Cannon Tactics

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After starting and stopping several grand campaigns, I've finally stuck with one long enough to reach the gunpowder event. Now I'm spitting out cannons like they're going out of style. I'll usually bring four to eight different types of artillery with me on a siege to see them turn walls into swiss cheese and soldiers into strawberry jam, mainly taking the walls out from underneath anyone on top so my men have a clean, non-arrow-filled hike up to the gate.

As for real battles, I deploy cannons on my inside flanks with cavalry on the outside, and use them to smash the flanks of the incoming army, pushing units toward the center and chopping them up with longbows and spears.

But even so, I suck at artillery strategy. Does anyone here have any good tactics that have worked for them that they would be willing to share, in both siege battles and ground battles?

And then just a game mechanics question. I haven't noticed yet, but do the cannon balls break apart or explode on impact, or do they bounce and go tear-assing through the enemy ranks like actual cannonballs did? And before it's said, I'm talking about with explosive/fire ammo ability off.

Thanks everyone!

[MrMofo]

as far as i know, most artillery have only teh bouncy nuggets of death. But basilisks have the option for explody goodness.

[jman47]

1- use serphentines in your land battles against troops, thats what they are specifically made for.

2- yes they bounce and cause more carnage afterwards.

3- all cannons cause a huge amount of fear in enemy troops since it is after all, a new and powerful weapon.

hope that helps

[RollingWave]

for the British, the best artillery option is probably the Mortar for it's reliability and versitilty. it's not flashy though, and unlike the fire ballers you have a hard time telling if you actually killed something from far away. personally I find bombards and culverins only good for taking down walls. their actual battle field application is realistically worse than catapults.

I don't think there' a LOT of strategy to be had here. basically just find a good position and shoot them to death and/or force them to attack you in a bad position. in the event of arty to arty fights numbers win.

[Bosko]

point cannon at men and fire!

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point cannon at men and fire!

He he, you sound like a Gunny Sergent I once knew. He was senior enlisted of a howitzer regiment I worked with.

Semper Fi!

[RollingWave]

if you want a actual strat though, i'd usually combine cannons with catapults / ballistas / ribault types like this.


I'd keep the cannons in their only line with nothing infront of them an fire away. then keep a line on their flanks consisting of archers / ballistas / ribaults up front and catapults / trebs behind (depending on what you have of course. with my infantries behind them. and the cavs on the either flanks depending again on the situation and what i have to work with.

unless your running mortars out there, standing your man in front of them is asking for trouble. while standing directly behind them is unproductive. so this is sort of the compremised effect. having stakes help but it's not a huge neccesity (keep them on skrimish ) I find that usually if they charge the artilery pieces they get boggled down and lose all momentem, making them a easy target for infantry and/or your cavs. as long as your crew isn't completely annihilated in the charge they don't really lose that much effectiveness. (if your fast you could have them drop the piece and run when the charge comes to further save your crew) this is sort of like a mobile obstical trick to lure the enemy to boggle themself down to some useless peices of artilery. of course the risk here is that you get out caved too much and they overrun your cavs first. then your in trouble.

[Kennylz]

The biggest advantage cannons bring to offensive battles is when you attack and the enemy hold up somewhere and dare you to come to them. Well, with cannons you can just bombard them all day and then once they are utterly decimated then you can go mop them up.

When the army is coming at you, fire away and select the firing to aim for the very middle most part of the army to maximize casualities. Can't really get more simple than that. Cannons are best for seiges, bridge battles, and for attacking. Defending they tend to not get enough shots off before the enemy closes. It is actually worse to be a defender when you bring cannon... You get more time to shoot when the enemy is staying away from you.

[RollingWave]

The biggest advantage cannons bring to offensive battles is when you attack and the enemy hold up somewhere and dare you to come to them. Well, with cannons you can just bombard them all day and then once they are utterly decimated then you can go mop them up.

When the army is coming at you, fire away and select the firing to aim for the very middle most part of the army to maximize casualities. Can't really get more simple than that. Cannons are best for seiges, bridge battles, and for attacking. Defending they tend to not get enough shots off before the enemy closes. It is actually worse to be a defender when you bring cannon... You get more time to shoot when the enemy is staying away from you.

it depends, it is helpful to take out enemy artilleries . other wise your force to stand there and take the hits or move out of position. and like I said, cannon types are actually a good way to draw enemy horsemens to charge you and get stuck there. as long as some crew survive they can keep firing away. unlike archers they're firing effectiveness isn't massively influenced by how many are left.

[homefry]

The good thing about these cannons is that they don't need a lot of space to function. Just line them in your front line and have just the tips of the cannons out in the front.

You can also have them run behind your line without the cannons. Just hit alt+attack on the enemy and then quikly double click to the position you want them to run to.

[mikeon]

I always park my army in the field out on top of hills on the campaign map. That way if I'm ever attacked I know there will be a hill somewhere that I can hole up in and place my cannons near the crest of the hill then position my men down below it. I usually bring trebs with me as the cow is always helpful. Litter the ground before your spearmen with it, but not actually hit your spearmen so that when the enemy marches through, you get cannon fire and deposing cow messing with their morale.

Once they hit your defense line they rout as the shock troops/ cavalry move in from the sides. Archers on my right flank are set to fire and archers on left flank are set to normal mode. Right flank archers will hit the shield arm side of the attackers so I figured might as well just toss in some morale hitters while my better archers do the damage.

For settlements, bombard everything you can then mop up.

Multi wall castles I position my cannons in a way so that if a cannon misses the tower or a wall, it'll hit the secondary wall behind it to weaken that section. Saves on cannonballs this way since I was going to attack that next wall anyways.

[LordCrockett]

I usually use cannons and mortars against walls when i siege these will make short work of any size wall in less than a minute.
For anti infantry i go for the ribault or monster ribault , those things chop up infantry like there no tomorrow. I use them whenever i get the chance

[RollingWave]

I personally find Ribaults to be crap, I still build them for fun but their real application might actually be worse than ballistas.

they simply have too low of a range. anything else will take them out. even archers with fire is a serious threat to them. not to meantion with a range this short they might be overrun by cavs before they even get a shot off.

[LordCrockett]

OH SNAP he came at my neck with that comment lol jkn jkn
It all depends where you set them up, i usually set them up in a space i make in my infantry line and fire on the enemy when they get close . I never let them get to the crew but i don't know you are using them.
but i guess it whatever floats your boat right mate - or in this case kill some infantry ! !

[Killahspunge]

Mortars are effective in seige battles as you can fire over the walls at the infantry inside. i know im stating the obvious, but you might forget that

[RollingWave]

mortar might be the best all around artillery in the game, capable in any and every situation. (can take down walls / towers if needed, doesn't need a clear shot to fire. they're not the best in any situation, but unlike the other artilieries they're not worthless in any situation either.

[fritsje5]

This is from a field battle perspective:

When still deploying your army, place some cannons near the line facing your own troops. Now place your main bulk of army further to the rear so there is enough room between your main force and the cannons. Now start battle and immediatly have your gunning crew drop their siege equipment and run towards your main army with cavalry support. Now let the enemy approach until they meet ur troops and now send ur gun-crew immediately back to their guns with some cavalry support. Now you have your enemy trapped between your main force and the fury of your cannons

This could prove useful especially in long battles cuz you will be able to have continuing fire without endangering your own troops(mind the fact they could could shoot over the enemy and butcher your own troops reduce this risk by using high-accuracy cannons: serpentines for instance)

Also watch out for routing/regrouping units, so have them finish them off with some cavalry, also might be a good idea to send some spearmen along in the event of some heavy cavalry that decides do end ur business

I hope it was useful and also be creative!