- Asset Management -
As a commander, your ability to influence the game is primarily centered on your assets. You must know each of your powers well and how to best use them in order to give your team the edge.
LW155 Howitzer Artillery
This is your most hated and targeted asset. This delivers a devastating blow to a circle of about 50M. Use of artillery is the commander’s major contributor to his team’s win or loss. You should not be spamming the artillery as soon as it is available, use the tool selectively and only when you have a full awareness of what is happening around your target zones. The key to effective artillery is timing around opportunity.
Artillery does not hit exactly where you place it, targeting may be off in two ways. The center of the strike may be off as much as 30M depending on the map/server, watch your first strike on zoom to calibrate. This is most noticeable on maps with carriers, strikes centered on the carrier often splash harmlessly into the water. You usually need to center 20M off the carrier, towards your artillery pieces. The second thing to note in targeting is that the artillery falls around the center of the strike, but rarely directly in the center. If you are trying to make a pinpoint strike, you should off center it by 10M. Like a supply drop, use your maximum zoom when placing artillery so you do not waste it hitting buildings and other useless targets.
It takes about 15 seconds after firing the artillery for it to actually hit, take this into consideration when firing it off. Action on the battlefield moves quickly, you do not want to artillery a flag when in 15 seconds your team may be capping it. Likewise you do not want to hit a position away from your flag when in 15 seconds there is a good chance your flag will be overrun. This 15 second rule may be problematic if you make a misjudgment; you may wind up devastating your own team if the tide turns. Be careful.
Most commanders scan, look for the greatest concentration of the enemy, and drop artillery on them. Good for getting kills, bad for getting wins. Your artillery priority should be flag defense. It is hart to hit moving targets, but when capping a flag the enemy must be in a defined radius. You must fire the strike before a single enemy enters the flag radius in order to prevent the flag from turning. If there are multiple enemies, you must strike even sooner. Be sure to off center, you need one of those shells to hit directly on the flag. If there is no flag threat, artillery is good to push the enemy force back in a tight battle. Your men will be expecting it, the other team will not be, the surprise is usually enough to give your guys the momentum.
Artillery screening is a great means to assist in capturing a flag. In a particular hot flag zone, you can use an artillery screen to protect your capers. The arty does not hit center, so if you drop a strike directly on the flag you can create a protective zone around the flag/your men. It will devastate and obscure the zone directly around the flag, this will give your guy(s) just enough time to complete the cap. This works best if your guys have some cover from splash damage or are in armor. It takes a direct artillery hit to take out armor which is rare, if they stay in the center of the strike they will survive it. Without major cover, even some sandbags are enough as long as you center the strike on your man.
Be careful in using artillery on Special Forces city maps. The flags are so close together it is almost impossible to keep from killing your own team during fast moving battles.
The Commander's Guide
http://forums.bf2s.com/viewtopic.php?id=542
