Let's discuss artillery tactics

[General A. Skywalker]

Hey everyone,

I love this mod and now let's talk artillery!

Now I'm absolutely not saying this is the only way I use artillery (and I know it depends on which nation you're playing with) but I kinda like to use "cheap" low calibre artillery as direct support of my infantry. The idea is to leave some space between the lines of infantry and fill these spaces with one or two cannons each. It works great when facing infantry without artillery support, for obvious reasons: You can fire at them from a long distance and also - more important - you get great support by using cannister once they're in musket range. Also, enemy cavalry can hardly ever attack them succesfully due to the lines of infantry nearby. So I've seen it work greatly some times.

However, the big con is inflexibility! It may work when being in a very defensive position where holding the line is where it's at... but when in a situation where counter attacking and re-positioning are important it mostly fails due to the slowness of the cannons and/or the need to limber and unlimber them all the time.

What is your take on using artillery?

[Lord Davn]

I love this mod and now let's talk artillery!
What is your take on using artillery?

We have made a lot of adjustments to the artillery stats for NTW3 and I will ask Lord Avon to comment on the them when he gets time.

[Avon_Ulysses]

Artillery in NTW:3 is set-up to make horseguns more mobile than foot.
It is relatively easy to make them move faster, but limbering & unlimbering are more difficult.
This is because of the longer animation the mounting & dismounting horse gunners need to go through. To make the horse gunners quicker it was necessary to slow down the limber/unlimber of the foot guns. This is achieved through the acceleration stat.

If you want to use guns to support your attacks at close range you should use horse guns.
This was what the actual combatants preferred & NTW:3 is set-up to reflect this.

[Lord Davn]

Based on earlier discussions on this forum we have adjusted the artillery builds and availability in the v4 campaign game to reflect the use of heavier & slower guns that were predominant on the battlefield in 1805. Most minor (and some major) factions will have to invest time & money to build the more mobile 6 pdr guns that came into use in the later years on the battlefield.

[Akmatov]

If you want to use guns to support your attacks at close range you should use horse guns.
This was what the actual combatants preferred

I really think the above is incorrect. At various times various armies assigned smallish guns to plus up inferior infantry. These were not horse artillery, which was something totally different and quite specialized.

[Avon_Ulysses]

Akmatov,
you are correct, most Napoleonic armies attached small groups of 1-2 guns directly to infantry battalions at various stages.
These are represented in-game by the battalion gun units many nations have.

What I was referring to is support by full batteries of guns.
Horse gun's were designed for mobility & were more likely to be used to (closely) support attacks.

As a note on battalion guns. All nations got rid of them after they realized that the best way to use artillery was on mass (a lesson hammered home by Napoleon).
However Napoleon re-introduced them in 1812 to try to boost his troops, (he had cannon coming out of his ears after defeating the rest of Europe) but these were all abandoned in the campaign.

[the lightning legion]

did he ever pocket some of the Russian HowitzerCannonMortar hybrids?