Accuracy and dispersal patterns of artillery.

[ChrisWerb]

I was just trying out a scenario to see if the difference between PGK and conventional HE was represented in the game. I used eight Pzh 2000s each firing one M107 HE (without PGK) per tube at a 20x20 metre target (a cluster of vehicles). To my surprise, the shells all landed or burst directly on top of the vehicles - about as close as the claimed c. 20 metre CEP for PGK. I don't have the CEP for M107 at 14,000 metres, but from memory, the CEP for (non PGK) M795A1 is something like 137 metres at 18km and (non PGK) M549A1 HERA around 260 metres at 30,000 metres. I would also expect a gaussian distribution of impacts.  I can simulate a wider dispersal to an extent by just choosing a wider impact area, but from observation that does not result in a gaussian dispersal pattern and nor would I expect it to. This isn't a criticism of the simulation (SB is not primarily an artillery simulation), but, if you can spare the time, I'd like a brief explanation of how artillery accuracy and dispersal vs range is modelled in SB. Many thanks. Chris.

Edited May 25, 2022 by ChrisWerb

[Ssnake]

The individual rounds underly Gaussian dispersion. But artillery batteries fire each shot into a random spot inside the target box, with uniform distribution. So you could get a sense for the Gaussian dispersion when shooting on point targets, but for area targets our uniform random distribution delivers results that aren't such a bad representation of reality where the guns actually do try to create a regular impact pattern that covers the whole target area with the least number of rounds necessary - just in a more systematical manner than a game of die rolls for each individual shot..