Artillery: some things I can't figure out...

**General_olli** · April 08, 2009, 01:42 PM

Hi all, I have two questions regarding artillery that I can't figure out right.

1) How can I make the canons on walls fire at the enemy? I conquered Madrid (with settlement fortifications). Two turns later I got attacked by Spain. I placed my line infantry units on the wall, behind the canons but they won't fire...

2) I noticed that if you're army is attacked, units can place stakes and barricades. I could do that two times (in the beginning of the campaign) but all the other times I got attacked, I wasn't able to set those barricades.

Can someone give me some explanation?

**Thanatos** · April 08, 2009, 01:44 PM

Thread moved to Gameplay and Strategy Discussion.

**BigB** · April 08, 2009, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by General_olli

Hi all, I have two questions regarding artillery that I can't figure out right.

1) How can I make the canons on walls fire at the enemy? I conquered Madrid (with settlement fortifications). Two turns later I got attacked by Spain. I placed my line infantry units on the wall, behind the canons but they won't fire...

2) I noticed that if you're army is attacked, units can place stakes and barricades. I could do that two times (in the beginning of the campaign) but all the other times I got attacked, I wasn't able to set those barricades.

Can someone give me some explanation?

1- It has been my experience that you must put your men as near to the cannons on the wall as possible. However, they wont actually man (use) the cannon until the enemy gets into normal musket range or whatever the normal range of that unit is. When the enemy gets into their normal range you will see them rearrange their formation and some of them stand next to the cannon. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of the cannon. It appears to be a bug to me (one of many). Once you get them to activate they will sometimes shoot at stuff further out in cannon range.

2- I think you get that defensive stuff if your army has been standing in the same position on the campaign map for a few turns.

**General_olli** · April 08, 2009, 01:49 PM

Thanks for the quick answer! ;-)

**TeutonicKnight** · April 08, 2009, 01:55 PM

General_olli, if you notice an army has been standing in place on the map for a turn without moving, you will see a small picket of wooden spikes around their feet. That means the army is "digging in". If you get attacked while those spikes are showing, you get to place field fortifications. You lose the spikes by moving, attacking (including intercepting I am fairly sure), or shuffling troops in or out of your army. However, it only takes one turn of inaction to get the "digging in" benefit. It's useful for when you want to hold a location, but don't want to build a fort there.

**Slaists** · April 08, 2009, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by TeutonicKnight

General_olli, if you notice an army has been standing in place on the map for a turn without moving, you will see a small picket of wooden spikes around their feet. That means the army is "digging in". If you get attacked while those spikes are showing, you get to place field fortifications. You lose the spikes by moving, attacking (including intercepting I am fairly sure), or shuffling troops in or out of your army. However, it only takes one turn of inaction to get the "digging in" benefit. It's useful for when you want to hold a location, but don't want to build a fort there.

Some folks claim that they're able to build fortifications INSIDE their large forts. I have never been able to do that though.

**BigB** · April 08, 2009, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by Slaists

Some folks claim that they're able to build fortifications INSIDE their large forts. I have never been able to do that though.

I was able to do that once. I forgot about it until you mentioned it.

It was in a fort that started with holes in the wall from a previous attack a few turns earlier that I never repaired. This time the enemy army had a lot of cavalry. I was able to block off the two holes in the wall with those wooden stake barriers. The enemy cavalry roamed around a while but eventually suicided into the stakes. The infantry got slaughtered as well since they were slowed down climbing over and around the stakes and my infantry just fired into them.

**Gezoes** · April 08, 2009, 04:18 PM

Yep, in almost the same way too. I added some cannister shot as well

**pandoursbox** · April 09, 2009, 05:29 PM

When your men are on the wall near the cannons you will see them move into firing position. There is a bug that makes them fire at will at musket range, but if you tell them to attack, they will fire at cannon range (or head off the wall and out the gates, gotta be careful). AI defending a fort will fire at cannon range.

We need a firing arc for fort cannons.

**Slaists** · April 16, 2009, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by General_olli

Hi all, I have two questions regarding artillery that I can't figure out right.

1) How can I make the canons on walls fire at the enemy? I conquered Madrid (with settlement fortifications). Two turns later I got attacked by Spain. I placed my line infantry units on the wall, behind the canons but they won't fire...

2) I noticed that if you're army is attacked, units can place stakes and barricades. I could do that two times (in the beginning of the campaign) but all the other times I got attacked, I wasn't able to set those barricades.

Can someone give me some explanation?

Folks have described pretty well how you need to place your wall defenders for better results. I'd just like to add that the wall cannon efficiency goes down drastically as you upgrade your forts. Also, the ability of the units to aim at approaching attackers goes down. So, as it stands now as far as wall defense is considered, the following is true (unfortunately):

1. the wooden fort is the BEST for wall defense; cannons are deadly so is rifle fire from the walls.
2. the gun fort is the second best, but worse than the wood fort; player units seem to start to fire when the enemy is at much closer range than in the case of the wood fort; accuracy is much worse.
3. the star fort is the WORST for wall defense; player's units fire cannons only at point blank range with almost zero efficiency; rifle fire from the high walls almost always misses the enemy. i suspect, the walls are just too high for the current rifle range.

Star forts are alright to defend from inside (using the buildings) if you have sufficient forces to hold off the enemy from the center.

**MyKingforahorse** · April 16, 2009, 03:51 PM

Has to do with trajectory calcs and elevation. You'll notice as well that unit firing from high ground actually miss more often unless their accuracy stats are up there like light infantry, etc..

Same goes for cannons, they actually work better firing from a slight dip in elevation, not higher.