2 Heroes Artillery Support and Expert Support

[scorehouse]

do you have to use both Heroes in tandem on the same Artillery Unit? or is there a better unit? I never seem to get the Expert Support or AT Support Heroes but I just got the Expert. what is the best way to maximize the 20% aiming accuracy feature? or does it only work in combo? looking forward to the 20% increase. I paused my Blitzkrieg to better understand how to use a Hero I've never had. thanks

[Magni]

The artillery support hero gives the same trait that most artillery pieces (other than the biggest guns) already have and hence does nothing for them. It's purpose is to allow a non-artillery unit to provide fire support against soft targets as if it was artillery. The Expert Support hero meanwhile gives it's accurracy bonus to ANY kind of supporting fire - artillery, AT and AA support are all impacted by it. It is hence completely useless on any unit that doesn't have at least one of those traits.

[scorehouse]

Do the German 21 and Wurf auto support on their own? i assume the Karl doesn't but would it if both heroes were attached? what about the 88? or does it depend on which mode its set, AA or AT? I thought an AA automatically fired upon attacking planes? which unit do you prefer to use the Hero or the combo on? thanks good stuff

[Gfot]

Artillery Support: Tanks (with good SA) and Recons (with Rapid Fire) are good for it, because they give you extra tactical options, you can still have Artillery support while pushing ahead at max speed without waiting for artillery to catch up.

Expert Support: The 21cm has AT support (not Arty support though) but the problem with using the 21cm as support is that you have to keep it adjacent (usually behind) to your unit that you expect to get attacked. And it has really bad defenses and a high cost, so it's a priority target for the AI (this will also happen if you keep it further back, but you can protect it better there). The 21cm does have AT support and a HA of 31, so if you want to live with the risk it can certainly be effective. With Elza Kloss the 21cm has a range of 5, so you can stick it on a hill a couple of hexes behind the frontline, and it will provide counterbattery fire over a huge area (sometimes multiple times per round) against any artillery that tries to soften up your frontline. The thing is counterbattery fire is not described as "support fire" so I don't think you'd benefit from the hero if you use it that way. IMHO the expert support hero is best on a 155mm howitzer. Those have both Artillery support and AT support and therefore tend to provide most of the support fire in my army. If you're using any Selfpropelled artillery, it's also a great candidate. I think for any hero, the key questions when deciding where to put them are "how often will I benefit from the hero" and "how large is the benefit every time I get it". Sometimes there are tradeoffs between those two, in this case you get a larger benefit putting it on a 21cm (because of the higher HA), but you'll get a (smaller) benefit more often by putting it on a 15.5cm.

Note: I am assuming you are playing without Aggressive Deployment, because that drastically changes how Artillery operates (it effectively makes all artillery Self-propelled).

[scorehouse]

thanks I never realized the 21 had AT support but it can only be one hex removed from the target?, right? I like Elsa on the Wurf. keeping it back that one extra hex lets it deal a lotta damage and stay relatively protected. I'm going to put the Expert Support on it with Zero Slots, Consolidator, and Elsa.

[Gfot]

You don't need to be one square away, in order to provide support it needs to be next to the unit it supports (i.e your unit that is being attacked). If you put the Artillery support on a tank (say a Panzer IV) for example, you can put it next to another tank (say a Panzer III) and have them both in contact with an enemy infantry. At that point the enemy infantry has a choice of a) attacking the PzIV. No support fire, but the PzIV has 20 SA or b) attacking the PzIII, with it's 12 SA, but in that case the infantry will get hit by support fire from the PzIv. If you try to do that with a 21cm, the infantry will simply attack the 21cm and the 21cm is much squishier than a PzIV, so that's why I say you would usually put it behind the other unit rather than next to it. But your plan will certainly work, expecially if you also field another heavy gun (17cm, 203mm or 21cm) to handle counterbattery fire.

[scorehouse]

thanks i've been wasting the Artillery Support all along. no wonder way back I was advised to put it on an OS 15 Recon unit in the early going. get ATS plus Aiming. off to the front. thanks if anyone has a different outside the box strategy they've used, let's hear it.

[scorehouse]

I just want to make sure that the Artillery Support only works if the unit to which it is attached is adjacent to an attacking enemy unit? it can't be behind your units and offer support? that's unrealistic?

[IceSerpent]

No, it works just like regular arty does. Can be behind your units, but has to be adjacent to the unit it's supporting.

[scorehouse]

gotcha!!! thanks