Why has the artillery barrage effect been halved compared to previous editions?

The number of attacks is now half the average attacks (P. 48) when it used to be the average number of attacks... This might make sense if the effect of the barrage was extended to both player turns but it's not so I'm struggling to understand this change.

Surely it's just a typo?

Hadn't notice this, but it does seem that way from the rules v4 and the example!

The example is 2 German 105s at 3D6 each on a 40 x 20 template and it states add together and divide by number of assets = 3 which is the same as v2, but then says to halve at 1.5 and round up to 2 (if necessary), so less effective than v2 overall. Were barrages so powerful to need to change it ? Not in my experience, but will be interesting to understand why from some of the play testers.   

Quote from: Dr Dave on 11 May 2019, 12:19:12 PM
Surely it's just a typo?

Definitely no typo. A whole new sentence doesn't qualify as a typo. 

But it might be an error then that's left over from V3.

It can't be real, surely.

It's not quite the same, in v2, for a barrage, you totaled up all of the attacks, then divided them across all of the targets in the zone.

So in v2 that example would have been 6 dice spread as evenly as possible between all of the targets. which was good if there was only a couple of targets in the zone, but quickly diluted down to 1 dice per target if there was a whole load under there.

Now it's a guaranteed 2 dice against each target.

(if i'm remembering right, i'd need to dig out v2 to check, and I can't even find it in v3)

Nope. In V2, you totalled up the number of attacks and divided them by the number of firing units not targets.

Quote from: Risaldar Singh on 11 May 2019, 10:37:18 PM
Nope. In V2, you totalled up the number of attacks and divided them by the number of firing units not targets.

Correct, so v4, barrages are less effective. When I have played most players prefer concentrations anyway, except when calling in smoke!

It could well be a reaction to the 66 dice Mark was rolling in one of our large CWC games, all of NorthAg artillery it looked like to me !!

Quote from: ianrs54 on 12 May 2019, 07:26:33 AM
It could well be a reaction to the 66 dice Mark was rolling in one of our large CWC games, all of NorthAg artillery it looked like to me !!

66 dice has to be a concentration, it's not possible with a barrage. 

Another change (p. 47): each artillery unit may only be called once (scheduled or requested). The previous wording was "used" which Pete Jones clarified several times to mean "fired". I.e., a second FO could attempt to request an artillery unit which another FO had failed to do. No longer.

Quote from: Risaldar Singh on 12 May 2019, 07:47:36 AM
66 dice has to be a concentration, it's not possible with a barrage. 

How many artillery assets did he have? Did you not roll deviation for each concentration? I consider each asset as a battery, so for example 3rd Infantry Division landing on SWORD Beach had 3 regts - so 9 batteries of Self Propelled, which had to be disembarked and would not be all available at the same time on the push in land. Concentration hasn't changed and saw the barrage as a fair representation. Unfortunately pulling together of the FAQs and Errata into one place would, for me have been the ideal in v4.

I am back

It is not a typo

It is a deliberate attempt to remove the massing of guns in a single barrage in a way that means almost certain destruction for anything under the template.

Yes ... it is also correct that if 1 FAC fails to order a battery/unit it can no longer be ordered by another FAC ... in that game turn.
This was a reaction to criticism that the game had slowed down dramatically due to too much off-table play.

Give it a try - it certainly makes you want to play to the next move speedily

(& Ian was correct - 66 dice per unit - with fire being brought down on a target as a pre-registered strike was excessive - it was a multi-player game with both Battalion and Divisional assets on-call. However, I was only the player throwing the dice, not the player making the save throws!)   

 Perhaps it is due to games I have played, that off table assets are usually kept to about 3 or 4, that we don't seem to have as much of an impact with barrages. In fact most choose to bring down concentrations, as these seem more effective albeit that each needs to deviate individually. And concentrations ave not changed in v4. Perhaps the answer was to limit the number of off table assets and limit numbers of FAOs.

I must admit, I'm puzzling to see how anyone could get a 66 dice barrage, unless multiple barrages were stacked in the same turn, with a lot of artillery.  Please could someone explain?

I would expect the maximum attack dice to be 16, in a barrage of all naval rocket artillery (now 8 with the halved dice).

My general experience with arty since BKC1 is much the same as Cross698's.