Ship & Shore Guns
by fuzeman

You have the ability to man various larger type guns in Aces High II. These include soft gun positions or shore batteries at bases and the large and small gun mounts on a task group. This discussion will focus on the larger of these, shore batteries and the naval 5" and 8" guns. A shore battery and the 8" naval gun are the same except for the number of guns, a shore battery being a single and the naval gun triple. The naval 8" gun battery fires 3 high explosive (HE) shells at a time and takes a few seconds to reload and is primarily an offensive weapon to destroy other TGs, fields or installations. The 5" fires single HE or anti-aircraft (AA) shells with proximity fuses, HE for structures or ships and AA for defense, and reloads fairly quickly. The 8" gun also has a longer range than the 5" gun. You do get range indicators in these guns visible as green text on the left side of your display and also an ammo indicator showing HE or AA for the type of shells you're using. There are two sets of numbers with the set on the left being the actual point the rounds will hit as the gun is positioned now. The set on the right is used for the various aiming modes described below and is calculated by a left mouse click on the radar-map.

These guns have three modes to assist in their usage. We have LAND mode (W key), SEA mode (E key), and the default manual mode called DIRECT (Q key). With Direct mode you have complete control of the gun. You would probably use this mode in a shore battery or 5" gun. In Land mode the gun will shoot to the point you select. You could use this mode on a ship when targeting a stationary target. In Sea mode the gun fires at a point relative to your ships movement. You could use this on a ship when firing at another task group. The method of aiming depends on whether you are firing at a stationary land target or a moving target at sea, either a plane or ship. The method can be slightly different also depending if firing from a moving or stationary platform. We have three basic scenarios when firing; moving platform firing at stationary target, stationary platform firing at a moving target and a moving platform firing at a moving target. Firing on a moving target is harder than a stationary one of course but not extremely difficult. Sometimes Pan Mode (F8) viewing can be beneficial when shooting due to the angle of the barrel which can put your target out of view. While in Pan Mode pan down and move your line of sight downward for visibility. I also helps to put your mouse cursor on or slightly under the red crosshair to give yourself a reference point for your fire.

Attacking Stationary Targets from a Ship - Land Mode

Attacking stationary targets is fairly straight forward using Land Mode and can be used in both 8" and 5" guns. Once you're in the gun, activate Land Mode with the [W] key and bring up your clipboard. Zoom your map in to focus on your target and, using your mouse, left click on the spot you want to fire on. If the gun mount has the ability to turn to it and the target is in range it will automatically move the gun and aim it to your target. Watch the range indicator and make sure the gun is moving on target and be sure it has stopped before you fire. When the gun has stopped and the range is steady fire the gun and repeat the process.

Depending on the target you're firing at, for example a hanger, you may want to salvo many rounds on the same spot in order to destroy it. If your target is larger, for example a town or strategic target, you may want to fire a couple at one spot and then move to another and cover your target with a pattern of salvos to hit everything. With your clipboard up or if your target is far away you may not be able to see the target and it's not really necessary because you're aiming using the clipboard and not by sight. Depending on range, it may take some time for the rounds to get downrange and your only feedback may be a system message from the host when you destroy something; you get no message for just hitting it.

At medium to short ranges you may be able to aim manually in Direct Mode. The default is Direct mode so you're in it when you enter the gun. All you have to do is point and shoot. I highly recommend moving your mouse cursor at or slightly under the red crosshair, using Pan Mode for manual aiming, and also Zoom Mode with ] and [ for viewing. This way you have sight of the target for feedback and can adjust your firing. Of course, a spotter can help by flying over your target and giving you corrections but, if many rounds are incoming at the same time, he wont be able to identify which are yours.

When shelling a town, strategic facility or a base of any kind, you can use the Clipboard Maps to get a rough estimate of the layout and position of various structures at the facility.

You still target by clicking on the radar-map itself, not the clipboard (field) maps. By looking at the field map, you can visualize where the different structures on the field are in reference to the field icon square on the radar-map. Example: The Vehicle Hangar at a large field is in the upper left part of the field (the NW corner). You would click on the northwest corner of that field's map icon to target that area.

For specific targets like a hangar, you usually need visual confirmation that you are hitting it unless you have time to cover an area with enough rounds to destroy a large structure. For field guns, towns, factories, or things with a concentration of somewhat less hardened targets, a salvo or two can be fired before you click another another adjacent area. You walk your shells over the target in a pattern so you cover it all.

Shooting Ships from a Shore Gun - Direct Mode

When in a stationary platform firing on a moving target, you will probably use Direct Mode. If you're going to use Pan Mode viewing, put your mouse cursor on the red crosshairs for reference. Use Zoom Mode with ] and [ to see your target better. The hardest part is determining the initial range to shoot at in order to hit the target. If there are other gunners, you can ask them if they have the range already or a spotter over-flying the target can give corrections. If the carrier is still up and planes are taking off you can get a ballpark position and range from looking at the radar-map, if your HQ has not been damaged. If you alone have to find the range, you will need to fire a few ranging shots.

In order to find the range of your target, fire an initial salvo in line with the target noting the range you fired at and then increase or decrease that range by a certain amount and fire again also noting the distance. These two shots can be 5k to 10k apart. You then watch the target area to see the splashes for feedback. You want to observe a few things. Of course you want to check the distance from the splashes to the target and correct closer or farther. By observing both the distance between your first two ranging shots and the overall distance to the target you should be able to gauge the distance of your next ranging shots. You also want to notice how far behind or ahead of the target your splashes landed. This is how you determine how much to lead the target by. You simply lead your target by that same distance left or right and use the mouse cursor as a firing reference. With your second ranging shots you should have a fairly good idea of what lead to use and are now concentrating on the correct distance. Use the same method and try to split the target with two shots. By now you should be narrowing down on a correct range and firing for effect. That method works nicely with long distance targeting if there is some time between firing the round and when it impacts. If the range is shorter you may be able to fire and correct with each round. Once you have the correct range, you then have to keep adjusting the lead and range based on the course the target takes. I hard maneuvering target can be quite hard to hit and requires some foresight to guess which way it will zig or zag.

Ship to Ship Gunnery - Sea Mode

The most challenging gunnery is firing from a moving platform at a moving target but with Sea Mode it is very similar to firing from a shore battery. Sea mode will keep the relative aim of your gun unchanged while the platform itself does move. Of course it is limited by the actual amount of traverse in the gun mount. You should place your mouse cursor on the crosshair as a reference but there is no real need for pan mode viewing because sea mode itself keeps the line of sight on the horizon. Similar to a shore battery you can get a ballpark target range by looking at the radar-map to see enemy planes taking off. You can then bring up your radar-map and click on it to list that range in the right set of numbers and manually adjust the gun to it and fire making corrections by sight. A spotter can also be useful. You can also fire ranging shots as described above. The only difference being the size of the corrections you make once you have the correct range. Seeing both platform and target are moving the size of your corrections will be larger than in a shore battery. At short distances you can also use Direct Mode and make corrections as you shoot.

The above can be used in both large and small guns with minimal differences, mainly range and time between reloads. Of course the lethality of each round and the number per salvo is different.

5" in the Anti-Aircraft Role

One role the 5" gun can fill which the 8" can't is anti-aircraft gunnery. This type of gunnery will always use Direct mode and manual aiming. With the 5" gun you can acquire and hit targets within and just beyond icon range, around 6k. You'll need to develop a technique for aiming and it is similar to aiming smaller type AA guns, like field guns or even ground vehicles like Osties and M-16s. You need to lead the target enough and this lead will change constantly for a maneuvering target. You can use the Lead Computing Gunsight offline or in the Training arena to work on your gunnery at first. Once you get the hang of firing the first few rounds in the correct area you get feedback if you're close when the shell explodes near it. You then correct to put the puffy explosion on target and fire for effect. You can also start shooting a large distance in front of a target and let it fly into your pattern to get the initial feedback needed, you then correct and start to track the target firing for effect. Of course this method would work better on a non-maneuvering target like a formation of inbound bombers.