Indirect Fire (Artillery) Oddities

[kaladorn]

I don't recall an "FDC" in some of the earlier uses of mortars/arty. You called the battery, they did the calcs and laid the guns. That's what I meant by "integrated". The task still got done, just by the same folks (the battery).

Now, if I use a laser to designate a target point and my mortar rounds or arty rounds are laser guided, that's another way of getting them on target.

Figure since we have GPS guided missiles now (missile, not launcher!), we'll have them on smaller things by higher tech levels. We have laser guided arty now.

As to the whole issue of weather - I'd agree it affects scatter. I should have stipulated 'calm day' and 'range around 1500m' in my 'why can't I hit it dead on without an observer' case.

 

[kaladorn]

A solution I've come up with (based off of some of the coverage of danger space in Mercenary/CT):

To Hit A Target in a Danger Space, Routine, Instant. Note: Task becomes Difficult to hit Prone Target or one in significant cover. Note also this is versus standard hand grenade or HE explosions. If the round is airburst, being prone actually makes the hit task Easy.

To Go Prone Before A Blast, Difficult, Dex, Instant. (Interrupt).

You can only attempt the second interrupt if you can hear the projectile or see it or have reason to know when it will arrive.

Note the abscence of skills. If a round hits where it should, indirect fire wise, is the province of skill. If shrapnel hits a target in the danger area of the blast is a product of luck and target posture. No real skill is involved. Tactics DM might allow the player to get prone more easily or pick a bit of a covered position.

Hitting with indirect fire should involve:

An FO task (the success or failure of this task influencing the difficulty of the firing task, and the difficulty of the FO task being a product of the TL)

There might be an FO commo task involved, if one wanted to be detailed.

A Mortars/Howitzer task (the success of which being a f'n of both TL and FO task success) Without an FO, hit or miss is utterly the province of luck and tech. Even good tech won't make this entirely easy, dead reckoning.

GPS or laser guiding change the difficulty of the task for the artillerist, but lasing would require a 'designation' task from the FO. And maybe a communications task to see to it that the info was communicated clearly and the round established lock on or was correctly programmed.

Scatter should be determined from the second result, but since FO affects that, the FO is figured into it effectively. Also note that in subsequent rounds, if the FO can radio corrections, the task for the Mortars/Howitzers should get easier.

MT arrival times are also probably whacked.... for a max range of a 60mm mortar in the real world of about 4000m, I don't suspect the arrival times are anywhere near as long as they suggest. The burst radii and Mercenary were also a bit small.

 

[kaladorn]

A solution I've come up with (based off of some of the coverage of danger space in Mercenary/CT):

To Hit A Target in a Danger Space, Routine, Instant. Note: Task becomes Difficult to hit Prone Target or one in significant cover. Note also this is versus standard hand grenade or HE explosions. If the round is airburst, being prone actually makes the hit task Easy.

To Go Prone Before A Blast, Difficult, Dex, Instant. (Interrupt).

You can only attempt the second interrupt if you can hear the projectile or see it or have reason to know when it will arrive.

Note the abscence of skills. If a round hits where it should, indirect fire wise, is the province of skill. If shrapnel hits a target in the danger area of the blast is a product of luck and target posture. No real skill is involved. Tactics DM might allow the player to get prone more easily or pick a bit of a covered position.

Hitting with indirect fire should involve:

An FO task (the success or failure of this task influencing the difficulty of the firing task, and the difficulty of the FO task being a product of the TL)

There might be an FO commo task involved, if one wanted to be detailed.

A Mortars/Howitzer task (the success of which being a f'n of both TL and FO task success) Without an FO, hit or miss is utterly the province of luck and tech. Even good tech won't make this entirely easy, dead reckoning.

GPS or laser guiding change the difficulty of the task for the artillerist, but lasing would require a 'designation' task from the FO. And maybe a communications task to see to it that the info was communicated clearly and the round established lock on or was correctly programmed.

Scatter should be determined from the second result, but since FO affects that, the FO is figured into it effectively. Also note that in subsequent rounds, if the FO can radio corrections, the task for the Mortars/Howitzers should get easier.

MT arrival times are also probably whacked.... for a max range of a 60mm mortar in the real world of about 4000m, I don't suspect the arrival times are anywhere near as long as they suggest. The burst radii and Mercenary were also a bit small.

 

[kaladorn]

A solution I've come up with (based off of some of the coverage of danger space in Mercenary/CT):

To Hit A Target in a Danger Space, Routine, Instant. Note: Task becomes Difficult to hit Prone Target or one in significant cover. Note also this is versus standard hand grenade or HE explosions. If the round is airburst, being prone actually makes the hit task Easy.

To Go Prone Before A Blast, Difficult, Dex, Instant. (Interrupt).

You can only attempt the second interrupt if you can hear the projectile or see it or have reason to know when it will arrive.

Note the abscence of skills. If a round hits where it should, indirect fire wise, is the province of skill. If shrapnel hits a target in the danger area of the blast is a product of luck and target posture. No real skill is involved. Tactics DM might allow the player to get prone more easily or pick a bit of a covered position.

Hitting with indirect fire should involve:

An FO task (the success or failure of this task influencing the difficulty of the firing task, and the difficulty of the FO task being a product of the TL)

There might be an FO commo task involved, if one wanted to be detailed.

A Mortars/Howitzer task (the success of which being a f'n of both TL and FO task success) Without an FO, hit or miss is utterly the province of luck and tech. Even good tech won't make this entirely easy, dead reckoning.

GPS or laser guiding change the difficulty of the task for the artillerist, but lasing would require a 'designation' task from the FO. And maybe a communications task to see to it that the info was communicated clearly and the round established lock on or was correctly programmed.

Scatter should be determined from the second result, but since FO affects that, the FO is figured into it effectively. Also note that in subsequent rounds, if the FO can radio corrections, the task for the Mortars/Howitzers should get easier.

MT arrival times are also probably whacked.... for a max range of a 60mm mortar in the real world of about 4000m, I don't suspect the arrival times are anywhere near as long as they suggest. The burst radii and Mercenary were also a bit small.