How does Artillery work?

Many people have asked how they can work the artillery on the maps. Rather than just a click on the map, you have enter co-ordinates, bearing and distance to target.


Steps to firing artillery by postion, compass bearing and distance:

1. Before requesting artillery, bring up your compass (default key is K) and make a note of the bearing to the target you wish to hit (for example if the target is due north that would be 0, if it was due south it would be 180).
2. Using a range finder, make a note of the distance from your position to the target (eg. 500m)
3. Its a good idea to mark on the map, in team side channel (blue), your intended artillery targets so all the team know where the artillery is inbound.
4. Request artillery support using the radio (0 then 8 and then 8 again).
5. The squad leader will need to accept this request, you will then see the artillery screen.
6. Click on the area which is marked "your position" showing your xray and yankee co-ordinates. This will transpose these into the co-ordinate box on the right for you.
7. Next enter the direction bearing and then the distance to the target (eg direction 180 distance 500)
8. Select the number of cannons which are to fire on the left of the screen (each cannon can fire 5 rounds per request). You can select multiple cannons if more than 5 rounds are required.
9. Select the type of artillery round to fire (APC - large shell, Tank - even larger shell, Car - smaller shell, Infantry - small multiple exploding shell, Immination - Flare to light up area, Smoke - smoke shell used for cover).
10. Select the number of shells from each cannon.
11. Select the spread of fire (precise is the most accurate)
12. The 'Fire' option allows you to select For Effect (eg deadly round) or Adjustment (fire a small smoke round to show you where your artillery rounds would hit - useful if you aren't 100% sure about the direction bearing / distance)
13. When you are happy with the settings click confirm. The details of the artillery inbound will be displayed in the top right, if all looks okay click Execute and the artillery rounds will be fired.

Steps to using laser designator instead of compass and range finder:

1. Ensure you have a laser designator and battery packed in your inventory.
2. Its a good idea to mark on the map, in team side channel (blue), your intended artillery targets so all the team know where the artillery is inbound.
3. Switch to your laser designator and click the mouse to mark the intended target (you should see a red dot or green circle appear). Other team members will see you laser marker on the target.
4. Request artillery support using the radio (0 then 8 and then 8 again).
5. The squad leader will need to accept this request, you will then see the artillery screen.
6. When using a laser designator, you don't need to supply position, direction or distance information as that is provided from the laser target
7. Select a number of cannons, type of shell to use, number of shells and in the SPREAD drop down select LASER
8. Click confirm and then click Execute.
9. Maintain the laser marker on your target(s) until the shells are inbound.
10. It's possible to hit multiple targets with the laser designator, by moving the target marker to each target as each shell is inbound.

Other options available in the artillery screen:

Delay in Seconds: simply delays the inbound artillery for a number of seconds set, set to 10 and the artillery will be fired 10 seconds after you click execute.

Height Slider: this determines the height above ground where the shell is to explode, if you are targetting a top of a building you might set to 2m for example.

Corr. distance / Left-Right: if you have fired artillery using direction and distance, if the shots aren't on target you can adjust the distance from the target (+ or -) and left or right distance.
A link to the modification and then the tutorial videos of how to use this feature can be found here http://tinyurl.com/armaartillery just scroll down to see the various youtube videos.

Try it out, it's really rather fun! Just don't blow up all the buildings, be selective with when and where to use this tool.