I know,long name,isn't it? But anyway,after making My Units:A General Overview guide,I realized that it can be a lot of fun to create an article,although it is time consuming.I also see that there are still a lack of land battle guides,and even my massive 3-paragraph description of artillery in my first guide still felt to short.With these two things in mind,I decided to make this guide.This will differ from my last one in that I'll attempt to add in pictures and diagrams (diagrams hand-drawn,pictures from google or our own galleries),and,of course,cover only 1 unit type.I hope you all can learn from this,and in the meantime,here's the "Cover" of my guide (I'll add in all the parts as I go).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART I:INTRODUCTION
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things-Niccolo Machiavelli
Artillery can make or break a battle.It is the giver of life or death-the messenger of victory or defeat.A howitzer blast into your opponents general can easily force your enemy to flee,yet a burst of canister shot into your own men may seal your doom just as easily.Therefore,the wise general will heed these words of humble advice in this guide before wading carefully into the depths of war; the poor general shall jump in without haste and surely drown.
If you can learn to use your artillery effectively, your 1 piece of artillery can outlast a thousand poorly used ones.If you can use the terrain to your advantage,your 1 unit shall outlive a thousand ignorant ones.If you can plan your strikes carefully and still attack like lightning,your 1 cannonball shall outdo a thousand.If you heed this guides advice,young general,you can surely overcome any battle.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART II:CANNONS V.S. HOWITZERS
God fights on the side with the best artillery-Napoleon Bonaparte I
The first step in the artillery Art Of War is to know just exactly what kind of artillery to use.In Napoleon,there are generally 2 main kinds of artillery:cannons and howitzers,which may have variants like horse artillery (decent choice) and rockets(banned in 99% of games),but ultimately these 2 are the main concern when choosing.Now,I can't really explain these 2 in the same section,so let's compare these two beasts on their own.
CANNONS
Cannons are the "Classic Artillery",the kind that was used over howitzers in nearly every battle,and the weapon of mass destruction for 300 years until we had all those physicists come up with that idea of nuclear death.But in any case,12 pounds of lead slamming into someones gut and 400mph is still a kill,and in napoleon these things are juggernauts.If you get one good volley into a 6x20 melee column,you've got a decent chance of taking out 1/3 of the troops there.A cannonball won't just stop after one man's down;it'll continue it's murderous rampage on anyone in a straight line from it.And cannons themselves also have a range between 450-600,a great improvement over the 400 of howitzers (except for the mostly hated 550 unicorn).
But cannons do have several downfalls;the first is that against thin formations a cannonball will only take out 1 or 2 men at most,and when artillery reloads so slowly every shot counts.Firing from an angle might help,but generally thin formations mean that cannons won't do well.
The second-and worse-problem is (*drumroll*)...cannons fire straight!Now,of course this is only logical,but it's a stubborn and difficult problem that can completely screw a cannon.First,this means that if there's a hill on the map and your opponent stays behind it,you just wasted 800 points because cannonballs can't drill through hills (which would be cool,but this is the 19th century,people!) or fire over them (like howitzers).Also,even on flat maps,your cannonballs would eventually drop and bounce on the ground,often right over your opponents head (although you'll probably hit something unless your opponent has deleted the code from the game).The final problem is that since they fire straight,you usually can't position them behind your lines unless you want your general to have a quick death.This means that you have to put them on the flanks (vulnerable to cav),in the center (vulnerable to infantry),or on a hill behind your lines (gives you some height to offset the angle).Ultimately,cannons are good on some maps,but they personally make me like the latter one better,which brings us too...howitzers.
PROS: GREAT RANGE,BETTER CANISTER SHOT,USUALLY MORE ACCURATE,HISTORICALLY ACCURATE
CONS:POOR AGAINST HILLY MAPS,CAN'T BE POSITIONED BEHIND LINES,LESS DAMAGE TO INFANTRY LINES,MAY BOUNCE OVER ENEMY
HOWITZERS
(Under Construction
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Artillery can make or break a battle.It is the giver of life or death-the messenger of victory or defeat.A howitzer blast into your opponents general can easily force your enemy to flee,yet a burst of canister shot into your own men may seal your doom just as easily.Therefore,the wise general will heed these words of humble advice in this guide before wading carefully into the depths of war; the poor general shall jump in without haste and surely drown.
If you can learn to use your artillery effectively, your 1 piece of artillery can outlast a thousand poorly used ones.If you can use the terrain to your advantage,your 1 unit shall outlive a thousand ignorant ones.If you can plan your strikes carefully and still attack like lightning,your 1 cannonball shall outdo a thousand.If you heed this guides advice,young general,you can surely overcome any battle.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first step in the artillery Art Of War is to know just exactly what kind of artillery to use.In Napoleon,there are generally 2 main kinds of artillery:cannons and howitzers,which may have variants like horse artillery (decent choice) and rockets(banned in 99% of games),but ultimately these 2 are the main concern when choosing.Now,I can't really explain these 2 in the same section,so let's compare these two beasts on their own.
Cannons are the "Classic Artillery",the kind that was used over howitzers in nearly every battle,and the weapon of mass destruction for 300 years until we had all those physicists come up with that idea of nuclear death.But in any case,12 pounds of lead slamming into someones gut and 400mph is still a kill,and in napoleon these things are juggernauts.If you get one good volley into a 6x20 melee column,you've got a decent chance of taking out 1/3 of the troops there.A cannonball won't just stop after one man's down;it'll continue it's murderous rampage on anyone in a straight line from it.And cannons themselves also have a range between 450-600,a great improvement over the 400 of howitzers (except for the mostly hated 550 unicorn).
But cannons do have several downfalls;the first is that against thin formations a cannonball will only take out 1 or 2 men at most,and when artillery reloads so slowly every shot counts.Firing from an angle might help,but generally thin formations mean that cannons won't do well.
The second-and worse-problem is (
CONS:POOR AGAINST HILLY MAPS,CAN'T BE POSITIONED BEHIND LINES,LESS DAMAGE TO INFANTRY LINES,MAY BOUNCE OVER ENEMY
(Under Construction
[This message has been edited by Brass45 (edited 09-02-2010 @ 04:06 PM).]