Iron Nest Mission 10: Phantom Battery - CBT Solutions

Worked example: Bearing, range, charge and elevation figures below come from a sample playthrough. Enemy spawns and your Iron Nest’s position vary each run — always measure on the map and follow the in-game ballistic calculator.

Mission Critical Strategy: Shooting at an Intersection

Phantom Battery is the hardest counter-battery problem in the campaign, and it is hard for a structural reason rather than a difficulty setting.

In a conventional counter-battery engagement there are only two unknowns: the enemy’s bearing and the enemy’s range. You solve for both, you fire, you win.

Here there are three unknowns, and they compound:

1. The enemy’s position is never confirmed. The Phantom Battery fires and displaces. By the time your shell arrives, the thing you aimed at has usually gone.
2. Your own position is uncertain. The mission starts with an Emergency Move, and until you fix your new coordinates, you cannot compute a bearing to anything.
3. You are under a Counter-Battery Timer. Every second spent solving is a second the enemy spends loading.

The solution is not better gunnery. It is sequencing — and the sequence is what most operators get wrong.

The sequence that works

Observe → Move → Fix yourself → Then shoot.

The critical insight is step three. Most operators under pressure try to skip it: they hear the enemy’s bearing, traverse the gun, and fire — from a position they have not verified. The shell leaves on a correct bearing measured from a wrong origin, and it lands nowhere near the target.

An azimuth is not a firing solution. An azimuth plus a verified origin is a firing solution.

Why the second Position Report matters

One Position Report after the move gives you a line of position — you know you are somewhere along a particular line. That is not enough to lay a gun.

Two reports intersect. The intersection is your actual position, and only then do the enemy’s reported bearings become actionable.

Yes, the second report costs requisition. Buy it anyway. It is cheaper than the shells you will waste firing from an unverified origin, and far cheaper than the CBT expiring while you re-solve.

Reading enemy azimuths

Each time the Phantom Battery fires, you get its muzzle azimuth. Log every azimuth on the map board immediately — draw the whole line, not just a point in the direction reported.

Two azimuths from the same battery position, taken at different times, will cross. The crossing point is the battery’s firing position — this is a back-bearing intersection, and it is the most reliable targeting data you will get in the mission.

If the two lines do not cross, the battery has displaced between volleys. That itself is information: it confirms the target has moved and you should reset the plot rather than force a solution.

Pre-Calculated Firing Solutions

All three targets sit in the long-range bands — 17.20 km takes 4 bags (multiplier 3.0), while 20.40 km and 22.80 km take 5 bags (multiplier 2.4).

Target	Target Grid	Turret Bearing	Target Range	Powder Charges	Elevation (θ)	Ammunition
Covering Ridge — Suppression	Grid J3 4.0	148.0°	17.20 km	4 Charges	51.60°	H (High Explosive)
Phantom Battery — Cross-Fix Estimate	Grid J7 6.5	155.0°	20.40 km	5 Charges	48.96°	APHE
Phantom Battery — Alternate Position	Grid J9 2.1	162.0°	22.80 km	5 Charges	54.72°	APHE

[!WARNING] Note the counter-intuitive numbers: the 20.40 km shot needs less elevation (48.96°) than the 17.20 km shot (51.60°). That is the charge-band boundary again — the longer shot carries an extra bag and a smaller multiplier.

Step-by-Step Operator Routine

Phase 1: Requisition (CBT: Stopped)

1. Buy 4 APHE shells, 2 H shells, and 24 powder charge bags. Long-range bands consume 4–5 bags per shot; this mission is charge-hungry.
2. Buy two Position Reports up front if the console allows it. You will need both and buying under CBT pressure is a needless risk.
3. Plot the covering ridge (J3 4.0) — it is your suppression option if the battery proves unlocatable.

Phase 2: First Enemy Volley — Observe, Don’t Reply

1. The Phantom Battery fires. Do not traverse onto it. You do not yet know where you are.
2. Log the muzzle azimuth on the map board and draw the full line of bearing.
3. Immediately execute the Emergency Move. The enemy has your old position from your muzzle blast.

Phase 3: Fix Your Own Position

1. At the new position, request the first Position Report. Draw the resulting line of position.
2. Request the second Position Report. Draw the second line.
3. Mark the intersection. That point is your firing origin. Until this point exists on the map, nothing else in this phase is meaningful.
4. Re-plot the enemy bearing lines from the new origin. Bearings that were correct from the old position are now wrong.

Phase 4: Return Fire

1. The CBT starts when you fire. Do not fire until the guns are loaded and laid, or the clock starts on an unprepared turret.
2. Load Left Gun: 1 APHE + 5 charge bags. Elevation 48.96°. Bearing 155.0°.
3. Fire. Watch for a second enemy volley — if the battery fires again while your shell is in flight, you have its next azimuth and a fresh intersection.
4. If the battery displaces, re-plot from the new azimuths and re-lay to 54.72° / 162.0° for the alternate position.

Phase 5: If the Battery Won’t Stand Still

1. If two successive cross-fixes fail to produce a firing solution, stop chasing.
2. Traverse to the covering ridge (51.60° / 148.0°) and suppress with H. The ridge is where the battery repositions through; denying it buys you time.
3. Resume cross-fixing once the enemy volleys resume from a new location.

[!IMPORTANT] Operator Rule: In Phantom Battery, never fire from an origin you have not verified with a cross-fix. A shell fired from an unknown position is not a near-miss — it is a lost shell, a wasted charge, and several seconds off your CBT clock.