| Battlefront:WWII General Support |
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Most off-board artillery support is in Direct Support of the battle group in the game. This makes it
easier to call and more flexible. There often were batteries and sometimes even Battalions available to
the general area of the battle that could be called on if they were not busy elsewhere. If they are available,
their primary use is to thicken direct support fire missions. General support artillery usually cannot fire on
its own (except for the Americans) and the scenario should
specify the availability and limitations on GS artillery. Also, that you should not be generally be able
to thicken Organic Fire Missions with GS artillery, only Direct Support Missions. |
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Single Die Roll When GS artillery is added to a Direct Support fire mission, a single die roll is made for the entire fire mission. If the die roll is high enough for General Support, the GS artillery arrives, otherwise the pattern reverts to the Direct Support pattern. |
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The basic German FS-03 has a battery of General Support 150mm howitzers attached to its two batteries of
Direct Support 105mm howitzers. The 105mm howitzers have a basic strength of -1 vs V and 0 vs T, G, sV (-1/0).
The heavier 150mm have a strength of (+1/+2). General Support batteries attached to an off-board element should not be used by themselves, but only to support a fire mission that has been initiated for the DS batteries. As shelling and random shelling missions cannot be performed by more than one battery of a battalion, the GS artillery can therefore only be used to thicken battalion concentrations. Furthermore, the 150mm must also fire a concentration so the area affected by the 150mm is essentially 1 template wide. There are thus two possible patterns that can be fired by a basic German FS-03: |
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| The GS artillery is used to thicken the center of the two battery concentrations. If it arrives, the center area receives the thickened modifier and the higher 150mm die roll modifiers. | In this option, the two 105mm batteries thicken each other automatically. If the GS artillery arrives, the pattern uses the higher 150mm die roll modifiers. Note that you do not get an extra thickening modifier in this case, as the two direct support battery patterns have already qualified for thickening. |
| The Americans and British often have entire battalions (called regiments by the British) in General support. As we will see in the National Doctrine part of the tutorial, there are slightly different rules for how these are used with the U.S. being more flexible. One possible mission for GS artillery is to thicken a DS pattern: This figure shows a battalion of DS 105mm artillery being thickened by a GS 105mm Battalion. If the General support arrives, the entire pattern receives the thickened modifier. Note also that some of the special missions, such as the British MIKE and the U.S. Time-on-Target, require General Support rolls. |
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