Artillery effectiveness

I know a lot of people talk about how mortars are OP and so forth, but to me it seems that, for the most part, artillery is greatly underpowered. I've been pretty much exclusivly playing Imperial Splendour, so there may be some influence from that, but to me it seems that most artillery projectiles have an interesting habit of landing exactly where there aren't any troops. If fired into a checkerboard pattern of soldiers, for example, those explosive howitzer shells will, inevitably, land in the blank space between the units.

I'm curious to know if artillery will be more effective in Napoleon, certainly this was, if anything, the age of artillery. Napoleon himself started his career in the artillery and it showed throughout his campaigns that he was an artilleryman at heart. As I understand it, the majority of casualties were inflicted by artillery in this era.

As they're portrayed in ETW, artillery, especially cannons, aren't much use. While it's true that IS' modifications, especially to grapeshot, have made them a bit more formidable, the fact is that a cannon firing roundshot is only going to score ten kills at most in the course of a battle (assuming the enemy doesn't line his troops up in a giant, solid, rectangle), that is, if the enemy never comes within grapeshot range. Cavalry seems a bit more vulnerable, though, since cannonballs bounce along above infantry height it seems, but nick the heads of horseboys.

It doesn't seem like it would be too hard to rig cannonballs to bounce lower and more frequently. Roundshot shouldn't be the be all and end all of battle, but if my battery of cannons fires into a solid line of infantry I expect at least ONE of those cannonballs to hit something. Overall I would think that a cannon firing roundshot throughout the course of a battle would rack up as many kills as your average infantry unit engaged for the duration of the fight.

Originally Posted by Swerg

I know a lot of people talk about how mortars are OP and so forth, but to me it seems that, for the most part, artillery is greatly underpowered. I've been pretty much exclusivly playing Imperial Splendour, so there may be some influence from that, but to me it seems that most artillery projectiles have an interesting habit of landing exactly where there aren't any troops. If fired into a checkerboard pattern of soldiers, for example, those explosive howitzer shells will, inevitably, land in the blank space between the units.

I'm curious to know if artillery will be more effective in Napoleon, certainly this was, if anything, the age of artillery. Napoleon himself started his career in the artillery and it showed throughout his campaigns that he was an artilleryman at heart. As I understand it, the majority of casualties were inflicted by artillery in this era.

As they're portrayed in ETW, artillery, especially cannons, aren't much use. While it's true that IS' modifications, especially to grapeshot, have made them a bit more formidable, the fact is that a cannon firing roundshot is only going to score ten kills at most in the course of a battle (assuming the enemy doesn't line his troops up in a giant, solid, rectangle), that is, if the enemy never comes within grapeshot range. Cavalry seems a bit more vulnerable, though, since cannonballs bounce along above infantry height it seems, but nick the heads of horseboys.

It doesn't seem like it would be too hard to rig cannonballs to bounce lower and more frequently. Roundshot shouldn't be the be all and end all of battle, but if my battery of cannons fires into a solid line of infantry I expect at least ONE of those cannonballs to hit something. Overall I would think that a cannon firing roundshot throughout the course of a battle would rack up as many kills as your average infantry unit engaged for the duration of the fight.

Let's not also forget the ridiculously short range that ETW gave to artillery, which also hampered their effectiveness.

Artillery is made more accurate in the game i believe, in real live you would have more casualties because armies were much bigger, so more chance of hitting something.

Also you have to take note of the descructable terrain. The cannon balls, from what I've seen, hit the ground and make a very large 5ft accros crater. So how ever many ine troops can fit in a 5ft area will probably be blown up and... well dead. If you look closely at the videos you can see a large amount of dead troops near these craters made by cannon balls.

Also if you look at N: TW's latest video and you will noice the effects of cannon balls... really really amazing .

Hope this helps! .

Originally Posted by XxGREAT-BRITAINx

Also you have to take note of the descructable terrain. The cannon balls, from what I've seen, hit the ground and make a very large 5ft accros crater. So how ever many ine troops can fit in a 5ft area will probably be blown up and... well dead. If you look closely at the videos you can see a large amount of dead troops near these craters made by cannon balls.

Also if you look at N: TW's latest video and you will noice the effects of cannon balls... really really amazing .

Hope this helps! .

Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing your men going, KA BANG, then fly backwards and DIE in a crater! WOOOOOOOOOOO

And yes, rotting cow carcasses!

Originally Posted by XxGREAT-BRITAINx

Also you have to take note of the descructable terrain. The cannon balls, from what I've seen, hit the ground and make a very large 5ft accros crater. So how ever many ine troops can fit in a 5ft area will probably be blown up and... well dead. If you look closely at the videos you can see a large amount of dead troops near these craters made by cannon balls.

Also if you look at N: TW's latest video and you will noice the effects of cannon balls... really really amazing .

Hope this helps! .

5ft is a bit much perhaps...

Would love to see them fix artillery in NTW because they were hugely disappointing in ETW. Regular roundshot tends to only kill the poor bastard standing where the ball lands but at least grapeshot was a proven killer. The 'innovation' rounds were even worse, very often they barely killed anything at all. I would be raining quicklime on soldiers standing perfectly still and none of them would be falling over.

I would love to see stink bombs.

Lets bring back rotting cow ammo.

Originally Posted by Graphic

Lets bring back rotting cow ammo.

I'm all in for that! But I think that if we put cows into cannons they come out in very many and very tiny bits.

Originally Posted by S-te-Fan

I'm all in for that! But I think that if we put cows into cannons they come out in very many and very tiny bits.

So its like grapeshot except with cow bits - even better.

Originally Posted by Graphic

So its like grapeshot except with cow bits - even better.

Hamburger cannon plus promised flamethrower= BBQ Total War!!!

who's with me men, lets trade insuts across the field with our enemy while we munch?

Hopefully the cannonballs skip more as well, artillery was usefull in ETW mainly for sniping enemy cavalry and generals though.

from what previewers have said, artillery is a bit op

and mortars are completely up

i think the effectiveness of artillery is only slightly down in ETW

Originally Posted by TheAussieDigger

from what previewers have said, artillery is a bit op

and mortars are completely up

i think the effectiveness of artillery is only slightly down in ETW

From the previews, I would say that it looks like artillery is way to powerful in NTW.

Originally Posted by Daneboy

From the previews, I would say that it looks like artillery is way to powerful in NTW.

This could well be intentional to simulate how artillery was much more important in the Napoleonic Era than in the Empire timeframe and the use of massed atillery was like no one had previously seen yet.

Artillery had become more accurate though than in early and mid Empire period, especially the French Gribeauval pieces, the space between the round and the gun tube was very small in the Gribeauval pieces, tighter than in any other European guns with the possible exception of British guns, the rounds were made of very high standard each that had to pass through a tube to be accepted. I dont know how much diffrence there should be compared to E.TW, but clearly guns should be more accurate and have longer effective range. I havent studied the videos though so im not saying their not OP, just stateing that guns were better in the Napoleonic age than in Empire.