Artillery Rules

My wargame rules use templates to determine artillery damage. I find the use of a template to be a quick, simple and realistic method to determine the results of artillery impact. This template shows four 75mm guns firing as a battery. The outside black edge is about 75mm across. Four of these "explosions" are placed together, the one in the lower left being the location of the hit from gun #1, then directly above that is gun #2 in the twelve o'clock position. Each subsequent gun impact continues around the clock. Since this battery has four guns, there are four positions. A battery may have up to six guns.

I used lexan from my local Home Depot store. Then I used Sharpie markers to outline the explosion. The template is then painted using Tamiya clear orange, clear red, and clear yellow. Lastly, I put a label at the top of the template.

Every time that the battery fires, once the location of the impact is determined. The template is held over that point; the black dot in the center of the first round is placed over the location of impact. Any infantry or soft skinned vehicles in the open are removed from play. Any armored vehicles are hit if they are covered by any of the four black dots on the template. Any open topped armored vehicle is destroyed if that dot lands inside the vehicle. Closed top vehicles are not damaged, unless the particular round can penetrate that armor protection.

I have two templates like this for all of my artillery.