Charges and range
One to four powder bags decide how far Old Marta reaches. More bags reach deeper, but every extra kilometre costs time, accuracy and cover.
The war is far away. Old Marta's sidings lie 4 to 8 km behind your own fire trench, and the enemy keeps its depots and guns 2 to 6 km behind theirs. So most of your shots are 8 to 14 km long, and how far a shell can go depends on how many powder bags you load behind it.
The charge table
| Charge | Max range | Flight time at max | Spread at max (long × wide) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bag | 6 km | 25 s | 40 × 15 m |
| 2 bags | 10 km | 35 s | 70 × 25 m |
| 3 bags | 14 km | 45 s | 110 × 35 m |
| 4 bags | 18 km | 60 s | 160 × 50 m |
Spread is the size of the error ellipse your shots fall into, always longer in range than it is wide. See Ballistics and the firing table.
On the map table, range rings around Marta's current siding show the reach of each charge. A depot at 11 420 m is beyond the ring for 2 bags and inside the ring for 3. Choose the charge with Q and E in the gun yard, then read its row in the firing table.
What more bags cost
Every extra kilometre adds flight time, wind drift and spread. More bags also mean:
- More smoke at the gun when it fires.
- A longer reload before the next shot.
- More exposure. Big charges give Marta away faster than small ones. See Exposure and moving the gun.
The outermost ring is your reach. At 4 bags it is 18 km, and every stretch of front inside it is yours to influence. Drive along the rails and a different stretch comes into reach. See One continuous war.
Forward or back
Where you park is the other half of range. Sidings branch off each side's main line every 1 to 2 km, so that they sit 4 to 8 km behind the fire trench. Choosing one is a constant trade-off.
| Siding | Good | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Further back | Safer | Less accurate, and reaches fewer deep targets |
| Further forward | Hits harder and deeper | Gets found faster |
Track within about 2 km of the front gets shelled to pieces. When a side's front moves more than about 3 km beyond the reach of its sidings, engineers lay a new line closer to the front over the next hours, and the choice of sidings changes with it. See The rail network.