Artillery???

[batou]

I read something in a post that suggests artillery is better for defense. Is there any truth to this? Do they not get to fire at range 2 when attacking???

-jim

[Mr.Frag]

It gets all the Ops Fire effects, it also looks to get to shoot twice due to the range of 2 in land combat.

[Joel Billings]

They get to fire at range 2 in both attack and defense. Artillery has a special feature that makes it good at defense (op fire at invasions and enemy ships bombarding). Of course it is the priority target for ships and planes. So be sure to have defense against air strikes. Artillery is good in both attack and defense, especially if you have air superiority. Due to it's poor defense, it does tend to get hit easily if an enemy unit can target it.

[batou]

Would upping its air attack through reseach be good if you were going arty heavy???

[Joel Billings]

You could try it if you have a lot more production power than population. Otherwise I think it would be much cheaper to just build flak and/or fighters. It's very expensive to increase the AA of ground units (other than flak) to levels where you can count on them having a decent chance to hit enemy aircraft.

[batou]

Makes sense with the penalty to researching above the world standard. Thanks for the replies.

-jim

[celebrindal]

In my last game as WA I was attacking into Austria which had 2 arty pieces by themselves sitting in the area. I figured my 10+ inf and 10+ tanks should cake walk em. The germans of course had cranked their arty way up, but even so the combat predictor indicated something crazy like 10 losses for me to 1.5 for the computer.. was nuts.

[carnifex]

I think was was meant by the "artillery is good for defense" statement is that because artillery fires before other ground units, a region defended by many art pieces will whittle down the attacking forces before they get a chance to bring all their firepower to bear.

[Pocus]

just a thing, I would have though that arties would be screened by other units, except if the enemy has more ground units (and arties would still be able to counter-fire too).

[batou]

ORIGINAL: carnifex

I think was was meant by the "artillery is good for defense" statement is that because artillery fires before other ground units, a region defended by many art pieces will whittle down the attacking forces before they get a chance to bring all their firepower to bear.

k was was meant by the "artillery is good for defense" statement is that because artillery fires before other ground units, a region defended by many art pieces will whittle down the attacking forces before they get a chance to bring all their firepower to bear.

But the above is true for artillery used on the offensive too, right??

[Joel Billings]

Yes it is true for attack and defense. Units will try to fire at units that are of their own type until all those units have someone firing at them. Then they are free to shoot at any other type. So arty will always fire at arty until each enemy arty is being shot at once. Arty is not totally protected in that once all like units have been fired at, arty is just as likely to be fired at as any other unit type. So 4 infantry attacking 1 infantry, 3 militia and 1 arty will result in 1 of the 4 infantry firing at the defending infantry, and then the other 3 infantry randomly picking from between the 3 militia and 1 arty. Each defending unit will be fired at by at least one unit before they begin to doubling up. So in this example there is an excellent chance the arty will be targeted. If however you had 4 infantry attacking 4 infantry and 1 artillery, the artillery would not be fired at as the 4 infantry would pair off with the opposing infantry.

All of this is true whether the artillery is on the attacking side or the defending side.

[VI66_slith]

Uh huh! Now I get it!!!!

[Mr.Frag]

Units will try to fire at units that are of their own type until all those units have someone firing at them.

That is a *VERY* important strategy tip!

By bringing along some like units into an attack, it very much sounds like you can control which of your units will be shot at and take the damage.

ie: attacking a location with 4 militia ... as long as I send 4 militia along with a couple of arty/tanks/planes, it sounds like you are saying the militia will always pair up against the militia which will result in the losses coming from my cheap units.

Please confirm this is how it works.

[VI66_slith]

Agreed, that would be of great importance. Please do verify.

Vin

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: Mr.Frag

Units will try to fire at units that are of their own type until all those units have someone firing at them.

That is a *VERY* important strategy tip!

By bringing along some like units into an attack, it very much sounds like you can control which of your units will be shot at and take the damage.

ie: attacking a location with 4 militia ... as long as I send 4 militia along with a couple of arty/tanks/planes, it sounds like you are saying the militia will always pair up against the militia which will result in the losses coming from my cheap units.

Please confirm this is how it works.

Yes, units will try to match up with like units first. The only exception I can think of off hand is that air units and ships will target artillery first when bombarding (of course they can't bomb a like unit in this case, but this violates the general "random" principle of units that don't have something to match up with determining who they shoot at randomly). Yes this can be important for tactics in many ways.

[ratprince]

....Except....(not to be a downer on this strategy) Units will not fire on a "like" unit if it has been fired upon, if there are other unfired upon units.

For example: 2 militia, 1 tank attack 3 milita. The attackers hit all three defenders. The defenders fire - 1st milita fires at attacking militia. 2nd defending milita fires at 2nd (not attacked yet) attacking milita. 3rd defending milita cant fire at one of the "already fired upon" attacking milita because the attacking tank has not been fired upon yet.

This is kind of confusing but the rules specifically state that units (for the most part -barring special units) will try to attack "like" units, IF there are no un-targeted units left. (paraphrasing)

Later;

Prof. Mike

[Pocus]

Joel specified that too:

"Units will try to fire at units that are of their own type until all those units have someone firing at them."

Seems rather logical now that I know the rules. [:D]