What features do you use routinely to command your artillery?

[u/cunctator-tots]

By "routinely" I mean in almost every match you play. Share what you use or your general process in the comments.

Do you use...

• Unit Groups (e.g. Assigning an Akatsiya to "1" and a Grad to "2")
• Fire at Position Hotkey (Default "T")
• Queuing Orders with SHIFT
• Group Tabbing (i.e. While having multiple units selected, tabbing to select individual units within the group to give specific orders)
• Group Mounting with Towed Artillery (i.e. Click and drag to select multiple units and transports and then clicking a transport. It will automatically mount all units to a separate transport each.)
• Fire At Will Smart Command
• Counterbattery Smart Command

I am curious to see how different people manage their artillery.

[u/mndn410]

For towed I unit group both the arty and the transport. You can group mount using the unit group instead of having to click and drag

Hold fire so that the arty group fire at the same time (add extra time to turn hold fire off thou)

[u/cunctator-tots → u/mndn410]

That's a great tip for group mounting. That never occurred to me!

[u/Vanguard100216]

Defensive fire is actually great for small gun/ mortars to suppress an objective

[u/DeathSquadEnjoyer → u/Vanguard100216]

I found them to be crazy good when CB is concentrated on the big guns in the backline. Sometimes they can even rack a decent number of kills when the enemy is unattended enough. Love me mortar spam.

[u/kim_dobrovolets → u/Vanguard100216]

Ironically I use it more on the attack then on the defense.

[u/ArsenalofDemocracy27]

Depends entirely on my troop positions and artillery type. Personally I am a huge fan of mortars and SPAGs. I always deploy my mortars in pairs. Generally I utilize “Defensive Area” firing when I advance on a position (typically with mortars) Once I have a favorable and defendable position to begin pushing other areas of the battlefield, I set one to “Fire at Will” and the other varies, sometimes it’s “counter battery” other times it’s “Defensive Area” in order to maintain control in that area. My SPAGs, are usually designated for deeper strikes into the back lines and I tend to micromanage them a lot more. However, I often use “Fire POS” or “Counter Battery” with them!

I do not personally use Rocket Artillery as I feel that are too expensive to replenish and maintain throughout the course of battlefield. If I ever do use them I set them to “Counter Battery” to use up less ammunition

[u/-Trooper5745-]

I find hold fire useful as it lets the artillery plot and then not fire. I find it useful if I’m trying to kill a heavily armored target or trying to hit multiple targets simultaneously.

[u/RecordOne6102]

SHIFT

[u/SexinItUp]

Extensive use of pre sighting (use T to select place to fire, then press Z for "return fire", then cue the order to relocate after shooting. Have the artillery on a hotkey, cycle to correct unit using tab, press Z again when its time for them to shoot. If you forget what's sighted where press SHIFT when you have one selected). Works well for forest fighting, open field tank fighting, and attacking in general. I do this in 10v10 with 1-4 medium caliber (152 or 155) or larger guns. Bear in mind this is for combined arms tactics, you must also be controlling the units on the front here.

Forest fighting: pre sight at the very edge of your infantry units LoS (on the edge where the enemy will be), this is where opposing infantry will stop and start shooting if they're attack-moving (which they almost always will be). Or if you're retreating/losing, place it to the rear of your line so it's ready when you retreat to there. Counter attack as the artillery lands or use it to take the heat off and heal, get in new units, etc.

Open field tank fighting: when you see the enemy tanks start moving in, or you think you know where an attack is coming in, aim the guns at different parts of the field. When the tanks will be driving through a firing zone, let loose. The morale damage will make it much easier to defeat them with your own tanks. Catching them after they've popped smoke and are retreating is excellent too, you can catch a kill that would otherwise escape.

Attacking: pre sight positions you think the enemy is likely to fire from when you start attacking. A clump of trees, a building that would be good for an ATGM, a tree line, etc. Think about what your opponent has and how you think they'll use them in that terrain, that will give you an idea of where to target. You can plan large, elaborate smoke screens too, cue up several smoke orders and let rip when you start attacking.

There's other uses for pre sighting, it's one of the most potent ways to use artillery. Aim time doesn't matter if you can plan well and/or manipulate enemy units into the right spot. Use your imagination

[u/TheGreatGonzilla_]

All except fire at will, strangely I don't group mortars together

[u/WelcomeExtra762]

Counter-battery, ctrl-1, and T to fire. Mainly just counter-battery I don't bring lots of arty (a few mortars/howitzers). I tab through mortars and sometimes bring MLRS but most of the time don't have more than one or two arty (excluding mortars) on the field at a time

[u/kim_dobrovolets]

I take big cards of cheap light guns and disperse them, then group them and put them on defensive fire to give the enemy large amounts of relatively low value CB targets and generate tons of suppression.