Neat way of handling artillery

In our game two weeks ago (with Fuseboy and a few others) we came up with an interesting way of dealing with artillery, based on a DW AP I read, where a town was detailed, and then flame markers scattered over it.

Since in The Regiment, you're always drawing maps, when the German howitzers and nebelwerfers started ranging in on us, our GM started tossing poker chips onto the map.  Anything that one landed on was hit.  We were holed up in a pretty little French town, and watching the shells land and tear the shit out of all the beautiful cottages and houses we had cleared was... compelling. 

It's not right for every situation, but it worked for us. 

Especially when they scored a direct hit on the house we had set up as an aid centre for our NPC wounded.

Wow! That's a great idea!

Very cool.

If you do this, I think it's wise to practice a little. :-)  Our GM at one point missed the map entirely, which was a little anti-climactic.

Also, he gave us a chance to dodge when there was a direct hit, which is pretty important.  My sense is that the constant incidental fire in The Regiment is about ratcheting up the pressure as the players' resources (e.g. boxes) dwindle. But being hit right off the bat with a 10" shell would just .. suck.

Discretion is an important element of storytelling in the Regiment. The GM can always create a situation that is not survivable for the characters. Sometimes that's the right call. Sometimes, creating the appearance that a situation is not survivable is the right call. Sounds like your GM made the right call.

I largely agree with your assessment of incidental fire. It also creates a baseline expectation for risk, so when you move from incidental to direct (or concentrated), it highlights the seriousness.

Yes. What made it cool was the randomness of what was happening.  Neither the GM nor players knew where that shell would hit.  And that would give us a chance to make a move to react (usually Hit The Deck), or, if it was a near miss, some incidental fire.  So whenever the shells landed on a building we weren't in, we all breathed a sigh of relief (even though it wouldn't likely be lethal.  And when the nebelwerfer landed in the aid station, and killed all the named NPC soldiers we'd sent there to wait for real medical attention... that was tragic. 

Conversely, when our artillery started shooting back at the company scale open field assault the Germans tried, we were cheering and booing our gunners as they alternately laid down a really effective stonk, and sometimes dropped shells dangerously close.

Again, it's a neat way to handle it.  I wouldn't do it every time, but it felt right this time.  It seems like it would be best for really impersonal things, like long range indirect artillery fire or carpet bombing, and might not work so well for, say, dive bombers or CAS, or direct artillery fire.

Totally!