Issues With Artillery Tutorial

[Brick McBurly]

Hi Folks-

Received the 4 SOW games for my birthday a few months ago and finally have the time to give them the attention they deserve. I'm currently working through the Gettysburg tutorials and am really enjoying the level of realism, even when it involves the Iron Brigade marching off in full view of the Secesh, turning their backs to the enemy, and leaving my right flank completely unsupported. And I'm really grateful there's only infantry, artillery, and cavalry, and not the goofy chrome units that seem to be all the rage in the Total War games. Each regiment still manages to have more of an identity than their Total War counterparts in any case-no need for Fire Zouaves with a special 'New York Minute' attack. Anyway, on to the matter at hand...

I've finished up the artillery tutorial and while it was completed successfully, I can't help feeling I'm doing something wrong. I'm pretty familiar with the tactics used in the ACW (as are all of you, I'm sure) so limbering the guns, putting them on the road, placing them on the hill, etc, is no big deal. Despite several playthroughs, though, I've never scored so much as a minor victory (just draws). My first playthrough saw a score of 94 and after that it usually runs in the 60's. I'm not moving my batteries around much (don't want to tire the boys out)-usually just once after the targets on the center and left dry up, I'll move over to the hill on the right. Some of the guns in my battery end up with scores of 0 (usually the 12 Lb howitzers) and that's whether I let the AI handle them or I TAKE CHARGE myself. I've got the high ground advantage, leader advantage, etc. The guns are positioned so they're not hitting trees with their shots and the proper ammo is being used, you can see the shots falling right in the lines of the Yanks, and in several playthroughs I've only had one casualty (lucky Union counterbattery fire). So I'm unsure why my battery doesn't seem to be hitting anything.

Now, I'm not naive enough to think 10 enemy soldiers should go flying with every shot-or for that matter you'll even get one with every shot. But when you've been through several playthroughs where a Vermont regiment closes to within 50 yards of the battery and all four guns are firing double cannister-and not a one of them gains a single point despite firing off several such loads (even though the enemy does break and run)-something seems to be wrong. So I have a few questions in mind (along with a couple from the earlier tutorials).

1) What am I doing wrong? Or is this pretty much par for the course for this tutorial?
2) I've noticed that when I click on the battery commander and then hit the button for manual targeting for the entire battery and choose a target-the guns ignore me. Every time. However, when taking control of each gun, this procedure works fine. Is it possible to command an entire battery to fire at one specific target by going through the battery commander? In bigger battles, having to micromanage each gun would be somewhat onerous.
3) Every great once in a while the Central Island box will show an 'aim over' message. Does this mean I'm overshooting the target or firing over the heads of friendlies (something that Confederate infantry absolutely HATED)?
4) It is normal for an ordnance wagon to be weaving at random all over the front lines like a drunken New York City cab driver? Maybe it's a disguised sutler wagon that's peddlin' ice cream.
5) Likewise, is it normal for your officers to trot unconcernedly right through the middle of several enemy units-with said enemy units just watching them? I've heard of Southern hospitality, but one would presume at Gettysburg it would involve a lead enema.

At any rate, I can tell I'm going to love these games. Between this and the HPS sims I'm pretty well covered and from what I've read I enjoy the friendly, mature tone of the board.

[RebBugler]

And you too also demonstrate a friendly, mature tone...Welcome Aboard Sir!

1) Historically Rebel guns were crippled at long distances at Gettysburg with bad timing fuses for shrapnel bursts...so, this is coded in and don't expect any long distance softening up with Reb guns...Yank guns fare much better. Still, canister works fine, just gotta get up close, but risky. I believe I beat this scenario with canister and backing up with recoil...keeping barely out of musket range.
2) Targeting should work as advertised. Works best with battery CO TC'd...don't TC individual guns, they can't aim properly.
3) Just an FYI that target is not blocked, you're shooting over, no penalty.
4) Unfortunately yes
5) Unfortunately yes

[KG_Soldier]

TC the arty commander, give him an order to fire at infantry and use solid shot.

Your hits will increase significantly.

And when you're ready, come join us in fantastic MP battles: www.sowmp.com

You won't regret it.

Also,

TC your bullet wagon.
Keep your brigade commanders TC'd as well. Do not trust them.

Honestly, come play MP games. It's the fastest way to learn the game. You'll take a few beatings (everyone does when they start), but in no time you'll be contributing to glorious victories and/or going down with your hat on your sword, urging your men to take that stone wall!

[Brick McBurly]

Thanks, Reb and KG.

Yeh, Reb, I remember reading that the Secesh had to temporarily close down the fuse supplier for the ANV in Richmond and get their fuses from another city (Charleston maybe?). Since there was no production standardization between the two, the Confederate artillery's timing was off and that resulted in the overshoots at Cemetery Ridge. I thought of this when I noticed my shell/shrapnel was exploding far behind the units my guns were targeting and switched to solid shot. That's great that this sort of detail was programmed into the game!

It's good to know that individual guns are poor at targeting. The manual targeting button simply doesn't work, though, with my battery commander-although if he orders the battery to change type of shot, they will do that. I'll first try KG's suggestion of having the battery target infantry with solid shot (and switching to canister when the Union closes in), and if that doesn't garner a few more points I'll try moving up and playing canister chicken with some of those boys from Vermont. Hopefully the guns will do better at that when I'm not ordering them individually (they had zero points shooting canister at 50 yards in two playthroughs when I was giving them manual fire orders directly).

While I want to get into MP eventually the problem I'll have doing so while in the States is that my computer is getting its net connection beamed directly from the provider (no router, no cable) and often drops for 5-10 seconds every 20 minutes or so. I'd hate to be playing a game, getting smoked, and having my opponent think I was a poor sport and had disconnected on them. When I'm back in Japan I'll have a strong cable connection.

While we're on the subject, how does the MP experience tend to be for SOW? I dropped out of Shogun 2 multiplayer for Total War after a couple of weeks. The hordes of bitter, angry, angst-ridden teenagers (at least I hope they were teens and not adults) spewing forth waves of obscenities and verbal abuse (whether they were getting pummeled by me or delivering the damage themselves) really made for some head-shaking experiences. This was in virtually every match. Not to mention the drophacking and plug pulling by top ranked players who feared having a loss show on their records. I get the feeling things would be much better here with a bit more camaraderie. Who knows, one day I might gain fame as 'Fightin' Brick' McBurly!

And yeah, KG, 'never trust your brigade commanders' are words to live by. Glad that I can control the ordnance wagons.

[KG_Soldier]

We're mostly a bunch of old dudes, but a good mix of younger players too. GCM games are highly competitive, and that's good, and it's only a rare occasion that someone gets upset. For the most part, no flame wars, just hard fighting. We have games every evening, U.S. time, with the average being 8-12 players and sometimes as many as 20.

But you do need a stable internet connection.

Look forward to seeing you on the field.

[Brick McBurly]

Also being an old dude, that seems fine to me. Competitive and hard fought is fine as well-why bother otherwise?-but getting beaten is no problem if a good time was had. Do you guys split up into small battles or have everyone as different commanders in the same game? The idea of being part of an 'army' with multiple live allies/rivals to coordinate with is appealing, and starting out as a brigade commander under more experienced division/corps commanders even better.

[KG_Soldier]

www.sowmp.com

Every player commands a division. However, when you start, your division will contain only one brigade. As you play more games, you'll get additional brigades and batteries. You can choose how many regiments and guns you want to bring to the battles, with limits set by your rank. So you don't have to command a 4,000 man division until you think you're ready.

The teamwork/coordination on the battlefield is the most appealing aspect of the games.

[Brick McBurly]

That sounds like a excellent setup for new people. After I put in a bit of time on the scenarios and also check out how my net functions with the MP, I'll likely be enlisting.

[Brick McBurly]

Got a major victory by using KG's target infantry/solid shot approach, even though only two of the guns in the battery fire it (more on that in a bit). The one thing that I didn't care for in this playthrough using that approach is that the gunners were switching targets and moving the guns with virtually every shot, tiring them out and hurting the ROF. I ended up choosing targets for them just to keep them focused, and every gun had points this time, although as would be expected in a primarily long range fight the 3 inch rifles did far better than the 12 lb howitzers. Even managed to take out some Union artillery crew members with counterbattery fire, the first time this happened for me.

As to ammo type, as noted earlier the 12 pounders don't fire solid shot-instead, they fire shrapnel when I order the battery to use solid shot (ordering directly through the battery commander). Historically, batteries were known to fire shrapnel as solid shot when they ran out (by not setting a fuse). Given the level of detail in the game, is this programmed in (ie when ordered by the commander to fire solid shot, shrapnel is fired as solid shot by guns that don't normally shoot it, or perhaps when they run out of solid shot)? Although I kind of doubt it, I didn't notice any 'bombs bursting in air' after issuing the order to fire solid...

[Chromey]

SOWmp is def the way to go if you want to play some SOW with folks on the fly.

Get your canons on ground higher then the foe and you will score many hits! Get em on the flank as

well as the high ground and they cause even more damage!

Now I want to ask you all if maybe artillery fires too poorly when its on the lower ground..

And by lower ground/hi ground difference can mean only 10 feet elevation! Canons which are above

get hundreds of kills more then ones slightly below and I wanted to ask why? Why so much difference?

Of course I'm talking about targets that are in same terrain types.