Guide

Hell Let Loose artillery calculator

Stationary arty, SPA / mobile guns, mils, and terrain elevation — how the Arty & Garrisons HLL tools are meant to be used in a live match.

Hell Let Loose rewards crews who can turn a distance call into the right elevation without arguing over chat. Arty & Garrisons HLL is built for that second-screen job: you keep the game full-screen on one display (or one half of your attention), and you use the companion for mils instead of scrolling a spreadsheet or guessing from memory.

This guide covers both calculator flows in the app: Station Arty Calc for fixed guns, and SPA Arty Calc for self-propelled / mobile artillery. Open them in the browser version or in the mobile app on Google Play / App Store.

What you are calculating

In Hell Let Loose, artillery elevation is commonly expressed in mils. Spotters call a range (or you measure it on the map), and the gunner dials the elevation that matches that range for the faction’s gun. Small errors at long range miss the point entirely; large errors waste shells and telegraph your position.

The companion does not replace map awareness. It replaces the fragile step where someone misreads a table, mixes up faction tables, or forgets that high ground changes the shot. You still need a clear distance and a clear target description from your squad.

Station Arty Calc — fixed guns

Use Station Arty Calc when you are on a stationary artillery piece. The flow is intentionally short:

Open Station Arty Calc from the bottom navigation.
Select the faction / gun table that matches the piece you are crewing.
Enter the distance in metres as called by your spotter or measured on the map.
Read the elevation in mils and apply it on the gun.
If the target sits on higher or lower ground than your gun, use the terrain elevation control so the mils account for the vertical difference instead of assuming a flat plane.

Faction selection matters. Allied and Axis pieces do not share the same elevation curve. If you switch guns mid-match or join a different crew, re-check the selected table before the next barrage — the UI is fast on purpose so that re-check does not cost the fight.

SPA Arty Calc — mobile and self-propelled

Self-propelled and mobile artillery change position more often, but the core problem is the same: distance in, mils out. SPA Arty Calc keeps a dedicated layout for those vehicles so you are not hunting through the stationary tables under fire.

Typical loop:

Open SPA Arty Calc.
Pick the British, German, Soviet, or other SPA table that matches your vehicle.
Enter distance, read elevation, fire, adjust from spotting feedback.
When you relocate, update distance for the new gun position — do not reuse the previous mils blindly.

Mobile crews benefit most from a second device. Phone or tablet on a stand next to the keyboard keeps the calculator readable while the PC stays on the game. The browser app at /hll/ is useful when you prefer a tablet landscape layout without installing anything.

Terrain elevation — when flat-map mils fail

Many range tables assume gun and target are at roughly the same height. On maps with ridges, towns on hills, or deep valleys, that assumption is wrong. The app’s terrain elevation input lets you correct for a height difference in mils so the first volley is closer to useful.

Practical rule: if spotting reports “on the ridge above the church” or “down in the river bed,” do not treat the horizontal map distance as the only input. Adjust terrain elevation, fire a correction shell if needed, then settle into the barrage. Over-correcting is still better than dumping a full salvo into the wrong contour.

Worked example

Imagine you are on a stationary gun. Your spotter calls a target at 900 metres, roughly level with your position. You open Station Arty Calc, select your faction table, type 900 for distance, leave terrain elevation near zero if the ground is flat, and dial the mils shown on screen. After the first shell, spotting says you are short. You increase distance slightly (or adjust based on your crew’s correction language), recalculate, and fire again. The point of the tool is that each correction is a number you can trust for that faction — not a debate about which screenshot of a wiki table someone saved six months ago.

If the same target were on a hill above you, you would raise terrain elevation before the first shot instead of discovering the miss only after three wasted shells.

Habits that keep the calculator useful

Agree units with your spotter. Metres and map grid language should match what you type.
Confirm faction before the first shell. Wrong table looks “almost right” and wastes more time than an obvious error.
Keep the app on the arty screen while you are the gunner; switch to garrison maps only when you are not on the piece.
Do not treat the calculator as aimbot magic. Smoke, timing, and communication still decide whether the barrage helps the infantry.

For map overlays and default garrison positions, see Default garrisons & map hub. For who builds these tools, see About Slaw Solutions.

Disclaimer: Unofficial fan companion. Not affiliated with Team17, Black Matter, or Hell Let Loose.