Forward Arty and Air Observers

[Haskeer]

Hi all,
brand new to the game and only just getting a grip of the rules, so excuse me if this is a daft question.
At first glance the observers don’t seem worth spending the points on. Am I correct in thinking they are basically a one shot unit? If so it seems unlikely they can cause enough damage to warrant spending the points on them. What am I missing? Do they excel in certain situations?

Thanks in advance,
John.

[Nat]

Yes they are a one shot weapon…. however what a weapon it is! Whilst I’d agree that air strikes dont really work (for me) artillery is something different…

Its something that can hurt anything in the game and so is a great area denial weapon, plus once fired it doesnt matter if the officer is killed its still going to come down!

Then you look at what it does if you are 7 to 12″ (thats a 14 – 24″ area)from the marker you are getting 1-3 pins before you have a chance to pull an order from the bag… you can end up giving half the enemy pin markers.. that 1 pin could be the difference from them getting a auto pass order and having to take the check failing and doing nothing for the turn (its happend to me :'()

Now also once they’ve used that one shot weapon they still have their modeled weapon, be it a rifle, smg etc.. they still give you the extra order die as well.

Not to mention the Brits get an artillery obs for free!

[Nat]

yeah… also forgot that they are a small unit who can contest /hold objectives…. so expensive and some times you get nothing both others you get to damage half the army at the start of turn 2…..

[Greg S]

They can both be a bit hit and miss.

Air observers can be nasty. They can bring a big stonk down on a tank. They are less effective against infantry. But they do possibly pin things around both the target and the plane.

Artillery observers can deal out a lot of pins. If the enemy is clustered together, it can pin half his army. But sometimes you only put one or two pins on a couple of units. Of course once in a while there’s that direct hit on a half track full of men… And don’t forget you can bring a great big ball of smoke.

But both can go wrong. When you own arty scatters in your direction and you pin down your own army. Or it doesn’t arrive until turn 3 when you are only 6 inches away from the enemy and both sides are going to get caught in the fire. Or when the pilot mistakes your Bren Carrier for a King Tiger.

Of course a three man squad running around shooting rifles at the enemy is never a bad thing.

Personally, I think Air Observers are too cheap and arty observers are too expensive. I bring an arty observer with my Brits because he’s free. And American air observers are usually my number one target.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Greg S.

[Haskeer]

Thanks all, I guess I’ll give them a go at some point and see what happens.
Thanks for the info!

John.

[Eric T Holmes]

Something else to think about concerning air attacks, units get to fire their Flak capable units prior to the hit. The Flak could negate the attack and drive the aircraft off…we’ve been forgetting that rule.

[Mike]

I have home ruled in my Italian campaign book that artillery observers after they pop their main blast can switch freqs to the company frequency and act as additional spotters for friendly on board artillery and mortars that get them. Makes for more realistic use of the dudes you spent 100+ points on to actually have a job and isn’t game breaking.

[Eric T Holmes]

Mike:
“…observers after they pop their main blast can switch freqs to the company frequency and act as additional spotters for friendly on board artillery and mortars that get them.”
Nice idea. Should propose that to the BA gods….YMMV
Eric

[Author]

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