On Artillery

Artillery in MP has not been showered with a lot of love... IIUC, it has been banned since as long as RTW.
I have been arguing that it should be allowed ever since ETW, for the additional tactical depth I felt it provided...
sadly, the many people abusing it by spamming and/or camping don't much help my point, man (ouch).

To me, artillery is a tool; it has its uses, but if you don't use it correctly, you may find yourself with your hand nailed against the wall.
Here's my guide to what artillery can and can't do, and how to handle it both behind and in front of its business end.

I started writing this as a response to Point_Man's thread, but then it got longer and longer, so I thought it deserved one of its own.

Advantages

High Range
If you're the one using artillery:
this means you can use them from a safe distance against a fortified position, or to snipe out enemy units, especially cavalry.

If you're up against artillery:
Standing still against artillery is deadly, keep moving.

High Damage at Short Range (cannister shot)
If you're the one using artillery:
They can be used to support your main line fight, or to frighten an enemy away from a position.

If you're up against artillery:
Try to avoid artillery positions unless you can overwhelm them in a short time, don't stand near them for too long

High Morale Hit for Target
If you're the one using artillery:
You can use them against units already low on morale to push them over the edge.

If you're up against artillery:
Try to use your most stable units and/or use inspiring units to fight them.

Disadvantages

Friendly Fire
If you're the one using artillery:
Well, duh! Don't put your men in front of your cannons.

If you're up against artillery:
Maneuvre around so you're putting his troops between yours and his cannon.

Low Damage Output at Long Range
(this is the reason why people get annoyed at "campers pretending firing artillery is an attack": it takes very long to inflict a lot of casualties from a distance.)
If you're the one using artillery:
don't use long range artillery as your main killer, except to punish your opponent for being a huge camper.
Target cavalry, they are easier to hit and take more damage from roundshot.
You can give your advance some cover fire, but when you've run out of reasonable targets, limber up again and move in.

If you're up against artillery:
Again: keep your distance, until you have the opportunity to strike fast and hard.

Weak in Melee
If you're the one using artillery:
Keep them guarded, preferably with anything that can form a square.
(Don't overdo it, or you will weaken your main force; I usually keep 1 elite unit together with 2 artillery in the back).
You can use this to your advantage to set up a trap for your opponent, using your artillery as bait.
This is especially effective because players tend to get nervous with cannonballs flying at their men.

If you're fighting on a map with terrain, prefer positions with terrain features to their side or back so there's one less side you have to guard.
Be aware that they might get stuck while (un)limbering if they're too close though, so do keep some distance to the front and the back.

If you're up against artillery:
Try to kill artillery with cavalry; the faster you're going into melee, the less shots he got off.
Don't concentrate too much on killing that cannon if it's still far away, it looks more dangerous than it probably is (except you've fielded lots of cav).

Slow Movement (except horse artillery)
If you're the one using artillery:
To me, this really doesn't matter as much; I hardly ever run my infantry anyway, so they don't get ahead too far.
However, this is a reason why you may forget artillery, because once it has reached its intended firing position, the main fight has broken out and you're too busy to take care of the artillery.
Anyway, it shouldn't be too hard to move your lines to the sides a bit once the cannons have arrived.

If you're up against artillery:
If your opponent is sloppy enough to run his infantry away from his artillery, it gets easier to get horses there to fight them.
However, because in this case they're usually far from the main fight, don't let them concern you too much unless he's shooting your cav to bits.

Long Limber/unlimber Time
This is what takes so much micro with artillery. Once you hit the limber/unlimber button, it takes quite some time until you can actually command them
(at least move, you might be able to choose a target while unlimbering, not sure)
If you're the one using artillery:
Because this makes artillery even less mobile, choose your firing position well.
The less you have to change it, the more shots you get out of those guns.

Often enough, the fight moves away again from your guns' cannister range; you may still keep them unlimbered and switch to roundshot.
This way, they serve as a good point to withdraw to if you're getting a beating.

If you're up against artillery:
Take notice about when the enemy limbers/unlimbers his artillery.
In this time, they are neither firing nor moving, and chances are, he's going to forget to order them for some time after they're finished.

Autoaim Targets Unit's Flank
This also has been subject to lots of discussion.
If you're the one using artillery:
Yes, you will do more damage if you target the ground in front or behind the target.
The problem with this is that if the enemy moves (which he will if he follows these tips), you'll have to readjust all the time.
So, unless he's completely immobile, I say: save your micro for the more important units.
Try to target a central unit so that if your shot misses, it will have another unit to hit.

If you're up against artillery:
Again, keep moving. If you're lucky, he did target the ground.
Also, don't present your flank to artillery.

General Notes

My target order (long range)
1. cavalry
2. artillery
3. elites
4. line
5. lights
Cannons are much better against other artillery now than they were in ETW. Howitzers still suck, don't target artillery with them.
If you've run out of elites to target, you may as well switch to automatic targeting to let the AI choose the nearest unit.
The fastest way to do that is <backspace> (clear orders), then <t> (because clear orders also disables fire at will).

Terrain
Artillery is quite dependent on terrain, so the map plays a big role.
On Homestead with its low hills, an additional howitzer is usually more useful than a cannon;
on Austrian Pinnacles, funny enough, I find cannons to be more effective than expected: one often gets to use cannister with the many chokepoints, and the flanks are easily protected.

I've said before that artillery isn't of much use on Grassy Flatlands, but never could put my finger on why, but now that I wrote this, I'm getting a clearer picture.
There are no buildings on GF, so one of the special uses is gone; establishing a defensive position with cannister use is hard, because the enemy can easily maneuvre around it.
Also, there is nothing to protect the artillery from that cavalry rush.

Targetting Generals
I myself don't target the enemy general with cannons, but that's up to you...
as bushranger pointed out in the comments though: if you do want to target him, you may want to wait until you've worn down the enemy army a bit;
this way, you may be able to time the additional morale hit of the recently deceased general to cause a chain rout.

Howitzers
The above is generally valid for all types of artillery, but I mostly had cannons in mind while I wrote it because I thought they were harder to use and therefore needed more advice.
To me, howitzers have a slightly different role; while cannons provide defensive and suppressive fire, I use howitzers more to support my attacks.
What is usually done in an assault is that you seek a defender's weak spot and assemble a stronger local force to overcome it.
Now, for line infantry, that'll take some time to maneuver them there; cavalry are better for this because they can be repositioned more quickly.
If you have a well placed howitzer however, you can have it intervene in that fight with only a click of a button...
Not only does this not take any time, but it's also not visible to your opponent at first, so he has a harder time predicting where you will attack.

Use Wisely
As you can see, artillery has a lot of disadvantages. It definitely is a long term investment, the longer the battle, the more its use.
You should use it for support and its special uses (sniping cav, destroying houses, defend with cannister), not rely on it as your main killer.
More than four is certainly too many, I usually take two (one cannon, one howitzer).
In fact, artillery is the first unit type I'm willing to give up or sacrifice; I often find the enemy rushing in and losing two cav for my one cannon unit.

I hope I gave you some insight as to why I consider artillery an enrichment of the tactical arsenal...
and maybe even make one or two of you drop that no art rules

EDIT:
I added a replay from a battle on Grassy Flatlands.
It's a against a total noob so don't expect too much from the battle itself, but a lot of the things I mentioned can be found there,
like the formation I use to initially guard, targeting cav with art, cav rushing against art, supporting with cannister shot, changing back to autotarget (not so obvious )...

I love you Daniu

That's one HELL of an informative "article" daniu! Well done!

Well done man,this was an awesome article for me to read

One thing though: on the priority list, you forgot to list the general unit. I would put it at second place,but that's just me.

Originally Posted by AqwertyBqwerty

One thing though: on the priority list, you forgot to list the general unit. I would put it at second place,but that's just me.

Ah yeah, forgot to mention it, that's a quirk of mine: I used to target the enemy general first, but now I never target him at all anymore.
A very worthwhile target, and far too easy to hit; I wouldn't go so far as to call it cheap, but I do feel better about myself not doing it.

If you've watched this battle of mine, I mention about 5 minutes in that the British only take the enemy general under fire because theirs was being shot at; that's what really happened

Very nice post. +rep for that

I find it annoying that most games these days ban artillery altogether. I usually host games with a limit of 2 artillery. Players who are just camping with a bunch of rockets and howitzers and what not are just annoying and probably the cause why most users ban artillery altogether.

On grassy flatland I usually take 1 horse artillery with me, just for getting a few shots off at enemy cavalry.
Since I mostly play as Prussia my cavalry won't stand a chance against French cavalry for example. And getting a few kills with it might just tip the scales in favor of me.

Originally Posted by daniu

A very worthwhile target, and far too easy to hit; I wouldn't go so far as to call it cheap, but I do feel better about myself not doing it.

Oh Valkierie LOVES to shoot for the generals, he manual targets so its annoyingly accurate!

i sometimes target the unit directly in front of the general unit.i find im nearly as likely to kill the general via a stray shot than by targeting him, but i also get kills on the unit in front

Thread stuck. +rep

Very much appreciated. And I agree, artillery should be allowed in all games.

The only rule in most of my games is no arty. This is because nobody uses it how you said. They stay in 1 spot for almost the entire game. It starts with a 30 minute arty battle to see who can kill the others arty first, so that they can camp unopposed. Once thats done, they all target your general to be cheap like that. Or they use overpowered howitzer to blow everything up. Or they spam arty and blow everything up anyway. If it was used how you said, it would enrich the game. But its not, and it takes the fun out of it. Generally. But great info none the less!

Originally Posted by Ares1214

It starts with a 30 minute arty battle to see who can kill the others arty first, so that they can camp unopposed. Once thats done, they all target your general to be cheap like that. Or they use overpowered howitzer to blow everything up. Or they spam arty and blow everything up anyway.

Well, if you engage in a 30 minutes artillery duel without doing anything else yourself, it's your own fault.
If you use the rest of your army to attack in the meantime, this will essentially result in no artillery battle because the artillery are busy firing at each other.
If you have less artillery, it's even better for you because your few artillery units draw his many units' fire, keeping your other units out of harm's way.
Howitzers are not overpowered, they're just a bit easier to use, and they have more bombastic explosions which makes them seem stronger.
Arty spam is a weak strategy as it's vulnerable to a strong push... but I agree it gets annoying that there are so many people doing it.

If you only want to avoid the art spam, I recommend you try playing some Quick Battles, in which both opponents will have a random setup with 2 artillery of varying type.

While mass light infantry spamming is not? Same thing mass kiting and damage. There is also the mass elite DLC units that never break.

its not worth gunning for the general.might get lucky anyway.much better to kill another unit or better yet, cav.valkierei plays pretty well with horse art from what i remember.but manual targeting? o.O is that actually more accurate?

I have been in many games where the other guy goes for my gen,i dont think its cheap at all,just put him in a back corner till late game when there is to much micro involved to start targeting him or behind terrain.if i see a good chance to take out a gen early i will often not target him for the simple fact it's alot better to kill him mid to late game when moral is already low because of casualties and if the opponent is dumb enough to present there gen as a easy target early game you can bet you can take him out anytime you want.Here is a good example,the sound is crapy but watch to the end game,i could have taken this guys gen out at anytime but chose to wait for the end game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1XA3gGe2no.

I played another game one day where my opponent spammed British line against my Austrian balanced build,now my cannon were going to get very busy very fast with cannister shot as he rushed like 16 or 17 line up,along with his mass of line he had his gen 3 horse deep in the middle of his formation so i choose to take his gen out early as i might not get another chance.I eventually won the battle but he started to call me a noob for killing his gen and asked for revenge,so i agreed to another game and he came with a french build with a 12lbr a howie and a guard cannon,it was pretty mauch designed to take my gen out early.
He camped at the back of the map behind stakes and started to blast away,I had a swedish build with 2 horse arty but left them with my gen at the back of the map .I rushed my line up to engage and took his gen out again by putting a cav unit in diamond,smashing through his line then charging his gen,if that didnt feel good enough it was a close game my 2 horse arty won me the early game getting twice as many kills as his much more valuable arty and to top it off my gen won the game for me by squaring up his last few line so my last few line could get in close.It was by far the most satisfying game i have ever had.

Sorry for the long post but sniping gen's is not cheap,it's hard enough to get value out of your cannon so dont make them worse for your self it's a legit tactic.

Originally Posted by bushranger

if i see a good chance to take out a gen early i will often not target him for the simple fact it's alot better to kill him mid to late game when moral is already low because of casualties

That's actually a good point, I'll add that to the original post.

hmmm thats not long at all - mine are much longer

omg i also love your vids - classic - its great to hear another aussie voice - hmmm yep trust an australian to say whats on there mind - many classic quotes - but i love the - normal the ---------- clan are good guys but this guy is an :wub: - that my friend is gold.

Great Guide! +REP

Im pretty new to NTW MP, and tbh i suck at it! When hosting i always use No Fixed as the only rule, i think any combination within that rule can be countered pretty good, whether its light/cav spam, arty spam or whatever! Putting it into practice isnt as simple mind!

Anyways, if any of you more experienced guys are looking for a decent, honest player who doesnt spam, hack or rage quit and is eager to learn some things, then add me on steam - ConfusedJohnny

Again, great great guide!

Updated OP to include a paragraph on howitzers:

Howitzers
The above is generally valid for all types of artillery, but I mostly had cannons in mind while I wrote it because I thought they were harder to use and therefore needed more advice.
To me, howitzers have a slightly different role; while cannons provide defensive and suppressive fire, I use howitzers more to support my attacks.
What is usually done in an assault is that you seek a defender's weak spot and assemble a stronger local force to overcome it.
Now, for line infantry, that'll take some time to maneuver them there; cavalry are better for this because they can be repositioned more quickly.
If you have a well placed howitzer however, you can have it intervene in that fight with only a click of a button...
Not only does this not take any time, but it's also not visible to your opponent at first, so he has a harder time predicting where you will attack.

Hi daniu,

good guide. one thing i would add is the positioning of artillery.

Of course we want to use hills or elevated ground but this actually makes you cannons more vulnerable to enemy fire as i can hit a cannon on a hillside easier from below and out of range.

the trick is to place your cannons on the reverse slope with their barrels barely sticking out of the highest point. this way your salvoes will fly to the target but you get considerable protection from the ground cover in front. This is a genuine historic artillery strategy from the period and it works exceedingly well in-game. Essential to win artillery duels quicky. I mostly use 2-3 8 or 12 pounders as a grand battery and one horse art unit to provide flanking fire once i have artillery superiority or as an extra punch for my lines in attack