Best gunpowder artillary for field battles

[homefry]

What is the best gunpowder artillary unit to use on a field battle?

The cannon appears to be capable of firing over your own troops, so that gets my vote.

Also, if you think any non-gunpowder artillary is better (ie trebuchet or mangonal), then by all means vote for that unit.

[Old_Scratch]

It depends on the terrain, but all things being equal, the serpentine is the best field artillery. It has super long range, it's super accurate, and it's not too expensive. It will demolish an army very quickly from long range.

If the terrain is rough and very hilly though you'll want something with a more arcing shot. Mortars are good for this since they don't need to be aimed at any angle and can fire from anywhere. Sometimes you can put them behind a hill where the enemy artillery cant hit them but you can fire at them. That being said, mortars are going to do less damage than your average cannon.

Don't use explosive or flaming shot with gunpowder art for any reason.

For non-gunpowder art, all are useful in certain circumstances. Trebuchets can hurl flaming shot pretty far and over hills, but is very inaccurate. The fling cows is also useful to do just before the enemy charges you.

Catapults are the most straight up powerful non-gp since they are far more accurate than trebs, although shorter range. Ballistas aren't very good for most purposes. They are slow and short range, but they are also very accurate. If you can protect them to get close enough to the enemy art, they can quickly destroy it with a few shots.

[Reconquistador]

Don't use explosive or flaming shot with gunpowder art for any reason.

Why is this the case? Wasn't explosive shot supposed to be anti-personnel?

[Old_Scratch]

Why is this the case? Wasn't explosive shot supposed to be anti-personnel?

Explosive shot has no redeeming qualities. It is far less accurate than regular shot, it doesn't skip across the ground like round shot, and even when on the rare occasion that it hits half the guys get back up again. It is to be avoided in vanilla. In the kingdoms Americas it was actually useful though, but don't bother in vanilla.

[KayRim]

I agree that explosive shot isn't very good, but the flaming shot of bombards and grand bombards yield an obscene amount of casualties per hit. It may not be as accurate as a normal shot, but you will get results if you use it with three or more units. In all honesty, bringing only one or two pieces of artillery (unless its for destroying walls) is a waste of space, money, and movement points.

[hitokiri2486]

Serpentines and catapaults with flaming shot are the way to go! Ballistas with fire arrows can be effective too if the enemy is bunched up in a tight space (like city streets or courtyards).

Trebuchets I save for sieges, they're pretty much useless in a land battle unless you're at a bridge and the enemy refuses to cross. Then at that point, it's a patience game rather than an accuracy gamble

[Leeham991]

The only anti personnel artillery I use is on it's way to a wall, so it's usually the biggest wall breaker I can get my hands on.

The best weapons I've seen used in the anti-personnel role are the Culverins. The Basilisk, while bigger, seems to miss 40% of the time, while with a single set of Culverin I've seen 200+ enemy taken down before getting into bow range. I also liked the regular old fashion bombards because they have a very low angle and are more prone for the ball to hurtle through the whole enemy army, leaving a large corridor of flying dead guys.
I'm not too worried about defense as my artillery is always deployed inside a formating with just the muzzle showing between men of the 1st line, but I did once win a battle entirely by the trebuchet firing over a large wall of spearmen into the enemy while being untouchable to the enemy.

[SturmChurro]

Serpentine is great in a clear open battle, but has bad seige attack. I like to use mangonels, but it is not gunpowder.

[Conqistador]

the Basilisks are a good gunpowder artillery, both for open field and sieges?

[kdab]

the Basilisks are a good gunpowder artillery, both for open field and sieges?

It's only really good for destroying walls while Serpentines are only really good in the open fields. What you want are Culverins which are decent in both open fields and sieges. Canons are probably next to Culverins, in terms of being good in both open field and sieges, but they have shorter range.

[Goofy]

Definitely Serpentine when the range is more than 350 m. Basilisk, Culverin and all cannons which have explosing missiles when the range is less than 350 m. Aim in the middle of a big army and they'll hit some units randomly but effectively.
Ribault or Monster Ribault combined with solid spearmen and archers or/and crossbowmen are very effective as well when the range is less than 100 m.
Catapults, Trebuchets and Ballistas are the best ones but the title says "gunpowder artillery" so I don't tell more about them.
Cannon is effective at the range of ~200 m.
Grand Bombard is quite effective when the range is less than 160 m.
Bombard is usually useless because its shots are too short. Avoid using it if possible except in bridge battles where they can be very effective when placed on the side of the bridge.
Mortar is very good at shooting archers. However, it's not accurate against moving troops when they're very close or very far, so use it against standing troops only.

Use gunpowder artillery on the flank if you have reliable (spear)men infantry to guard it. Otherwise place them on the side of your army and behind your battle line.