Artillery friend or foe?

[Rhazes]

You've all seen it your artillery assassinates your own cavalry without prejudice and with extreme accuracy even when auto fire is turned off. Your cavalry can be 600 yards away from the target they are shooting and then BAM! 6 Cannon balls go off course and smoke your own cavalry.

I've noticed pretty much every battle artillery does what ever it feels like. I direct them to attack the incoming units on the left side of the map and I run my 3 units of cavalry 600 yards away on the right side to send them after the artillery as soon as my cavalry are in combat cannon balls start flying through them.


Whats the deal how do you guys handle your artillery?

[♔DoomBunny666♔]

Takes lots, fire fast, turn the ground into the Somme, then search the tuna patte thats left for ammo...

[The Gallant Forty-Twa]

I never allow it to auto-fire. Ever. Turn it off.

I always group them together (I know "don't put all your eggs in one basket") and focus-fire on the most threatening enemy. If an enemy line of Infantry are advancing I shoot them, if I see cavalry flanking I shoot them etc. First priority is to take out the enemy cannons.

As for your cannons shooting your men, turn off auto-fire. Once they killed the unit you told them to, they wudda seen the other one (which your cav were engaging) and thought "yep, in range. Fire!", so just turn it off.

[trk]

actually I tend to group 3-4 in a more or less commanding place; never use auto fire manual only. one can create a more or less killing field that you keep your guys out of. even with them on manual and you pointing them at a target 1-2 out of my group will target a different place but one near my target. when the battle is coming to a close and 'stop' does not work which is frequent merely limber them back up. that way they can not hit your cavalry that in my games are trying to mop up the routing enemy
personally I find controlling when they fire to also be inexact so if I'm off managing some activity on a flank the enemy typically moves in towards the grouped cannon. my general(s) are never anywhere near the cannon to eliminate them being wounded/killed. I do leave infantry behind the cannon. at any rate when the distance of the enemy is getting near to cannister range I switch to cannister and just them fire. that way there are no surprises. It would be ideal if one could tell them when to stop/start but it often does not work. good thing that they have apparently unlimited ammo

[OdinX]

I use my arty on auto-fire and rarely have problems with friendly fire. I usually deploy my infantry out of the firing lines of my cannons. The only time i send cav out during an arty barrage is to take out other arty, other than that, I just wait till the enemy routs, turn of ALL arty and then mop up the routing forces with my cav. That should solve your cavalry getting smoked by your own artillery.

[Xstar]

No, no, no! You are all using artillery wrong!

What you need to do is mass heavy artillery, preferably 12-pounders or heavier. Get like 9 units of artillery, 4 units of elite infantry, 4 heavy cav, 2 light cav and a general. Put the artillery in a long, long line and the line inf on the flanks (2 on each). Computer will attack the flanks with cavalry, just form squares and fend them off with heavy cavalry of your own. Send your light cav to take out enemy artillery when exposed (go around the back ).

And now comes the good part! The main enemy army will attack your long line of cannons. When they get in range, switch to canister. Press backspace to stop all orders and then check auto-fire, this makes them reaquire targets. Each cannon will choose the closest unit as a target, and the whole line will be blasing canister fire into enemy ranks. Nothing should get through!

Infantry can be decimated in seconds, and will rout fast. If everyone gets out of canister range, switch back to round fire. Somestimes you need to hold your fire when cavalry charges, you need to micro the cannons to time the canister fire well in order to not give them time to charge. Sometimes you need to go to slow-mo to select targets manually. I do this alot. If the cannon line breaks, recinforce with cavalry fast and then reman the guns with the surviving crew.

When everything is routed, STOP all cannons and chase down remainders with cavalry. It will be a slaughter! Each cannon unit should get 100-300 kills without taking losses. I've beaten massive armies with minimal casaulties this way.

[Lord Dakier]

Yes, I agree... I have 8 units of art... howitzers and 12 pounders. I form a line with my 12 pounders and have my howitzers stationed behind them a couple of years. Infront of my howitzers I have my line and flanks I have cavalry. Soon as the enemy line comes switch to canister and goodnight. Should they get too close line infantry will fire a few volleys and usually routes them while canisters reload. Howitzers just beat the enemy with explosive shells as they come and go. Any cavalry which tries it gets pounded by explosive shells too.

I did make the mistake of making my cavalry intercept the enemies while the shells was going off... oops bad move on my part there.

[isoul]

Personally I believe that artillery is more depended on the ground morphology than any other unit.

When I have the option to place my cannons a bit higher than any other unit I do so. My line infantry units usually are placed in front of cannons, on lower ground. I let the enemy advance towards my position and focus fire my round-shots on the most dangerous unit. Once the enemy comes near my position I start advance and when my infantry closes in range of the enemy I usually stop my artillery in order to avoid friendly fire. Sometimes I just switch my artillery to a target deeper into the battlefield.

On flat land, or when the enemy holds the high ground I usually place cannons on the flanks with one or two batteries in the middle. The middle batteries main role is to use canister shot once the enemy is in range while the flank batteries fires round shot from side to side into the enemy formations. Usually I end up having my army in a U position with flanking artillery batteries attacking the enemy center and light infantry(in the extreme flanks) hittting the enemy flanks. Once the cavalry breaks one flank the battle is actually over.

In every case its good to have a line-infantry unit close to your artillery battery in order to form square and fend off cavalry charges.

[Player2]

even so that is a big risk and i though i had alot of firepower at 5 Cannons lol