Off-board artillery requests

[Phantasy Pharoh]

New to the rules. In our second game a question came up about a spotter requesting artillery support from off-board batteries. If there are multiple batteries (in this case 3) of the same caliber gun (or even different calibers) firing at the same target are they grouped together as one request? My answer was no. Each battery would have to have an individual request order and go through the process just like they would each need an individual Open Fire order to shoot. Just looking for clarification.

But as long as I'm here........If a Spotter becomes a casualty what happens to off-board batteries? FOs are usually assigned pretty specific radio disciplines for interactions with the artillery. It would be fairly difficult (if not impossible) for GI Joe Blow to call for that support. Just a curiosity question.

[Nazrat]

Yes, each battery needs to have a spotter issued an orde and batteries are NEVER grouped together. This is for game balance above all else, because if all those guns were shooting together every turn that's all you'd probably have orders for and it wouldn't be much of a game since they would probably obliterate anything they hit. SArty is supposed to be more of an annoyance than a game winner in and of itself. So if you only have one Artillery FO then you can only shoot with one battery per turn. And if your spotter becomes a casualty and he's your only one (as in most Russian forces) then you are SoL and can no longer drop artillery.