Question: Switching spotters for artillery bombardment

[rri970]

I'm trying to get my grips on some finer points of artillery usage that I was not able to figure out from the manual.

1) Can different spotters be used to assign different bombardment missions within the same turn?
Example: I assign two of my tubes from a battery (say W0 and W1) using B0 as the spotting unit. I close the bombardment screen, select C0 as a spotting unit, open the bombardment screen and assign firing missions for guns W2 and W3 from my battery.
Is B0 still the spotter for W0 and W1, or did they switch to C0 as the spotter?

2) Does using a new spotting unit to adjust an assigned bombardment mission change the spotter for that mission?
Example: I've used B0 to assign all tubes of my W battery to a fire mission on the previous turn. This turn, I open the bombardment screen with C0 as the spotter, and use the "arrows" icon to adjust the bombardment mission. Is now C0 the new spotter for my W guns?

3) Is there a way to switch spotters for an assigned mission without "adjusting" it?
Example: My spotter B0 has been forced to run for cover by the dastardly enemy, but brave and cunning C0 still has LOS of target for a pending bombardment. Can I switch the spotter to be C0, w/o "adjusting" fire? I assume "No", but thought I'd ask.

Thanks in advance!

[jivemi]

Not an expert on this but I'll have a go:

1) Yes. This is especially effective when particular spotters have "eyes on" the target hexes and others don't; w/o LOS the bombardment will scatter. In your example B0 will continue spotting for W0 and W1.

2) Yes. You can often use even low-artillery-value combat "0" units to shift fires so that if they have LOS and the original spotter doesn't you get the benefit of more accurate arty fire. In your case C0 now becomes the spotter for W0 battery.

3) Probably yes. As in 2) above I've switched to up-front combat units to take over spotting responsibilities w/o shifting after the original high-value spotter had earlier plotted the strike(s) to land one (or two) turns later. When that happens and the squad leader maintains his LOS to the target hex the round(s) always seem to fall on or near the target. So your brave C0 guy can take over from discreet B0 w/o penalty AFAIK.

[Mobhack]

Whichever unit you use will be the spotter from now on, if you make an adjustment. Swapping spotters has no penalty, unless you go to say a non-observer type from a proper FOO, in which case shifting costs more.

BUT SP allows you to plot with an experienced FOO for faster call of fires, and then later use another unit with better LOS if you want precision. There is no complex "oh mission was being called by Bill, but now its George, was 1.2 should now be 2.4 to arrive" stuff.

Who the original observer was is only valid in fires for determining any larger scatters arising for "has no spotter" (he died, or is retreating / routing)OR Shot falls out of LOS of original spotter "spotter has no LOS", which is the same code, arrived at for slightly different reasons. (GPS arty mitigates that somewhat by reducing out-of LOS/no spotter scattering. )

[jivemi]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Whichever unit you use will be the spotter from now on, if you make an adjustment. Swapping spotters has no penalty, unless you go to say a non-observer type from a proper FOO, in which case shifting costs more.

OK, so apparently you can't switch spotters UNLESS you make an adjustment with the new one. In which case my advice for 3) was wrong. Thanks.

[Aeraaa]

Originally Posted by jivemi

OK, so apparently you can't switch spotters UNLESS you make an adjustment with the new one. In which case my advice for 3) was wrong. Thanks.

It's a common trick, I do it the whole time. Say, you have an infantry lieutentant with crappy artillery rating, being the only spotter in the area. Because of that, his call time is 2.0. But you really need arty now. So what you do is use your A0, or a dedicated FOO, who have a call time of 1.0 (I assume post 1980 situation here), and call the barrage. When the first rounds land, adjust with your infantry unit and use him for any subsequent poundings you want to make.

[jivemi]

Originally Posted by Aeraaa

It's a common trick, I do it the whole time. Say, you have an infantry lieutentant with crappy artillery rating, being the only spotter in the area. Because of that, his call time is 2.0. But you really need arty now. So what you do is use your A0, or a dedicated FOO, who have a call time of 1.0 (I assume post 1980 situation here), and call the barrage. When the first rounds land, adjust with your infantry unit and use him for any subsequent poundings you want to make.

Yeah, doing that more often now. AFAIK there's no penalty even if you DON'T make an adjustment; IIRC all that happens is the original spotter is maintained. So to fine-tune it, switch to the low-grade combat leader with LOS just before the rounds fall and make a slight one-hex adjustment to get greater accuracy from eyes-on. (That's what I'm thinking anyway.)

[Suhiir]

Pretty much.
I also have been doing that myself since day one.