Smolensk '41 artillery and its effects

[Liebchen]

I can see aircraft picking out targets. But firing artillery from miles away? How can it be anything except area bombardment? J

You don't play Combat Mission, apparently. That game would give you a good idea of the mechanics of it all.

Artillery technology and technique have been refining over the last 150 years. Gone are the days of randomly firing in the general direction of the enemy and hoping to scare the crap out of them, if not kill them. Since at least WWI artillery has been capable of very precise fire, at at a range of several miles. Even in WWI the gunners were capable of firing targeted fire directed by spotters. Sure, they used rolling barrages in WWI, and the Soviets continued that practice in WWII, but it wasn't the norm, as far as I have read.

A spotter with a telephone or radio can direct fire on top of a particular company, let alone on top of a particular battalion. Sure, the fire may scatter, or there may be miscommunication in the target identification or shell placement, but this is not the same thing as having the full set of the fire for effect land evenly across an entire square kilometer area.

So I would argue that the default rule is very realistic (as games go).

Oh, and as for air strikes, in WWII there was almost no communication between the ground-based spotters and the aircraft. So, if anything, is would be the air strikes that would have to be randomized. (Of course, as with the artillery, this would not be the same as a full payload having an effect across the full square kilometer.)