me is that there's literally no point in using direct fire at a target if you can just shoot it at the ground right next to it for fewer modifiers. Why even allow it? Artillery isn't allowed to get the -4 from immobile targets ever, so it doesn't change a thing if you're shooting at an immobile target or the ground underneath it.
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If you can't see the ground its standing on (hill or woods blocks LOS to ground). If the target is a VTOL or an aerospace fighter. If the target is in water. If the target is above the ground floor of a building (unless you plan to take down the building *grin*).
Direct fire at a point that didn't include your target in the are of effect would be meaningless. Of course you are going to direct fire a point that includes your target in its AoE.
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VTOL, maybe, but when you can't see the ground the target is on, it's better to fire indirect at that POI because you ignore the partial cover the 'mech obviously has at that point.
Direct fire at a point that doesn't include your target is how smoke, thunder, thunder-aug, illumination, and Inferno IV work. It's using HE rounds against a 'mech and aiming a quarter inch away from it to avoid the TMM is what bugs me.
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Which would you (Scotty or anybody else that would like to chime in) rather have, standard indirect fire (Archers, Catapults, etc), direct fire (Warhammers, JagerMechs), or artillery? Or in a roundabout way, how's the PV balance on artillery?
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Artillery, for a couple reasons, followed by direct fire, followed by indirect. Artillery has the longest reach, can do damage to multiple targets in a turn, and is a very powerful influence on your opponents' maneuvers. It also doubles as anti-aircraft, smoke, and HT all in the same system.
The other reason is that an artillery unit can still make standard weapon attacks while lobbing artillery. You're wasting no points with unused damage, but you're gaining a huge bump in capability.
Direct fire units don't pay anything for versatility that they aren't using, so they get a close second for the PV efficiency of being inherently specialized for line combat.
Indirect fire runs into some serious problems with PV efficiency, because when you're using your IF, you're not using these damage values you've paid a pretty penny for in PV. If I have an arbitrary 'Mech with 4/4/3 damage and IF2, any time I use that IF2 I'm still paying for the 4/4/3 damage block, but I'm not using it.
Units that have IF equivalent to their maximum damage aren't losing quite as much, but it's still a pretty big hit to be carrying so much damage around that you pay PV for that you also never use.
That said, when you're using IF, you're by definition not in a place where you're taking fire from the units you're attacking. The advantage for IF is that you're staying out of direct line of sight and therefore out of the line of major damage, and your units will tend to last longer, and maybe bring that firepower to bear later.
I prefer using my points as directly and effectively as possible to gain local superiority, and exploit that to blow open a flank and roll up my opponents, so the actual usage of IF isn't something that appeals to me or works with my strategy. That necessarily colors how I look at it.
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My AS materials are from the first printing.. in those materials off-board artillery is immune to attack (not explicitly, but implicitly because no provisions are made for attacking anything not on the board). I saw the OP mentioned counter-battery fire in his post but didn't elaborate. Is attacking off-board artillery now possible? I didn't see that in the linked erratum.
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Officially, counter-battery fire is a rule from the Companion. In terms of this article, I meant it as using your own artillery to try and pin down and destroy opposing artillery (or vice versa).
In the Companion, counter-battery is something off-board artillery can use to engage each other. It deals with the maximum range of the artillery pieces involved, where you can respond with counter-battery fire against something you outrange or match, but not something that outranges you. Each successive shot gets relatively easier, starting at +7 to hit (ouch) and reducing by 1 for every additional shot from the target that your units see hit the map. If the attack succeeds exactly, the off-board artillery takes half-damage. If it succeeds by 1 or more, the off-board artillery takes full damage.
EDIT: clarified the circumstances of the bonus from counter battery shots.
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Officially, counter-battery fire is a rule from the Companion. In terms of this article, I meant it as using your own artillery to try and pin down and destroy opposing artillery (or vice versa).
In the Companion, counter-battery is something off-board artillery can use to engage each other. It deals with the maximum range of the artillery pieces involved, where you can respond with counter-battery fire against something you outrange or match, but not something that outranges you. Each successive shot gets relatively easier, starting at +7 to hit (ouch) and reducing by 1 for every additional shot from the target that your units see hit the map. If the attack succeeds exactly, the off-board artillery takes half-damage. If it succeeds by 1 or more, the off-board artillery takes full damage.
EDIT: clarified the circumstances of the bonus from counter battery shots.
Under those rules, they ignore "shoot-n-scoot" and just arbitrarily allow for the sequentially descending TN to hit for counterbattery fire.. basically nothing the off-board artillery can do to mitigate the accuracy of counter-battery fire? (I'm not complaining, just making sure I get it)
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Sort of. First, you have to be able reach it. Long Toms are immune to most other off-board artillery, short of other Long Toms or ****** Cruise Missiles. In order for the TN to go down, the artillery being targeted for CB fire must land a shot where your units can see it, and the maximum it can go down is to -4, meaning that at easiest you're looking at Skill + 3 in order to land the hit. Using your off-board artillery carefully, or dedicating it to counter-battery as well means that the bonus to hit won't add up, and you'll be taking the fight to your opponent's artillery as well.
Additionally, attack rolls are made the turn the shot is fired, but the flight time may be several turns. You're banking a lot of firepower on being able to take the artillery out or spook it into changing firing tactics.
That said, I prefer using on-board artillery.
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Sort of. First, you have to be able reach it. Long Toms are immune to most other off-board artillery, short of other Long Toms or ****** Cruise Missiles.
Doesn't being so far back you're out of range of smaller guns affect your own flight times?
In order for the TN to go down, the artillery being targeted for CB fire must land a shot where your units can see it, and the maximum it can go down is to -4, meaning that at easiest you're looking at Skill + 3 in order to land the hit. Using your off-board artillery carefully, or dedicating it to counter-battery as well means that the bonus to hit won't add up, and you'll be taking the fight to your opponent's artillery as well.
But when the target is off-board, how do you ever get that bonus? Or is that the entire point of deploying artillery off-board anyway.. you trade long flight times for nearly-assured safety?
Additionally, attack rolls are made the turn the shot is fired, but the flight time may be several turns. You're banking a lot of firepower on being able to take the artillery out or spook it into changing firing tactics.
So, for example's sake, if CB fire at an off-board gun and is resolved to be a hit, and the damage will be enough to kill the unit's remaining A/S, the player controlling that gun simply know's it's a "dead man walking" and just shoots off however many shots it can before the shell lands with no option for redeployment of the unit before its scheduled death?
That said, I prefer using on-board artillery.
I agree, since off-board artillery seems to be so difficult to rules-wrangle. I greatly appreciate your answering these questions, btw.
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Oddly, no. Flight time for off-board artillery affects how long it takes for CB to land, but it doesn't seem to be affected by the maximum range of the guns - even though the ability to effect CB at all certainly is.
The bonus accrues when the off-board artillery lands a shot on the table at a point where one of your units has LOS. If my off-board artillery fires for three turns, and then goes silent, you'll have a cumulative -2 to hit my artillery. Counter battery may not even be attempted until the first shot lands.
As for the 'scheduled death' comment, pretty much. I honestly can't fault it too much, because the alternative is actually setting up two additional tables in order to have your 'off-board' artillery move around and dodge shots.
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Snub-nose artillery, like the Thumpers, Snipers, and Long Toms you'll find most frequently fielded on 'Mechs use normal range modifiers.
Just to check - by snub-nose artillery, do you mean any artillery mounted on 'Mechs, or do you mean the artillery cannons as compared to full artillery pieces? I'm not sure if, for example, both the Helepolis and the 6L variant of the Koschei would be shooting using normal range bands because both are 'Mechs with artillery built in, or if the Koschei gets to fire at normal range bands because it has a Sniper Artillery Cannon while the Helepolis has to always fire at long range because it has the full Sniper Artillery piece.
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He means artillery cannons.
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Does artillery get an exception to damage rolls when variable damage is in play? If so that makes artillery even more valuable.
RE: Pocket Mules
I originally agreed with the notion that's lame and cheesy to shoot the ground between the speedymech's feet rather than directly at the speedymech. However, nckestrel sold me on it.
I now see the tactic as an intended rock to the scissors of a high TMM.
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I think if you're playing on a table large enough for a significant amount of offmap artillery, you might as well get an extra table for the artillery.
Make it a game of Battleship.
*Shouts into the Kitchen* "I'M TARGETING 0896!" ... "SCATTER?" "3, 4" ... "YOU MISS!".
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Only exception to variable damage is for physical attacks.
EDIT: variable damage says it applies to weapon attacks. I'm not sure we have an exact definition of weapon attacks, but the artillery rules refer to artillery attacks imply it is a weapon attack. "compared to most weapon attacks", "like a standard weapon attack", "none of the normal weapon attack modifiers".
Other rules based on weapon attacks should include artillery as a weapon attack. Heat for example, you can't make an artillery attack and then reduce your heat level because you didn't make a weapon attack. YOu can't make an artillery attack against a target you are in base-to-base contact with ("unit may not make weapon attacks against.."). And, except where specified differently in the artillery rules, they follow the "resolving weapon attacks" sequence for line of sight, firing arcs, range, deteriming to-hit number, rolling to hit, determine and apply damage, etc.
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You can, however, make an artillery attack against the mule that's standing right next to a target you're in base to base contact with. :P
It's still something that sticks sideways with me, because there are literally zero reasons to attempt a direct fire attack at a unit, rather than a POI. Even buildings and immobile targets, because artillery can't benefit from the -4 immobile target modifier. If you can't see the ground a unit is standing on, you can shoot at the ground you can see that they're hiding behind, or you can shoot at the ground you can't see and eat a grand total of +1 for indirect, rather than the TMM plus partial cover of the unit. Why even allow it at all if there's never any use for it?
Which is leaving aside how I really don't think there should be a 'hard counter' to any kind of unit in a game ostensibly balanced by PV. If you really want to remove the TMMs from a unit, fire indirectly.
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I've listed several reasons already.
1. You can't see the ground to target it. A hill, water, woods can all block LOS to the ground. You need LOS to direct fire.
2. The target isn't in the ground. A VTOL, an aerospace fighter, a naval unit.
Or to put it another way, within 42", with LOS to the ground, absolutely yes direct fire at a point is the entire point of direct fire artillery. I almost left out direct fire at a unit from the standard artillery rules entirely. Only the cases above required that I leave it.
Direct fire at a point is the major, intended use of standard rules artillery.
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Arguably you could shoot at the part of the hill you can see and expect to hit them, and as I mentioned, shooting at the ground you can't see indirectly is usually (the only exceptions are units so slow they get no TMM) break even or better than shooting directly at the unit.
If you had actually left the ability for an artillery shot to engage a unit with direct fire entirely out of the book (except in cases like airborne ground and aerospace units, or with Homing/Copperhead rounds), I would probably have less of an issue with it.
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He means artillery cannons.
Thanks for clearing that up - I know there aren't a lot of 'Mechs with artillery pieces, but the Helepolis may well feature in some upcoming Alpha Strike games I'm arranging.
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I think what causes the main suspension of disbelief issues with "hit the helpless hex (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SplashDamageAbuse)"-type attacks is that they're purely a game conceit. In real life, shooting at a spot that's defined solely in relation to a target's position and therefore moving just as fast as the target definitely doesn't let you conveniently ignore said target's speed; that's a phenomenon you only get in games with turn-based movement where everybody obligingly freezes in some clearly-defined position or other once their turn is over and patiently waits until it's their turn again.
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I've never liked direct fire artillery in any of the BT rules levels specifically for the reason that it is easy to abuse the ability to fire at a spot on or near a fast unit for a low mod where firing AT the unit would be impossible. The units most able to get those high mods are the same ones most susceptible to the damage artillery puts out.
Not only is it kind of munchy, as A.Lurker points out, it also creates something of a logical disconnect.
I kind of wish even on board direct fire attacks took place before the movement phase (landing in the weapons phase) so you still have to properly lead a target.
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Have you ever tried that (firing artillery before movement phase)? Because my experience (admittedly usually then when flight delay) is that you'd never hit anything except by mistake (drift).
If I was doing Alpha Strike from scratch (no BattleTech history/tradition), I might suggest a "dodge" value. Roll 1d6 and compare to TMM. If you roll below TMM, the unit was out of the blast when it went off. So hitting the "area" is relatively easy. Hitting it when the unit was in the area at the same time would be the hard part. And wouldn't have any silliness with "I'll aim at the Imp (aka Pocket Mule) that's standing next to the Fireball I really want to hit". IE. D&D saving throws, Warhammer dodge checks, etc. (Ok, i think I recall Warhammer having dodge rolls, nobody shoot me if I get Warhammer rules wrong *grin*).
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I think it's more or less equivalent to shooting a rocket at the ground in some FPS.
Higher hit probability, but it should probably deal less damage.
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Moving away from what is rapidly becoming a circular argument...
How would you adapt these recommendations to ortillery, as described in the Companion?
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I'm not terribly familiar with ortillery. They don't seem to have been hit with the errata brush yet, and still references the old artillery TN modifiers. I don't have the foggiest idea how accurate it is, but I don't see anything here about flight times. In light of that, use it like you would any single-turn flight time artillery, with the added benefit that you won't be taking fire to your artillery unit while doing it.
Honestly, since most large aerospace units don't have Alpha Strike cards yet, I'd be just as inclined to leave it off the table entirely. I have exactly zero experience with them.
Since the section of rules describes damage in multiples of 50 (Jesus really?), I'd definitely be inclined to keep them the hell away until we have some proper warships to smash into each other.
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Which in turn dictates it's more or less fights before 2900.
Can a unit have multiple artillery attacks, or is the damage just added, like with regular weapons?
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Excellent question. The number in the ART specials after the hyphen is the number of separate attacks you can make with it.
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Excellent question. The number in the ART specials after the hyphen is the number of separate attacks you can make with it.
That's one reason why the Naga and the dual-Arrow IV Longbow have such a strong presence on our game tables; they essentially get THREE attacks, one each for the artillery and another that has turned out to be melee more than once. Sending Recons and Strikers after the artillery often leads to them being kicked to death.
The only other canon dual artillery I can think of is the Bakemono, though.
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The Destrier and Gulltoppr get in on the double arty action. Which is terrifying, because they are huge and ignore damage like you or I ignore rain.
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Well, there's the Demolisher Arrow IV and the Schiltron Omni-Vehicle.
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There are plenty of dual-arty vehicles(and some with even more if you're willing to go weird), but to my knowledge, the Naga, O-Bakemono, and a Longbow variant are the only dual-mount 'mech platforms. I suppose the Pillager Anvil should also be mentioned despite its use of snub-Toms versus full artillery, seeing as how snubguns seem to perform a lot more like their larger cousins in AS than they do in TW/TO.
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They are! Their damage values are lower, with Long Toms equating to Sniper damage, but they actually get lower range penalties when closer. In standard play, they are strictly better Snipers.
Edit: Well, no alt ammo. There's that.
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Well, if it's got no actual attack value, it's no step up from just having a regular attack (maybe IF) and a second shot.
Though I suppose two Artillery attacks have their own perks.
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I feel like warrants a bump. (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/alpha-strike/artillery-fired-from-airborne-aerospace-units/msg1098184/#msg1098184) O0
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I get a 404 on that link.
On the risk of recklessly necroing, what was in that thread?
I suppose it's about airborne artillery?
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How effective would an aerospace fighter be as artillery? Can it fire every round and just run circles around the center?
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Assuming you're taking about Arrow IV, yes.
...actually, you may want to check on that. I know that TacOps lets aeros fire Arrows(ha!) while airborne with no restrictions(no tube arty, though), but I don't know if Alpha Strike went the same way.
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I get a 404 on that link.
On the risk of recklessly necroing, what was in that thread?
I suppose it's about airborne artillery?
New link (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=46761.0) to that thread.
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Assuming you're taking about Arrow IV, yes.
...actually, you may want to check on that. I know that TacOps lets aeros fire Arrows(ha!) while airborne with no restrictions(no tube arty, though), but I don't know if Alpha Strike went the same way.
Technically, no. Aerospace fighters must move at least one space on the radar map during their movement, which means that if you're in the Inner Ring, you must exit the Inner Ring on your movement (the Inner Ring is only one space). That means either taking a turn off of bombardment, or venturing into the Central Zone and plotting a path along the ground map.
Interestingly enough, when using Arrow IV as worded the POI doesn't have to be along the fighter's flight path, but merely the distance in terms of flight time is measured from the unit's flight path. This makes it possible to land multiple Arrow IVs fired from the same aerospace unit land at the same time on the same point (if the roll succeeds) simply by firing once from a long ass way away with a ground map flight path, a second time from the inner ring, and then a third time from a closer flight path to the target. That thought amuses me greatly.
EDIT: I'm genuinely unsure if an ASF can spot for its own indirect fire, after we got errata saying that ASFs can spot for indirect artillery fire while drawing a flight path along the ground map. If the ASF has RCN or any one of a number of SPAs, it occurs to me that ASF Arrow IV fire may be more accurate as a solo platform than a ground based unit.
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Direct fire is fully capable of targeting a unit, though. That's what happens when you 'direct fire where the units are'. Deliberately sidestepping what's obviously an attack at a single target in order to miss the TMM sticks sideways with me.
EDIT: I guess what bugs me is that there's literally no point in using direct fire at a target if you can just shoot it at the ground right next to it for fewer modifiers. Why even allow it? Artillery isn't allowed to get the -4 from immobile targets ever, so it doesn't change a thing if you're shooting at an immobile target or the ground underneath it.
Car Wars answered this question for weapons like mineflingers and other weapons that 'fire' what are normally dropped weapons. If you are placing it within 2" (twice the length of a standard car, or 30' in scale) of a moving vehicle you have to take target modifiers for the car's speed. So say aim points within an inch have to use target speed mods?
(sorry for the delayed response, I was moving back in July, and missed this article, just noticed it because of the bump)
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Technically, no. Aerospace fighters must move at least one space on the radar map during their movement, which means that if you're in the Inner Ring, you must exit the Inner Ring on your movement (the Inner Ring is only one space). That means either taking a turn off of bombardment, or venturing into the Central Zone and plotting a path along the ground map.
Interestingly enough, when using Arrow IV as worded the POI doesn't have to be along the fighter's flight path, but merely the distance in terms of flight time is measured from the unit's flight path. This makes it possible to land multiple Arrow IVs fired from the same aerospace unit land at the same time on the same point (if the roll succeeds) simply by firing once from a long ass way away with a ground map flight path, a second time from the inner ring, and then a third time from a closer flight path to the target. That thought amuses me greatly.
That is actually what I was suggesting - just circle around in the second ring, or move in and out of the first and second and every turn just fire the artillery. Or am I missing some rule that limits fire only when the movement path is toward the ground map?
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You can't circle around in the second ring and still fire Arrow IV; you must be either in the Central Zone or the Inner Ring (if you mean the Inner Ring; that whole area is one zone, you must exit it either higher and away from the central zone, or into the central zone on your movement) in order to fire.
The limiting factor is that most Aerospace units (and as far as I'm aware all units mounting Arrow IV that have occupy the radar map) can't move more than one space on the radar map per turn, making it rather difficult to orbit around the Inner Ring every turn.
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Multiple Rounds, Simultaneous Impact (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery#MRSI) artillery attacks have been a thing in reality for quite some time. But BattleTech doesn't really acknowledge them. Yet I've noticed that the tactic IS indeed possible (to a limited degree) in Alpha Strike! (advanced rules only; not possible in standard rules)
The way you get one artillery tube to hit twice in the same moment is to exploit (abusive? used as intended? I'm not judging) the homing rounds and TAG. Under advanced rules, a POI designated at >34" will have a flight time and one closer will not. Furthermore, once a homing round arrives it can home in on any target designated with TAG within 34" of the POI.
A visual aid easily shows the implication. The black rectangle shows a standard 48"x72" gaming area. In the lower left corner is an artillery unit. The green circle is the 34" radius for flight time thresholding, and the orange circle is within 34" of POI.
(http://i1350.photobucket.com/albums/p773/Tai_Dai_Cultist/Alpha%20Strike/d79fd0be-4d73-40fd-bfb4-d304961be3a5_zpsfve76p3e.png)
So, on round 1 the artillery can fire at the red "X". On round 2, if you TAG a unit within both the green and orange circles you can hit it with 2 rounds at once. Gets to be awesomely obnoxious when you have more than one tube of artillery!
Additionally, there's a bonus "exploit" to homing rounds and TAG: you can extend your 34" flight time to cover almost the entire table, even from being tucked away in the corner. So long as you successfully TAG a target, you can place the POI just inside the green circle and the orange circle will also just barely move, but everything within the orange circle is now ALSO 0 flight time! You can even move the POI to get the orange circle to cover anywhere on the board except the opposite corner. And if you set your artillery up a little closer to the center, then everything on the board is 0 flight time for homing rounds!
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Not trying to upstage, but there's a significantly more hilarious way to get time-on-target artillery strikes. It involves a Fireball XF or a
Revenant Celerity X (honestly any of the Celerity Omnis work, too, with 40" MV) and either a Centaur or a Grenadier II battle armor unit. The Fireball XF is fast enough that the Centaur can fire on one turn, next turn mount up, the Fireball moves as quickly as it can while still dismounting the battle armor, which fire again, then mount up next turn, etc.
With a speed of 48", it's technically possible to end the first turn outside of 90", end the second turn outside of 34" but within 90", and then end the third turn within 34" for single turn flight, letting you land as many as three (!!) artillery rounds on the same POI simultaneously.
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I'm wanting to experiment with Artillery and was wondering which units I should pick up so I can start to play around with it. Should I do a fighter or a land based unit? I can buy one of each just to try both and wet my beak.
Which units work best in Alpha Strike?
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Yes.
No, really.
For a better answer, we'd have to know more about your needs, what kind of force your arty will be supporting, and a host of other questions I can't think of right now. There is no 'best' artillery unit, each one has its own strengths and weaknesses.
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Yes.
No, really.
For a better answer, we'd have to know more about your needs, what kind of force your arty will be supporting, and a host of other questions I can't think of right now. There is no 'best' artillery unit, each one has its own strengths and weaknesses.
I want something with which to support a battlemech/vehicle element if I see them in a bad spot. Also, going to be doing a campaign soon, and I think a lot of the 'mechs protecting my objectives will be in one area essentially waiting for me.
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Not particularly experienced on that subject, but if you are defending objectives, you ought to bring special ammo, so probably real arty and not snubnose cannons. Further, the decision of whether to use an ASF or ground unit hinges on what your opponent brings, does it not?
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Are you looking to actually put a unit on the board, or are you OK with off-board artillery? If it's off-board it almost doesn't matter. The Gun Trailers in TRO:3145 make great off-board artillery if you want an actual record sheet. Or you can just pick a type and number of tubes/launchers and keep it abstract. If you want or need it on the game board, that's a little different. You could still technically use the Gun Trailers, but then they are either stationary, or you need something to tow them. Failing that, there is the Naga/O-Bakemono for a decent Arrow IV mech. There are several tanks that mount Arrow IV as well, and a couple with tube artillery like the Sniper and Thumper. I think the Ajax D is a nice tank for arty support on-board.
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So it seems to me that the Long Tom and Cruise missile 90 are the most effective. IWM sells this little trailer with what looks like a stationary gun. I was trying to find it's AS card on the MUL and had no luck.
I would prefer something on the board for aesthetic reasons.
Side note: I can just call artillery strikes and not even have a record sheet for who is firing it?
So what does this fire?: http://ironwindmetals.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1843
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So it seems to me that the Long Tom and Cruise missile 90 are the most effective.
They're among the biggest, but that doesn't mean the most effective. Every artillery piece has its advantages and disadvantages.In addition, you need to decide if you want your arty moving by mech, vehicle, infantry, BA, aero, boat, and so forth. Does it need armor to withstand direct fire, or are you confident in your ability to keep it safe? Will it be heavily escorted, or should it carry secondary guns to defend itself? How much ammo does it need, for both combat duration and for ammo variety? These are the kinds of things we need to know before recommending something.Side note: I can just call artillery strikes and not even have a record sheet for who is firing it?
The Battlemech Manual Beta has rules for buying artillery strikes without buying a whole arty unit, but otherwise, you do need a sheet even for off board units, since they can be hit by counter-battery fire.So what does this fire?: http://ironwindmetals.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1843
That is a J-27 Ordnance Transport (http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/1645/j-27-ordnance-transport-standard), towing a Gun Trailer (Thumper) (http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6533/gun-trailer-thumper). Alternatively, the trailer can be used by itself to easily represent a field artillery platoon (http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/2131/mechanized-field-artillery-71st-mechanized-field-artillery-2nd-sword-of-light).
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If you're looking to expand your AS experience by including artillery, a Catapult-C3 (http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/481/catapult-cplt-c3) may be a good option. You may even already have a mini for it.
If you want to use offboard artillery, I'd just go with cheap cheap cheap. Probably one of the slow moving infantry units... you're still paying full PV for the units even if they're offboard, and everything that goes into PV beyond the artillery piece itself won't lend itself to the outcome of the game since there's no contingency for moving offboard artillery onto the board.
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El Cheapo artillery from the MUL:
[OOPS! Had the sniper trailer in here, but it is actually a Sniper Cannon, not the normal artillery piece!]
Thumper, 13PV - http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6533/gun-trailer-thumper
Arrow IV, 19PV - http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6529/gun-trailer-artilleryaaa
And the minis from IWM - http://ironwindmetals.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=16_44_118&products_id=9109
EDIT: Oh, and if you want to look up artillery units on the MUL yourself, there are a couple specials you can look for by using the "AS Abilities" tab under the "Alpha Strike" item: ARTA is arrow IV, ARTS is Sniper Artillery, ARTT is Thumper Artillery, and ARTLT is Long Tom.
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El Cheapo artillery from the MUL:
[OOPS! Had the sniper trailer in here, but it is actually a Sniper Cannon, not the normal artillery piece!]
Thumper, 13PV - http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6533/gun-trailer-thumper
Arrow IV, 19PV - http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6529/gun-trailer-artilleryaaa
And the minis from IWM - http://ironwindmetals.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=16_44_118&products_id=9109
EDIT: Oh, and if you want to look up artillery units on the MUL yourself, there are a couple specials you can look for by using the "AS Abilities" tab under the "Alpha Strike" item: ARTAIS is arrow IV, ARTS is Sniper Artillery, ARTT is Thumper Artillery, and ARTLT is Long Tom.
Very helpful, thank you! You read my mind, this is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you too Tai Dai and Weirdo!
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I made one screwup there. The search you want for Arrow IV is actually just ARTA. ARTAIS is specifically the IS version of Arrow IV. The clan version is ARTAC. But in that case the 'C' is OK! So many rules to keep track of!
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Well I don't mean to one up, but if cheap is where you're going, I'll throw another option (http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/2131/mechanized-field-artillery-71st-mechanized-field-artillery-2nd-sword-of-light) I was alluding to in my previous post :)
There's also an Arrow IV infantry platoon as well, but their price at 22PV seems decadent in comparison to some of the other options you've been given!
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I want to get some cool artillery mini for the board. I'm all about the flash as well as the bang.
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If you don't mind proxying, you can surely find some field guns and/or artillery pieces from other games. I have a pair of some kind of gauss cannon field guns for some game I never heard of, all in the wrong scale for BattleTech (I think they're 28mm the gunner figures that I didn't glue to the bases are almost as big as protomechs!) but... they look awesome as big bad 6mm scale "big bertha" style artillery guns.
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I'm gonna buy the corresponding mini. I'm OCD that way.