Best counterbattery tactics

[Speak softly]

Just wondering what the best legitimate counter battery approach is? (that involves ability not sound cheating). I've tended to go for 4xM109 on NATO to get massed fire. I move them close to the frontline to reduce travel time for the shells but its still 31 seconds to commence fire. Would I be better with 2 British abbots that can commence fire in 15 seconds? What's best for the Sovs? I suspect the BM-21 with napalm would be good - if I move it right up then it can drop nape on their arty fast. But is there anything better? Smerch can sometimes be good but feels like a waste to target it on individual guns.

[canseir]

Hello, greetings, currently there is no decent counter-raillery strategy, due to the times that the artillery charge takes, you cannot hunt an artillery while it is firing...... yes or yes you have to use the ambient sound to detect them, Another very different thing is to hunt fixed artillery pieces or heavy mortars, my recommendation is to place artillery pieces automatically, the M110A2G type units and similar work extremely well, they will hunt a lot of artillery and with a little luck you will hunt some tube artillery. My recommendation is to place them in a forest so that they get the defense bonus and place an officer on them, it always works well.

[mrwwww]

Originally posted by Placid:

Just wondering what the best legitimate counter battery approach is? (that involves ability not sound cheating). I've tended to go for 4xM109 on NATO to get massed fire. I move them close to the frontline to reduce travel time for the shells but its still 31 seconds to commence fire. Would I be better with 2 British abbots that can commence fire in 15 seconds? What's best for the Sovs? I suspect the BM-21 with napalm would be good - if I move it right up then it can drop nape on their arty fast. But is there anything better? Smerch can sometimes be good but feels like a waste to target it on individual guns.

Manually click the left mouse button on the enemy unit.

[2 Straight Homies Doing the Gay]

do not attempt counter battery. It is a waste of time. Anyone worth their salt will have a movement queued up after rounds complete.

If you are using artillery, your only targets should be in this order:

1)AA systems
2)Recon elements
3) Denial of Freedom of movement (likely areas of approach AKA roads, popular flanking positions

If you are spamming artillery you need to be ACTIVELY hunting, finding and marking where you see missiles attack friendly aircraft. You should be marking them and attacking those positions.

If ou are supporting in a 10v10 spam fest with artillery you need more recon than usual, and more SEAD / anti AA systems.

Counter battery fire is incredibly stupid because you will never hit anything consistently thanks to shift commands

[Vovin]

The dedicated counter-arty guns are either M110s (NATO) or Malkas (PACT). I routinely have success with them, but it mostly has to do with the opponent not knowing what they are doing or slipping up. Even I slip up sometimes if I get distracted. I'm not going to give all my tips away, but I'm sure you've played enough to tell what kind of arty they are using, and the best ones to counter are obviously towed howitzers and mortar carriers because they are slow (in terms of shooting and scooting).

I'm also testing an alternative for the Smerch that I believe is very overlooked but probably more viable after the recent milestone. I find the Smerch is just not reliable, particularly with ROF (hint hint). The problem with using other MLRS and SP arty with shorter range is that, if I see it in the mid section, it's going to get targeted before it even gets a fire mission.

[Speak softly]

Originally posted by canseir:

Hello, greetings, currently there is no decent counter-raillery strategy, due to the times that the artillery charge takes, you cannot hunt an artillery while it is firing...... yes or yes you have to use the ambient sound to detect them, Another very different thing is to hunt fixed artillery pieces or heavy mortars, my recommendation is to place artillery pieces automatically, the M110A2G type units and similar work extremely well, they will hunt a lot of artillery and with a little luck you will hunt some tube artillery. My recommendation is to place them in a forest so that they get the defense bonus and place an officer on them, it always works well.

Thanks - this is handy - I didnt think of the officer.

[Vovin]

Originally posted by Placid:

Originally posted by canseir:

Hello, greetings, currently there is no decent counter-raillery strategy, due to the times that the artillery charge takes, you cannot hunt an artillery while it is firing...... yes or yes you have to use the ambient sound to detect them, Another very different thing is to hunt fixed artillery pieces or heavy mortars, my recommendation is to place artillery pieces automatically, the M110A2G type units and similar work extremely well, they will hunt a lot of artillery and with a little luck you will hunt some tube artillery. My recommendation is to place them in a forest so that they get the defense bonus and place an officer on them, it always works well.

Thanks - this is handy - I didnt think of the officer.

That's why there are cards of 3 cheap CV trucks, for upvetting.

[Speak softly]

Thanks all, all three of those comments have given me plenty to think about. I agree that a good player with mobile arty is hard to counter (mine usually last the full game), but also agree that a lot of players get distracted, which can create an opportunity. My whole gameplay approach is based on not getting cognitively overloaded because its when you are distracted that you lose a lot of units. So I like passive AA (requires very little management) and having Arty or interceptors as they are always optional demands on your time. If you arent busy you use them and when you are busy they are out of harms way.

[Vovin]

Originally posted by Placid:

Thanks all, all three of those comments have given me plenty to think about. I agree that a good player with mobile arty is hard to counter (mine usually last the full game), but also agree that a lot of players get distracted, which can create an opportunity. My whole gameplay approach is based on not getting cognitively overloaded because its when you are distracted that you lose a lot of units. So I like passive AA (requires very little management) and having Arty or interceptors as they are always optional demands on your time. If you arent busy you use them and when you are busy they are out of harms way.

I do 8th or KDA all the time in 10v10, focus on recon, arty and SAMs. Usually top points on the team.

[ZHS-Khetsin[武]]

Observe their firing locations, deduce their movement path, and then use BM30/M270 MLRS to pre-aim at some points (To cover a larger area please target different but close points individually) . When you find the enemy firing at the guessed location, fire immediately. This method has a higher success rate if the enemy is firing in dense forests or narrow flat areas.

[Speak softly]

So after a bit of testing. Abbotts are useless. But on the Soviet side the MFRW are awesome. Buying green units and then upvetting with an officer gets 17 seconds fire time with a ROF of 9 - if they are moved close to the front then the missile travel time is shorter. Two cluster MFRWs will reliably kill a M270 if they fire when it starts to fire. The napalm MFRW can stop an advance at the start (or get lots of kills if they drive through, plus reliably kill arty as well. I can get over 1,000 points of kills with the nape each game. You usually pick up a supply dump as well given theres always 1-2 players who fire from the FOB. :) Its not perfect against players who shoot and scoot but there are plenty who dont.

[Vovin]

Originally posted by Placid:

So after a bit of testing. Abbotts are useless. But on the Soviet side the MFRW are awesome. Buying green units and then upvetting with an officer gets 17 seconds fire time with a ROF of 9 - if they are moved close to the front then the missile travel time is shorter. Two cluster MFRWs will reliably kill a M270 if they fire when it starts to fire. The napalm MFRW can stop an advance at the start (or get lots of kills if they drive through, plus reliably kill arty as well. I can get over 1,000 points of kills with the nape each game. You usually pick up a supply dump as well given theres always 1-2 players who fire from the FOB. :) Its not perfect against players who shoot and scoot but there are plenty who dont.

The napalm MLRS is a Grad.

And the cluster MFRW seems to do as much damage as a Smerch but at a faster rate of fire, making it far more useful. I swear the stats for the Smerch are incorrect. They rarely do more than half damage to Abrams with a full salvo, but half a salvo from a cluster M270 will destroy multiple T-80UDs while stunloacking them despite having weaker pen and HE stats. .

[aaron.petty]

a tactic i like is to sneak some recon around the edge of the map, often a helicopter recon for speed but depending on their recon they may see this. It takes a little time but i do this on both sides of the map, have them hidden and then try to find where the enemy are hiding their arty, while they will move after a couple shots they wont move very far, often in the same area

[Sgt. Paulto]

Originally posted by mister w:

Originally posted by Placid:

Just wondering what the best legitimate counter battery approach is? (that involves ability not sound cheating). I've tended to go for 4xM109 on NATO to get massed fire. I move them close to the frontline to reduce travel time for the shells but its still 31 seconds to commence fire. Would I be better with 2 British abbots that can commence fire in 15 seconds? What's best for the Sovs? I suspect the BM-21 with napalm would be good - if I move it right up then it can drop nape on their arty fast. But is there anything better? Smerch can sometimes be good but feels like a waste to target it on individual guns.

Manually click the left mouse button on the enemy unit.

and then they move by the time your arty has fired, GG try again loser.

[Sgt. Paulto]

with the m109 leave them on counter battery mode in a forest, keep them relatively close to your fob for quicker resupply. I personally run 2 m109s on auto counter battery and then use 1 MLRS if I can pinpoint where exactly its coming from. I also keep a commander unit nearby because the arty's rank, the better their accuracy and rate of fire will be.

[Vovin]

People telling me that manual counter battery doesn't work and one of my Malkas somehow snagged two FOB kills in that last game LOL

And to be fair, somebody let one of their helos through and they spotted and destroyed my FOB in the mid-game.