Artillery

[toddtreadway]

I often find myself building infantry without even considering artillery as a significant force component (other than coastal defense). Anyone have any views on what the right proportion of artillery to infantry is, and when you may want more or less? For example, if I'm trying to take territory or hold it, it seems like I want infantry rather than artillery, since that is what is used to determine who wins/loses. But certainly artillery contributes, since it gets two shots.

[Uncle_Joe]

Artillery is a force multiplier and something I tend to mass up for attacks unless the enemy has control of the air. Artillery in the face of enemy air is just a waste.

The amount I employ is completely dependent on what nation I'm playing and how the war goes. As Japan, I use a lot of Arty because the Chinese have no Air. Also, when fighting the higher tech Allied/Russian troops later on, I need those initial shots to weaken the opposing units so my Infantry can hit them without having to squander too much precious research on upping their attack value.

As Russia, I mass Arty as a means of defense. Its really tough attacking into teched up Arty. Arty also saves you from casualties by shooting first. When you transition over the attack, the Arty is useful to wipe enemy resistance with low losses on your side. I tend to make 1 Flak for every 2-3 Arty just to make it less appealing to deploy Air to counter them.

As Germany, I dont tend to use as much Arty. It becomes difficult to keep alive in the West (faced with all of the Air the WAllies have) and in the east, it just doesnt have the mobility of Armor or the staying power of the Infantry. I tend to keep minimal amounts around, but I dont really go for large numbers the way I will with Russia.

[aletoledo]

I love artillery. its amazing what you can do with it when you have enough of them. of course you need your infantry/tank to take land, but its nice to get that range 2 hit in. not only does it make it easier to kill them with a second shot, but it reduces their chance to hit you also.

the only drawback I've found with artillery is that they die so easily. its like they're throwaway piece, good for only one battle. I've tried increasing their evasion, but it takes forever and you can't research everything, so I've given up trying to save them.

what I really love to do it terms of numbers is to match the number of artillery to enemy units. that way there is a good chance they'll each get hit. after that, the number of infantry to move in is nice to have 1 to 1 also. so I suppose in the end, its nice to have 1 to 1 infantry artillery ratio.

however on the defense, when I've gotten infantry up to 8 evasion, I can't afford to build both artillery and infantry due to population caps and thus just end up building infantry since they survive longer.

[Agema]

I've usually ignored artillery almost entirely.

I research armour heavily and use that to do the damage (bombers as well where they're available). Infantry I usually just raise evasion (maybe attack a little) to soak up hits, ideally without dying. They can knock out militia, arty and AAs, and maybe the odd other infantry if they aren't too far behind. For that matter as USSR I usually only ever research Inf evasion, armour and fighters generally. Not like you've got much production spare to research.

My problem with arty is how excruciatingly vulnerable it is, especially to air attacks. I know I can research it up, but it starts low and becomes awfully expensive, because you start outsripping your peers quickly. Preferably I build lots of fighters. They're cheap and give you air superiority, and then you can use them to rake opponents before the land troops go in. Okay, they generally haven't got a hope of hitting anything, but they soften things up much like arty first shots. When you've got air superiority you can also use tac/hvy bombers at will which are very hard to destroy without AA (although obviously your enemy's AA production will increase).

However, rather than say This Be The Way, I suspect it's just how I've played so far. The USSR particularly because of their distinctly poor start infantry might make much more headway with artillery instead.