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Thread: Artillery difficulties

  1. #1

    Default Artillery difficulties

    Great Mod - love the period.

    Note - bear in mind I got Ollie Cromwell killed on Turn Two. History has perhaps taken a bit of a swerve :-)

    Everything about the game seems good except the artillery.

    The slackers seem to stop shooting at designated targets all the time. V irritating. It may be the issues with artillery that have dogged the TW series.

    Basically in a recent game I was the defender, and deployed on top of a hill, with a"grand battery" of 1 saker, 2 demi's, and a mortar, in the centre of my position, protected by troops, with what I thought was an excellent field of fire. I even brought the camera down to gun level to check it could see the targets as they advanced. The guns would keep on stopping firing. I found one of them was hitting the ground in front of it so I moved it forward.

    The battle was hectic, so I couldn't keep micromanaging them, so I put them on "fire-at-will". They kept firing, with no effect, in a target-rich environment of blocks of enemy troops. After the battle one of the guns had sustained 6 casualties and inflicted 1! Only the mortar had done well, then it got caught by cavalry (I wasn't quite quick enough in moving the supporting pikes forward).

    I don't feel that the trajectory of roundshot is modelled correctly, so you can't seem to hit targets properly.

    I think the guns were firing at the enemy arty miles away, because I could see no hits on the mass of troops nearby. The Duke of Wellington, in a later period, forbade counter-battery fire because it was a waste of ammo. I tend to take his advice.

    Anyway, is there any advice for me, or do I just have to put up with this? The game mechanism doesn't work for me and I do get exasperated when there's a target-rich environment right in front of my guns and they are picking their noses or something...The Iron Duke would prescribe a flogging but I have found it ineffective against pixel-based troops :-).

  2. #2
    gaunty14's Avatar Vicarius
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    Default Re: Artillery difficulties

    Hmmm...I haven't personally experienced this issue when playing as cannons tend to do alright.

    Have you tried testing it a bit more? E.g. custom game on grassy plain to see if the cannons actually work or instead just a spot of bad luck.

    "will help build battle station for food" - or rep

  3. #3

    Default Re: Artillery difficulties

    Thanks for your reply.

    I feel I have to disagree.

    The "direct fire" artillery seems to be horribly ineffective. It stops firing all the time. (I don't do tests - a) because I am lazy b) because period generals didn't have the scientific ability to test weaponry so I go on battlefield effectiveness).

    I have just had a Saker that scored 0 casualties, in a hard-fought battle and a Mortar that scored 95. Both were next to each other. With line of sight onto the enemy.

    I am not that bothered - I'm just moving my artillery to mortars, even if it's not historically accurate.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Artillery difficulties

    One other thing I noticed, if you have cavalry pursing routers, they shoot as they are whirling round, running them down, so manage some friendly fire. I'd prefer them just to use their swords.

    My use of mortars has been vindicated: A large Royalist army attacked my Bristolians, on some mud-flats near the River Severn. I drew my 755 on a slight rise at the rear of the deployment area, facing 1300 men. I did wonder whether to refuse battle, but I am a hot-head. Only having my General's unit as cavalry, with 2 pike, 2 mortars, 1 saker and the rest musketeers, I was facing a real challenge.

    Although the AI attacked piecemeal, the use of concentrated arty backed up by muskets won a Heroic victory. Basically I concentrated all my artillery on one target, and blasted away till it routed, then chased it down with the Cav, rinse and repeat. The arty caused about 150 casualties, with the Saker doing some notable execution, admittedly firing at close range into masses of enemy troops. However it suffered over 50% casualties, while the mortars, behind the front line, suffered none.

    At the end of the game I did notice that the AI had two guns, deployed in the distance, and went after them. I hadn't actually felt any effects of their fire, so they weren't doing any major harm. I don't think long-range arty is effective. Clearly accuracy improves when you have a large target, relatively close. I could see some of my mortar rounds miss the target unit (at the back of the mob - so even if they fall short they will hit something) but still kill men nearby.

    Their morale seemed to plummet after the artillery hits, and they went to shaken and it only took some more musketry or a cavalry charge to break them.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Artillery difficulties

    I was micromanaging my artillery and musketeers, trying to maximise damage to whatever seemed the most priority target. The downside of that is you forget to turn on "fire at will" after an enemy rout, and your soldiers are standing around doing nothing.

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