GUNS! GUNS! Bring more!

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Artillery crews are hard to kill in melee even when under cav attacks. I'm not sure about the collective health thing, but my guess is they have high melee defense stats. But I don't have problems shooting them down whether they are engaged or routing. I even noticed that bullets can destroy their cannons, horses and men when they are routing, it's hilarious. Cavalry should also be given a bigger melee bonus against artillery crews, otherwise it's just broken if I always have to rely on infantry to shoot them down. I'm also on vanilla.

No, it's the collective health thing, like they've said.

Ridiculous, if you ask me.

[IGdood]

Please look at how the melee defense and armor stats are for artillery crew. It's collective health. That's why a single "block" of crew requires 2-3 direct shots from naval/other arty to be killed.

[Ecthelion]

You do NOT need more artillery to win the engagement. Obviously, if he outguns you and you are defending then you need to go on the offensive unless you have a hill to hide behind.

But on the offensive, the opponent outgunning you simply means you need to close faster with him. And of course, advancing in thin lines with good spacing helps.

Don't try counter-battery fire. If he is firing on your men, and you fire on his artillery. He will surely do more damage than you. Artillery pieces themselves are small targets and so you need to be quite close to have effective counter-battery fire.

[fws2468]

Don't try counter-battery fire. If he is firing on your men, and you fire on his artillery. He will surely do more damage than you. Artillery pieces themselves are small targets and so you need to be quite close to have effective counter-battery fire.

No harm allocating some artillery for counter battery fire if you've got enough veteran cannons with improved accuracy. A direct hit on their cannons could significantly weaken their artillery power if there is little difference in firepower and save lives even if casualties are inevitable. The point is to use the terrain to your advantage and try to take the high ground (particularly to deploy your own artillery) if possible to even the odds.

[weirdoascensor]

If The Enemy Have Artillery, Counterbattery Artillery is a must - Its about whose side could silence their enemies guns first. If i know my enemy bring Artillery, i always start battle with my guns deployed - First shot really counts. A Big Target with collective health is easier to kill than thinly spread crew with hitpoints of their own.

[Vampiresbane]

Remember a little Sun Tzu as well as the tips you've received for in battle itself.

There are always armies that shouldn't be fought and battles that shouldn't be engaged in.

That's one Sun Tzu rule. Here's another.

Use spies. Use lots and lots of spies.
Once you figure out his army has cannon in it, if you have an army that doesn't have artillery nearby, you can run circles around him on the world map. Having arty in your army will drastically cut down on your movement points. So if he's using a big army to scare you away from an awesome city, run around him. Or sabotage him first and then run around him.

[♔The Black Knight♔]

Remember a little Sun Tzu as well as the tips you've received for in battle itself.

There are always armies that shouldn't be fought and battles that shouldn't be engaged in.

That's one Sun Tzu rule. Here's another.

Use spies. Use lots and lots of spies.
Once you figure out his army has cannon in it, if you have an army that doesn't have artillery nearby, you can run circles around him on the world map. Having arty in your army will drastically cut down on your movement points. So if he's using a big army to scare you away from an awesome city, run around him. Or sabotage him first and then run around him.

This, there are many different ways of defeating artillery and using the campaign map is crutial. If you actually try to fight arty without other cannons, I would suggest using bombardments or ninjas/ horses to defeat them when they untimber.

[jonny duck]

Don't try counter-battery fire. If he is firing on your men, and you fire on his artillery. He will surely do more damage than you. Artillery pieces themselves are small targets and so you need to be quite close to have effective counter-battery fire.

Based on MP experience, you just need to be very good at FPS aiming.

[TheEliteDwarf]

You could always use cav to sneak around your enemy to attack their artillery.

[SinerAthin]

Hey, does anyone know what elements affects the range of cannons in naval battles?

I've played a lot of games where the enemy could simply fire at me from ranges where my ships couldn't even fire back.

I have checked the stats and both ships are supposed to have the same range.

[Corporal Carrow]

Hey, does anyone know what elements affects the range of cannons in naval battles?

I've played a lot of games where the enemy could simply fire at me from ranges where my ships couldn't even fire back.

I have checked the stats and both ships are supposed to have the same range.

Ammunition types are the only things I've seen that cause this. Solid shot has longer range than HE. I don't know about AP or HE-DP, as I've never actually used those.

As far as the original question, I've just gotten really, really good at first person mode. Try to set up your troops in concealment or defilade from the enemy guns, and your guns where they can still hit the enemy (remember that in first person mode you can kinda use indirect fire to shoot over obstacles or outside the range given) and just manually drop rounds onto their arty until your ammunition is spent. You probably won't eliminate their arty completely, but every gun you knock out helps. Granted, then you have no ammunition for fire support once your troops engage theirs...

[SinerAthin]

Actually, I believe it is the wind that affects the cannon's range in naval engagements.

I've never had this issue when the wind was against my back.
In fact it was the enemy that had to close in order to be able to fire back.

[the_mango55]

Focus fire naval bombardment seems to be the best anti-artillery tactic for me.

[Corporal Carrow]

Actually, I believe it is the wind that affects the cannon's range in naval engagements.

I've never had this issue when the wind was against my back.
In fact it was the enemy that had to close in order to be able to fire back.

That's really interesting, as I had no idea the wind mattered. I hope you're right though, as that would be awesome.