Artillery

[sir_pudding]

It gets more confusing, I emailed Kromm.

Originally Posted by Me

I'm a little confused by the artillery skill in GURPS.

A) Is it the skill of:

• The fire direction personnel?
• The gun crew?
• Both somehow?

B) If a weapon is capable of both direct and indirect fire do all members of the gun crew need both Gunner and Artillery? Even if in RL the actions are exactly the same?

Originally Posted by Dr Kromm

> A) Is it the skill of:

> The gun crew?

This one. The FD personnel use Forward Observer skill.

> B) If a weapon is capable of both direct and indirect fire do all
> members of the gun crew need both Gunner and Artillery?

Yes. And the actions are never "exactly the same" to torque a gun (or
the vehicle that it's mounted on) around in real time and fire over
open sights as it traverses vs. to adjust a gun to fire at coordinates
for a target you can't see. The loading and firing parts might well be
identical, but the aiming parts aren't.

SP.

[Icelander]

Doesn't seem all that confusing to me.

Even clarified and widened the role of Forward Observer a bit.

Now, it might not be a 100% realistic, but that's another issue. And, as a matter of fact, I believe that as long as characters are constructed with realism in mind (i.e. taking all skills that they should have according to GURPS rules and using lack of familiarity and/or Optional Specialitation to make them inept at things they shouldn't be good at), this works well enough for anything except possibly a dedicated fire support campaign.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Sorry:

Fire Direction Center

In Artillery, Mortars and Naval Guns these are the guys that turn the call for fire into a Fire Command.

What spell do they use for that?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Even clarified and widened the role of Forward Observer a bit.

Yes it seems you've won that argument. Imperial Naval officers do need FO.

this works well enough for anything except possibly a dedicated fire support campaign.

Or to make myself as a GURPS character. :)

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

What spell do they use for that?

Polar Geomancy, and Summon Sine the Demon of Trig

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Or to make myself as a GURPS character. :)

Optional Specialisations, right?

And familiarities, which can take a bloody long time to shed and few people try unless they have pressing reason.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Optional Specialisations, right?

Except that Forward Observation (Fire Direction Center) is a skill that is never actually rolled. :)

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Except that Forward Observation (Fire Direction Center) is a skill that is never actually rolled. :)

Without him, the roll is at a -10?

Can't we assume that he needs to succeed at his roll to remove that penalty?

[cmdicely]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Except that Forward Observation (Fire Direction Center) is a skill that is never actually rolled. :)

If you want to avoid the "more rolls = more chance of failure" effect but give the FDC a reason to roll, how about the FDC only adds its equipment bonus (+1 to +TL/2, depending on quality) to the roll if the controller makes an FO (Fire Direction) roll, and such a roll also detects any critical failure on the real forward observers FO roll, such that the attempt is wasted (and, likely, called in again the next turn with hopefully better results) rather than resulting in a catastrophic fire mission targetting friendlies.

[SuedodeuS]

I can't help but wonder why there haven't been any responses to my post. If it were terrible, I'd expect someone to have commented on that by now (and likewise if it were good). Has it been overlooked? This seems to be about the right approach to artillery, and although it increases the possibility of a critical failure for groups with Skill 16+ (for others it lowers it), I think the progressively stacking nature makes it unlikely for a single failure to screw things up, and also makes it more likely that the initial shot will land on target (how realistic this is is beyond me). The process and skills involved might be off, but I think it's a decent start.

I've recently modified the post to address some of what has been mentioned since it was initially made.

[Agramer]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Except that Forward Observation (Fire Direction Center) is a skill that is never actually rolled. :)

Unless youre PC FO and are trying to get close arty< cover to repel enemy charge ;))

Crits would be fun there /grins