ARCH - Siege - How to use our resources

Bob Dewart gilli at seacove.net
Fri Jun 16 07:56:40 PDT 2000


Greetings and Hi There,

Again, the organization for battle should depend on the commander's intent,
which you probably won't know till the last minute.

Therefore a basic structure should already be in place.   This basic
structure should allow the unit to perform any mission it might be given.
The current real world army thing on this subject  is tube arty (that's
pretty much us) is in batteries of 6 guns.  Ofcourse, they have many more
toys to play with.

I would try for a basic battery of 6.  I would think that organizing them
based on regional location would also allow crew and battery training to
occur on a more frequent bases.   Batteries of less than six could be given
special missions such as snipper.

The rate and technique of fire should depend on the mission of the unit.
Suppressing a tower would require a constant shooting .  Breaking up an
assult, a mass firing followed by at will.  Snipping would be by individual
weapon at their speed.

Another thought, a bit more radical but I think would work well, is to treat
the unit more like a tank platoon than an arty battery.  By this I mean fire
distribution or serviceing the traget area with the fewest possible rounds
going after the same target (unless of course it's a surpression mission).
The unit commander could give a quick fire command (utoh, that means they
would have allready come up with these so they know what they mean and what
they are suspose to do) on how he wants to engage the target.  Or he could
just have the unit fire on what eve he is firing at.

Gilli
-----Original Message-----
From: Steelquist, John <John.Steelquist at csoconline.com>
To: 'ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org' <ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org>
Date: Friday, June 16, 2000 9:08 AM
Subject: RE: ARCH - Siege - How to use our resources


>Okay, I'll give a litle more detail to both the set-up and my questions:
>
>We should have enough balista (effectively direct fire engines) to line
them
>'shoulder to shoulder' and cover the entire width of the castle.
>
>The rates of fire definitely vary from engine to engine, but I'd say
average
>about 8-10 a minute (combat conditions).
>
>At this last Gulf Wars, we had something like 8 balista.  Defending, we
>formed into a battery of 4 machines and had four independent machines
>otherwise.  The battery of 4 was extremely effective at providing support
to
>the towers on the left, preventing any concerted push to gain a foothold.
>
>On the offensive, the balistas again formed a battery (6 engines) and
>decimated the main gate defenders.
>
>Just like combat archery, a couple of the single engines were also very
good
>at suppressing an entire unit or picking off single fighters - some had a
>very high kill percentage since they could 'shop' their shots.
>
>My primary questions are these:
>What is a good number of engines per battery?
>Should we attempt to create 'lines of fire', 'targets of fire (the unit in
>red...)', or 'areas of fire'?
>Should some engines delay fire so that the entire battery can fire
together,
>or should we give a fire for effect?
>Should we keep a couple of engines available for 'sniper' fire?  Or let any
>engine fire at targets of opportunity?
>
>Currently, the basic plan is to kill them all with siege and archery, then
>mop up the few defenders (or attackers, for that matter) left.  The
>opponent's expected reaction is to try an all out push at the start.  We're
>hoping to stop or delay such a rush and let the missles do their work.
>
>We actually out gunned them this last Gulf Wars.  I don't expect more than
>10 engines at the extreme high end (probably the same 3 engines they had
>last year) from the opponents.  Thus, counter battery fire will be almost a
>side-line.
>
>As a side note - isn't is typical, we've been trying to get a large enough
>archer core for years to be able to have effective massed fire, and those
>darn siege engines get to do it first :) .
>
>Ulsted
>Kingdom Warlord
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bob Dewart [mailto:gilli at seacove.net]
>Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 6:41 PM
>To: ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org
>Subject: Re: ARCH - Siege - How to use our resources
>
>Greetings and Hi There,
>
>To answer this question we need to know a few things:
>
>Which type of battle is it?  What is the commander's intent?  How does the
>commander plan to fight the battle?  How might the enemy react?
>
>Plachoya is correct.  Form up into batteries so that you may do continuous
>fire if interdiction is the mission such as helping keep a tower pinned
>down.  Or even a battery of batteries if area interdiction is needed such
as
>breaking up a counter attack.
>
>A good thing bad  thing about batteries is that while they are easier to
>defend they are also few targets to attack.
>
>Knowing the answers to the above questions may let the commander use his
>seige engines, depending on type, in an offensive manner; such as moving
>forward an to the flank a bit to set up a support by fire position.  This
>could also serve as an economy of forces in a blocking position.
>
>A tactic I think would work well is to team the engines with the archers.
>At a distance, balistas are still pretty flat trijectory while the archer
>attack more or less from above.  It's hard  to defend  from those two
>attacks at once.
>
>Ofcourse to start with a large number of the engines will probably be
needed
>to do counter battery fire on the opposing engines.
>
>Since our communications on the field are as fast as modern commo,
>somethings need to be worked out in advance (here's where knowing the
>commander's intent comes in).  For example the commander wants to attack
>hard on the right flank.  During the battle a hold is called.  When lay on
>is called every engine and archer fires two missles at that area of the
>enemy line.  If they are too far away to hit that area, say on the other
>side, get as close to that part of the enemy line as they can.  Then they
go
>back  to their missions prior to the hold.  Exception to this would be
those
>units activley involed in counter battery fights when the hold was called.
>
>Gilli
>Who in real life is an instructor at the III Corp Battle Simulation Ceter
on
>Fort Hood Texas.  :)  I like arty (big grin).
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Steelquist, John <John.Steelquist at csoconline.com>
>To: 'Ansteorra Archery List' <ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org>
>Date: Thursday, June 15, 2000 9:06 AM
>Subject: ARCH - Siege - How to use our resources
>
>
>>Greetings.
>>
>>Here's my first siege engine question:
>>
>>How should we best set-up and use the tremendous siege resources we should
>>have next year?
>>
>>Ulsted
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