Unity of Command Forums

I know the game is soon finished, but I think it would be exciting if there were added heavy artillery. It would give even more strategic depth. Maybe it could work the same way as with airplanes, but better if it was units on the battlefield. Just a thought.

You mean the superheavy artillery as used in the Crimea?

I wanted to have that, but it looked like a big investment of time (you need to add attacks with >2 hex range) for such a peripheral feature.

Also, it's the Crimea and the Sevastopol battle was fought in an area.. about the size of one of our hexes. It wouldn't work unfortunately.

This theatre is way outside of my knowledge, but were there not railway guns deployed by either side. I realise that this is exactly the moment in history when it is understood that massive identifiable guns become obsolete because of their visibilty from the air, but were they deplyoed here as at Lenningrad?

i was thinking same thing! this game misses artillery units, i dont care if they are heavy or light just add something that can fire 2 or 3 hexes away !

Sadly, I can't just invent weapons with >20km range because it would make the game play nicer

Well, here is a bit of info.

Schwerer Gustav
In February 1942, Heavy Artillery Unit (E) 672 reorganized and went on the march, and Schwerer Gustav began its long ride to the Crimea. The train carrying the gun was of 25 cars, a total length of 1.5 kilometers. The gun reached the Perekop Isthmus in early March 1942, where it was held until early April. A special railway spur line was built to the Simferopol-Sevastopol railway 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) north of the target, at the end of which four semi-circular tracks were built specially for the Gustav to traverse. Outer tracks were required for the cranes which would have assembled Gustav.
The siege of Sevastopol was to be the gun's first combat test. Installation began in early May, and by 5 June the gun was ready to fire. The following targets were engaged:
5 June
Coastal guns at a range of 25,000 m. Eight shells fired.
Fort Stalin. Six shells fired.
6 June
Fort Molotov. Seven shells fired.
"White Cliff" aka "Ammunition Mountion": an undersea ammunition magazine in Severnaya ("Northern") Bay. The magazine was sited 30 meters under the sea with at least 10 meters of concrete protection. After nine shells were fired, the magazine was ruined and one of the boats in the bay sunk.[4]
7 June
Firing in support of an infantry attack on Sudwestspitze, an outlying fortification. Seven shells fired.
11 June
Fort Siberia. Five shells fired.
17 June
Fort Maxim Gorki and its coastal battery. Five shells fired.
By the end of the siege on 4 July the city of Sevastopol lay in ruins, and 30,000 tons of artillery ammunition had been fired. Gustav had fired 48 rounds and worn out its original barrel, which had already fired around 250 rounds during testing and development. The gun was fitted with the spare barrel and the original was sent back to Krupp's factory in Essen for relining.
The gun was then dismantled and moved to the northern part of the eastern front, where an attack was planned on Leningrad. The gun was placed some 30 km from the city near the railway station of Taizy. The gun was fully operational when the attack was cancelled. The gun then spent the winter of 1942/43 near Leningrad.
Then it was moved back to Germany for refurbishment. Despite some claims, it was never used in Warsaw during the 1944 uprising,[citation needed] though one of its shells is on display at the Polish Army Museum there.
The gun then appears to have been destroyed to prevent its capture sometime before 22 April 1945, when its ruins were discovered in a forest 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) north of Auerbach about 50 kilometers (31 mi) southwest of Chemnitz.

Dora
Dora was the second gun to be produced. It was deployed briefly against Stalingrad, where the gun arrived at its emplacement 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) to the west of the city sometime in mid-August 1942. It was ready to fire on 13 September. It was quickly withdrawn, however, when Soviet encirclement threatened. When the Germans began their long retreat they took Dora with them. Dora was broken up before the end of the war, being discovered in the west by American troops some time after the discovery of Schwerer Gustav.

http://www.hpwt.de/2Weltkrieg/Dorae.htm

Moved from beta test forum to public.