Pinned Guide to Artillery

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    • Guide to Artillery

      Artillery is one of the best units in Call of War. I would say they are the tactical bombers of the ground, in terms of damage dealt to damage received. Properly used, they can turn the tide of the battle in your favor, with you losing less/none troops. It is important to be able to use artillery, and also defeat it.


      There are three types of artillery.

      1. Regular artillery- Cheap beginning units, regular artillery is a staple early game. Opening fire from an initial distance of 60km, this unit usually fire for two hours before units reach it. While good at long range, artillery is very poor at defense and requires protection from ground forces and air attack.

      2. SP (Self Propelled) Artillery - Doubling the health, speed and power of regular artillery, this speedy unit is probably the best artillery unit in the game. While costing more than regular artillery, the benefits are more than worth the extra cost. Especially powerful in plains, this mechanized artillery is a beauty to behold.

      3. Railroadgun- The longest and strongest artillery unit in the game, firing at 150km away; it is not surprisingly the most expensive. While taking only 1 research level to build, it requires high level buildings and a lot of resources to produce. While the slowest unit in the game, it is more powerful than regular infantry for a long time. This unit almost always requires careful protection, and a spotting unit ahead of it. However, this unit does have a special place in attacking ships and landing naval convoys.

      Build Requirements


      ArtilleryIndustrial Complex Level 1Infrastructure Level 1
      SP ArtilleryIndustrial Complex Level 1Infrastructure Level 1
      RailroadgunIndustrial Complex Level 1Infrastructure Level 3


      Build Costs

      GoodsMetalManpowerOilMoney
      Artillery7505001000-1500
      SP Artillery100012505005002000
      Railroad Gun200035001500-5000


      Protection

      Your artillery is highly important. Unprotected, defending artillery is very easy to defeat and kill, and is like giving free kills to your enemies. Keeping artillery attacking is vital to their survival.

      1. Putting troops in front of artillery

      ⦁ Place several units in front of the artillery, so they can be roadblocks. These can be militia for example; cheap, disposable roadblocks that will buy you a little time. You can also place large stacks in front of your artillery, and let them attack safely from behind.

      2. Protecting the units themselves

      ⦁ Artillery are vulnerable to every unit in the game. Air attacks can wipe out unescorted artillery 5 at a whack. A fast light tank can roar in and destroy 10 units easily.

      ⦁ To counter this eventuality, one should place anti-tanks and anti-air with artillery. While you will almost certainly loose units if your artillery are fighting hand to hand, this may save some units and will most definitely make the enemy pay for his attack. This also helps with attacking other artillery, but I will touch on that further down.

      Attacking with Artillery
      Using artillery to attack units helps preserve you army for future battles. See the protection on how to guard your units.

      1. Holding the enemy in place- One of the key points to using artillery is holding your enemies in place. With them unable to escape, your artillery will have a field day. There are two ways to do this.

      ⦁ Attack the enemy with troops. Then bring your artillery to attack while your enemies are stuck for hours.

      ⦁ Attack with artillery- A direct assault is not always bad, and is sometimes unavoidable. During these assults, it is best to have troops stacked with artillery, especially if there are artillery in the enemy target. This will spread the damage across all the units, and keep you firing for hours to come

      ⦁ Use of terrain. Sometimes it is not necessary to put troops in front of artillery. Mountainous terrain can slow units down extremely, allowing for strategically placed artillery to fire for long periods of time without being hit.

      Attacking Artillery

      1. Attack without being in range of artillery. - Being able to attack artillery without it being able to reach you can be highly valuable.

      ⦁ Tactical Bombers- Attacking artillery from the air is often a quick way to get rid of artillery. With such low health, they are easy pickings from the air.

      ⦁ Outranged Artillery- Use artillery that has longer range then their artillery to fire without them being able to respond. Make sure they don't move though!

      2. Quick units - Sometimes it is not possible to attack at a distance. In these cases, you must make the best of things and get to the artillery ASAP.

      ⦁ Light Tanks or Armored Cars- Quick units, these can easily reach artillery quickly and put an end to their long range firing. Consider using forced march, the quicker you arrive, the better.

      ⦁ Any unit available- Simply put, once you reach the artillery they cannot fire. While the faster units are better, use whatever you have to silence the arty.

      Range

      Artillery has four ranges. 60km, 70km but 80km and 150km are specialty ranges. Standard artillery starts off at 60km, but can be upgraded to 70km at day 16. This gives a special strategic advantage, especially if your opponent has artillery. While your artillery fires away, his cannot respond unless he travels the extra 10km to fire.
      80km for regular artillery can only be achieve at lvl 7 with blueprints. Very special, almost none have all those blueprints. Having that long a range almost guarantees enemy artillery cannot respond.
      150km is the fixed point for railroadgun, which the whole reason to build a railroadgun.

      I hope you all have found this guide useful, if I have made some mistakes, please let me know.

      -General Nightman, intelligence
      General Nightman

      Retired Hero


      "War is fought in three ways. Helping your enemy to lose, helping your allies to victory or helping yourself to win. Any way you take it, you are always helping someone."

      The post was edited 4 times, last by General Nightman: Adding charts, simplfying ().

    • Good stuff here, GN. I will add to this that generals that can devote a bit of time to the game management can benefit from a "shoot 'n' scoot" tactic when countering enemy arty. You get your enemy to shoot arty at your large stack of troops, absorbing the damage, then blast his arty with your own, then retreat your arty out of range of his until he fires again.
      Eminem2891
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    • Eminem2891 wrote:

      Good stuff here, GN. I will add to this that generals that can devote a bit of time to the game management can benefit from a "shoot 'n' scoot" tactic when countering enemy arty. You get your enemy to shoot arty at your large stack of troops, absorbing the damage, then blast his arty with your own, then retreat your arty out of range of his until he fires again.
      This is a great punishment for players who just put the artillery on fire and forget it there. Unfortunately is is a big mistake against active players, because they will fire (for free) and then retreat (in this case they simply have an unpunished round of fire). Or, if the defensive arty is near, will not target the main stack but the unprotected artillery.

      In general, the only way to achieve this is if (and only if) you are fighting in a province you own and there is enough distance in order to catch the enemy units while they retreat.
    • Great job

      I would add just two small notes:

      1. SP Arty, although generally much better, is armor and as such doesnt perform at all well in cities. Inside cities you better put regular artillery.

      2. RR Gun has great range but, exactly due to that range, is blind (unless the enemy advances into your territories). Consequently, it must be combined with patrolling planes to provide targets for it.
    • Thanks for the replies! I will tweak a few things according to what I've heard so far.
      The next guide is on Nuclear Bombers and Rockets
      General Nightman

      Retired Hero


      "War is fought in three ways. Helping your enemy to lose, helping your allies to victory or helping yourself to win. Any way you take it, you are always helping someone."
    • General Nightman wrote:

      Thanks for the replies! I will tweak a few things according to what I've heard so far.
      The next guide is on Nuclear Bombers and Rockets
      Just warning, once again. NEVER PRODUCE TOO MUCH Artillery.
      Criticism is the key to being proud but empathy is the key to being successful.
      Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
      Ask not what your countrycan do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John F Kennedy
      Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have. John C. Maxwell
    • atreas1 wrote:

      There are never too many artillery, too many planes, or too much oil in this game...
      I have lots of artillery eg. RR guns. I am like into that weapon.
      Criticism is the key to being proud but empathy is the key to being successful.
      Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
      Ask not what your countrycan do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John F Kennedy
      Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have. John C. Maxwell
    • Artillery is useful, to a certain extent, but if you build too much you'll end up with a huge, very hungry army of artillery with the rest of your forces suffering.
      General Nightman

      Retired Hero


      "War is fought in three ways. Helping your enemy to lose, helping your allies to victory or helping yourself to win. Any way you take it, you are always helping someone."
    • General Nightman wrote:

      Artillery is useful, to a certain extent, but if you build too much you'll end up with a huge, very hungry army of artillery with the rest of your forces suffering.
      True, they take all your oil and you cannot build your army until your artillery are all destroyed. But some artillery, eg. RR GUN can only attack when there is a unit in front, because their range is so large, they do not know what is in front of them.
      Criticism is the key to being proud but empathy is the key to being successful.
      Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
      Ask not what your countrycan do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John F Kennedy
      Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have. John C. Maxwell
    • RYANWEN wrote:

      General Nightman wrote:

      Artillery is useful, to a certain extent, but if you build too much you'll end up with a huge, very hungry army of artillery with the rest of your forces suffering.
      True, they take all your oil and you cannot build your army until your artillery are all destroyed. But some artillery, eg. RR GUN can only attack when there is a unit in front, because their range is so large, they do not know what is in front of them.
      Either you mean food (instead of oil, although arty is not so costly on food), or you mean SP arty.
    • I mean SP arty for oil and arty for food.
      Criticism is the key to being proud but empathy is the key to being successful.
      Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
      Ask not what your countrycan do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John F Kennedy
      Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have. John C. Maxwell
    • I think I would like to simplify it a bit (more like oversimplifying) with my touches and views:

      Normal arty - slow, cheap, manpower instead of oil consumption. Use: combine with inf and AT, AA stacks or put them behind stacks with AA. Level 3 arty extends its range
      SP arty - fast, bit expensive, oil consumption. Use: combine with mobile stacks (tanks, SPAA, TD, etc) or put them behind stacks with SPAA. Basically a fast arty with 70km range, nothing more, so don't use it with slow stacks. Good for blitzkrieg.
      Railgun - slowest, expensive, largest range. Use: defensive or heated battles. Like a movable bunker. Extremely slow, so it's good for initial attacks or a defense line. Put them with AA and AT and you're pretty good. Useless if you have no coast and/or a highly mobile force. Useful if vice versa.
      "As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable." Albert Einstein

      "Giving up is not an option in war, for it proves one's incapability and incompetence as a leader." - Me (Little Racoon)
    • General Nightman wrote:

      I hope you all have found this guide useful, if I have made some mistakes, please let me know.
      Would not dare go as far as to say you made a mistake, but when comparing the three arty's, I think the amount of resources spent could, but maybe should, be more detailed.

      If you compare the three, I would not call regular artillery cheap since in manpower, they are twice as expensice as SP artillery is. They compare like this;
      The most excessive resources spent of their kind are in bold and underscore

      ---------------------------------------Artillery-------------SP artillery-----------Railroadgun
      Goods--------------------------------750------------------1000-------------------2000
      Manpower---------------------------1000-----------------500--------------------1500
      Metal---------------------------------500------------------1250-------------------3500
      Oil-----------------------------------------------------------250
      Money--------------------------------1500-----------------2000-------------------5000

      Power gain per level
      vs inf/armor------------------------0.5/0.5--------------0.5/0.5-----------------/

      Attack vs inf/armor first lvl------1.5/1----------------2.5/2.5-----------------3.5/3.5
      --------------------------last lvl------3.5/3----------------3.5/3.5-----------------3.5/3.5

      When you compare the amount of units you get for the resources spent, the comparison looks like this. I used the materials spent on 2 railroadguns as the standard.

      -----------------------------------------Artillery-------------SP artillery------------Railroadgun
      Goods----------------------------------5.3-------------------4------------------------2
      Manpower-----------------------------3----------------------6------------------------2
      Metal-----------------------------------14--------------------5.6----------------------2
      Oil ------------------------------------------------------------1500 oil spent on 6
      Money----------------------------------6.6-------------------5-------------------------2

      Power output first lvl--------------4.5/3-----------------10/10 | 15/15----------7/7
      compared to lowest last lvl-------11.5/9----------------14/14 | 21/21----------/
      number of resources-------------------------------------------------+50%
      spent---------------------------------------------------------------------field bonus

      HP total for amount
      of units (lowest unit number)------15HP-----------------40HP-------------------40HP

      Meaning that for the amount of resources you spend on 2 railroadgun, you get the number of artillery or SP artillery units standing under their respective headers. Their power output is the minimal number of units times the damage they do. In short you end up with 3 artillery, 4 SP artillery and 2 railroadguns. I had to cut out the oil entirely or else I could not make the comparison.

      Things to take note of:
      - that the SP artillery is actually the best amount of resources spent in terms of unit count. AND you get most speed, power output plus the best armor class with it. Without even applying their 50% open field bonus. Apart from spending 1500 oil spent on 6 SP artillery. Which, if you think about 1 tactical bomber costing 1250 in oil and almost 3 times as much in upkeep when comparing 1 on 1 is actually not all that much.
      - Another thing to take not of is that although railroadguns to not cost oil in purchase, their oil upkeep is 75 a day, SP artillery only costs 50. So you could make the case that after enough time, railroadguns cost more in oil than SP artillery does, when compared 1 on 1.
      - Also, the power of the railroadgun becomes more underwhelming when you compare the railroadgun (cost) to higher level artillery and SP artillery.
      - Goods decide how many SP artillery you can build when compared to the railroadgun, but at the time the SP artillery can be built, this should hardly still be an issue
      - I did do the power output calculation based on the minimum of 4 SP artillery units when comparing the same amount of goods spent on either of the 3 units. (You could also make a case for oil being a BIG factor and thus SP artillery would compare differently than is stated above. But at their cost of only 250 oil in initial purchase, I honestly think oil is not that big a factor. Though opinions might differentiate on this. Truth remains, if you have 0 oil, you will not be building any SP arty)
      - Which type of artillery best suits your needs depends A LOT on which resource you have a lot of.

      Since the game is a resource gathering army building game I think this comparison is important.

      Also, you did not really mention the open field bonus SP arty gets.

      The post was edited 4 times, last by Edepedable ().

    • Of course (complimentary to the numbers, that are very important) there are at least two important considerations:

      1. Availability in the field.

      Here the regular artillery excels (available practically since Day 2, requires only infra Lvl1 which practically you can have everywhere, and also is going to "amortize" the investment because it will be used heavily for many days, before planes become dominant.

      RR Guns have the worse performance, because of the requirement for Infra Lvl3. This (in a practical game) almost certainly restricts their creation in the cores. Also, due to other practical considerations effectively it is very difficult to start producing them before Day 12 (and this is quite fast even, more usual is somewhere around Day 14). Their slow speed makes it very difficult to really transfer them in the field, so their role is quite limited.

      SP Arty are somewhere in between, They are usually prioritized when they become available, so I guess it is normal to expect starting their production around Day 18-20. They can be produced near the field (only Infra Lvl1 is required). Being armor they have this marvelous +50% bonus on plains, which is the killer. Their disadvantage in cities is less important, because usually you can position them nearby.

      2. Resource importance at that time
      Manpower is a very difficult to estimate parameter, because it can either be a huge problem, or not a problem at all (it mainly depends on whether your first expansion required a costly war or not). Oil, on the other hand, is almost certainly an issue as days progress.
      Extremely important is also the difference in hitpoints, and also the ability of RR Guns to really damage ships (at a range that ships cannot fight).
    • Thank you for the comments.
      I have edited my post, adding build charts and simplifying the general explanations.

      While I tried to include everything, I can't include everything in one explanation. It would be about three times as long for every single tactic to be in this guide.

      I still hold that regular artillery is cheap, in comparison to the other units, both artillery and other units.
      General Nightman

      Retired Hero


      "War is fought in three ways. Helping your enemy to lose, helping your allies to victory or helping yourself to win. Any way you take it, you are always helping someone."

      The post was edited 2 times, last by General Nightman ().

    • Who ever used railroad gun and regretted it.
      Criticism is the key to being proud but empathy is the key to being successful.
      Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
      Ask not what your countrycan do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John F Kennedy
      Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have. John C. Maxwell