Advanced Artillery

[Grumm]

9.8 Off-Board Artillery Fire Patterns
Each time an off-board conventional, non-rocket artillery attack is made, the controlling player may opt to employ special fire patterns that use different rules from the standard artillery patterns and concentrations. Unless stated otherwise, each pattern may use any number of available Off-Board Artillery assets to increase the total strength of the attack. These special artillery fire patterns may not be combined with each other or with the artillery fire plans discussed below.

9.81 Destruction Fire
This involves firing at a higher rate of fire (and often concentrating multiple batteries) to destroy the enemy in a single hex area. Destruction fire may only be used if the side has an ammunition level of 3 or higher. The attack may involve any available Off-Board Artillery assets, including General Support, and is resolved by rolling 1D6 on the appropriate bombardment value column, treating a roll of "1" as "2." After the attack is resolved, the side's ammunition level is automatically reduced by 1 (no test is necessary that turn).

9.82 Harassment Fire
With harassment fire, an Off-Board Artillery bombardment can increase its area of effect to a target hex and all six adjacent hexes. The effect of harassment fire is reduced as follows: the bombardment value of the attack is halved and the attack cannot result in more than disruption (ignore step losses other than the required morale check and treat demoralized results from morale checks as disrupted instead). For the remainder of the turn, each time a unit enters a hex covered by harassment fire, it is automatically subject to opportunity fire with the same reduced effect (this always happens even though the battery already fired for the turn—no additional ammunition check is required). Finally, the area of friendly fire is also increased so that any friendly unit within a hex adjacent to the harassment area (or entering an adjacent hex, in the case of opportunity fire) will be subject to the rules for friendly fire (again, with the same reduced effect).

9.83 Standing Barrage Fire
A standing barrage is called as opportunity fire against a spotted unit. The target must either be spotted by a Forward Observer or moving into a target point hex or adjacent to a target point hex. After the initial fire, the attack continues intermittently for the rest of the turn, so that only units activated by a leader may attempt to enter the hex and such units will automatically be subject to a further bombardment table roll immediately upon entering the hex.

9.84 Box Barrage Fire
A box barrage attack is a special artillery fire pattern that surrounds a target area with a wall of shrapnel. The box may be "complete" or "partial" and only a Forward Observer may call a box barrage. With a complete box barrage, all six hexes adjacent to a target hex are subject to a standing barrage (as per 9.83, above). With a partial box barrage, only four contiguous hexes adjacent to the target hex are affected. The bombardment value is divided by 6 or 4, respectively, due to the larger area and a leader is only required to activate units attempting to enter an interdicted hex if the firepower is equal to or greater than the moving unit's current morale.

9.85 Counter-Battery Fire
A forward observer may attempt to initiate counter-battery fire against an enemy Off-Board Artillery assets. This requires the forward observer's entire activation and a leadership check. If the check is successful, the player may use one available Direct Support asset with a bombardment value of 16 or better to target a particular Off-Board Artillery that had already fired this turn. The bombardment is rolled as normal but with no column shift modifiers applied. Step losses indicate the artillery asset is eliminated and any morale failure simply means the asset is not available for the next turn (use the standard morale value for the side to resolve any morale checks incurred by counter-battery fire).

9.9 Off-Board Artillery Fire Plans
Each player may also create fire plans for their Off-Board Artillery. Unlike artillery fire patterns, these plans must be determined before the start of the game.

9.92 Preparatory Fire Barrage
The attacking player may choose to start with a preparatory fire barrage in scenarios involving a deliberate (not hasty) attack and the attacker's starting ammunition level is 4 or better. The Off-Board Artillery assets and target hexes must be selected in secret before the defender deploys (General Support will automatically be available for this preparatory plan and the target hexes do not need to be spotted). Before initiative dice are rolled on the first turn, resolve the preparatory bombardments on the pre-determined hexes. The attacker may lengthen the preparatory fire barrage, thus gaining a +1 or +2 column shift modifier on all attacks. The preparatory barrage does not require an ammunition depletion check (see 9.63), but rather the attacker's ammunition level is automatically reduced by 1 plus any bonus column shifts added to the preparatory fire. The attacker may not make further Off-Board Artillery bombardments on the first turn of the scenario.

9.93 Creeping Barrage
The attacking player may plan a creeping barrage that moves ahead of the attacking forces. Creeping barrages must be planned before the defender deploys and may only make use of Direct Support artillery assets. For each Direct Support asset involved in the barrage, select a hex two or three hexes away from the attacker's starting positions. Write down the speed of the barrage in hexes (between 1 to 8 hexes a turn, typically equal to the rate of travel of the advancing forces) and the direction of travel. Pivots in the barrage direction can be planned with further notation. The planned duration of the barrage (how many turns it will travel) cannot exceed the starting ammunition level of the side, but as this ammunition is pre-allocated, the barrage will continue until its end even if the attacker's ammunition level falls to zero before that point. At the beginning of each turn starting with the first, each of the attacker's Direct Support batteries involved in a pre-planned Creeping Barrage will automatically fire upon every hex the barrage passes through, without requiring a spotted enemy or a leader to call in the attack. Resolve the bombardment with a -1 column shift modifier (-2 if the barrage is moving at a rate of 4 or more hexes per turn).